THE CATHOLIC Primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, yesterday said that the vast majority of people with whom he works and meets support him.
Asked if he retained the confidence of the Catholic faithful in Ireland, after revelations confirmed his role in canonical investigations into abuse perpetrated by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in 1975, Cardinal Brady said: “I retain confidence of priests and people in my own diocese. Okay, there are some people that will disagree, but the vast majority of people, as far I can see, who I work and meet with support me.”
He added: “They know that these situations are not easy to handle.”
Speaking at the Old Ground hotel in Ennis after the ordination of the new Bishop of Killaloe, Kieran O’Reilly yesterday, Cardinal Brady said: “I try to present a Christ who is credible. I will go on doing that as long as I can. Certainly from the support I have got from occasions like this, but also there are a lot of people who want us to continue to do what we are doing.”
Asked to respond to the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, Reg Empey, who described his response to the Claudy bombing as “entirely inadequate”, Cardinal Brady said: “we put a lot of thought into the preparation of that response.”
The Cardinal said that he has explained the church’s position and that Bishop Séamus Hegarty went to Claudy to celebrate mass and meet some of the families.
He said: “Of course that is where our attention must be: the needs of those who have lost dear ones in that terrible tragedy and the focus of attention must be on the search for those who perpetrated the bombing. I appeal to everybody who has information on that to co-operate, that . . . will be the most adequate response to this terrible situation.”
Cardinal Brady declined to comment when asked to respond to the Vatican rejecting the resignations of auxiliary Bishops Eamon Walsh and Ray Field.
His accompanying spokesman would only say: “That is being dealt with.”
