Stakeholder

Should he stay or should he go? This is the question on the media’s lips, if not others. The target is Cardinal Sean Brady. Anyone who knows Sean Brady will know that he is a sincere, genuine and caring individual. Anyone who does not know does not seem to care. He stands accused of a sin of omission. A sin he has acknowledged, repented upon and one for which he seeks to make restitution. One suspects Sean Brady has been making restitution since the day he collected the information and wrote up the notes from a child victim of clerical sex abuse who he made swear an oath of silence and secrecy. That the perpetrator of that abuse was one of the worst serial paedophiles the Catholic Church has ever housed only serves to exacerbate the troubles heaped upon the beleaguered Cardinal.

At face value perhaps the Cardinal could have taken the easier route of resignation and retired to work as a curate.  The Cardinal could have simply washed his hands of his history and walked away into the sunset –very much a wounded healer. Whose interests would Cardinal Brady’s resignation have served? The press? Would a scalp of the Prince of the Church be enough for the mob mentality? The victims? Would the resignation of a Cardinal lessen their hurt? The Irish Bishops? Would the fall of their Leader wash way their own culpability?  The Roman Curia? Would the self sacrifice of one of their own –save the blushes of the Holy Father? Rank and file clergy? Would a Cardinal falling on his sword make the hierarchy more humble? Ordinary, mass going Catholics? Would they feel more catholic if their spiritual leader simply walked away his responsibilities?

By and large the answer to all of these matters is no.

The newspapers which carry the story of a Cardinal’s resignation would inevitably end up as wrapping paper for fish suppers; when some twenty four hours later the nocturnal habits of some kerb-crawling politician or naughty texting by some singer becomes the following day’s diet of gossipy trash to splash across the headlines.

Put simply, Cardinals who are not murderers, adulterers, drug-dealers, paedophiles, spurned lovers, or bank-robbers don’t make for good headlines. Once they have resigned- that’s it- they have resigned. 

The intervention of Sinn Fein into the question of whether the Cardinal should stay or go –is frankly mind blowing. Only in this nonsensical political Narnia called Northern Ireland, where collective amnesia is the order of the day, would any politician from Sinn Fein be allowed to comment on the issue of Cardinals resignation or not.  The fact that there are now people in government who are still in denial to their past actions or what they now know is nauseating. Even the acknowledgements of what they did know had to be dragged from them over thirty years and only then with the promise of immunity from justice.

 As a society we have been bribed, bartered, fooled, frightened and cajoled into the governance of the three brass monkeys. Justice appears to be a principle applied by some politicians to anyone but themselves.

Listening to some media hugging maverick priests playing patsy to their media luvvie commentator counter-parts betrays a staggering act of arrogance which would nearly make them eligible for the episcopate!

The Cardinal should stay; not because what he did some thirty five years ago was right but because it was wrong. Back then Fr Brady probably was caught up in the prevailing culture of the times. A culture of cover-up and denial that applied as much in homes, organisations and workplaces across the country; morally it was wrong then as it is now. It cannot be put in context because there is not a context that makes child abuse right. But people like Sean Brady are not abusers and should not be treated as such.  The contrasting media styles of Archbishop Martin and Cardinal Brady are exacerbating the latter’s problems.

What we now regard as good practice in child protection in the 21^st Century should be the norm. When it comes to the application of child protection norms many organisations from sporting organisations to church groups; the boys brigade to girl guides and from swimming clubs and dancing schools are in catch up. The Irish Catholic Church in many ways is ahead of these organisations but there’s a job still to be done and Sean Brady can’t nor should he be allowed to walk way from it. Big responsibilities require big shoulders.