It doesn’t ever seem to stop, does it? As the Catholic Church slowly comes to terms with the fact their record of abuse, and failure to report said abuse, is slowly destroying their organization, Ireland, once a stronghold of Catholicism, is rapidly moving away from the faith in light of damning reports that show widespread sexual and physical abuse at the hands of priests.

The latest scandal involves Cardinal Sean Brady. According to an investigation by the BBC, in 1975 he was made aware of the abuse of several children at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth, who would later turn out to be Ireland’s most prolific pedophile. When confronted with these powerful allegations, he did what any man of the cloth in his position would do: he swore the children to silence and covered it up.

While it is true that the abused boy’s father travelled with him to the interview, he was not allowed inside the room while his son was questioned…Nor did Brendan Boland [one of the abused boys] feel able to tell his father about what had taken place, as he was sworn to secrecy, upon the Bible, before leaving.

The Church’s stand on this is about as shockingly ignorant as one can get:

The Catholic Church has said that the “sole purpose of the oath” signed by Brendan Boland in Cardinal Brady’s presence was “To give greater force and integrity to the evidence given by Mr. Boland against any counter claim by Fr Brendan Smyth”.
The Church also points out that in 1975 “no State or Church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland.”

Because without the law telling you specifically to report child abuse, you would just stand by and continue to let children get raped by these predators, am I right? You would if you’re the Cardinal Brady and the Catholic Church! Did I mention new laws forcing the Church to report abuse is being framed as an affront to their religious liberty by Bill Donohue and his Catholic League?