Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: questione di religione?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8567144.stm
   The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland says he will only resign 
over claims he helped cover up sex abuse if he is asked to do so by the 
Pope.
Cardinal Sean Brady was at meetings in the 1970s where two abused 
teenagers signed vows of silence over their complaints against Fr 
Brendan Smyth.
Fr Smyth was a notorious sex offender jailed in the 1990s for child abuse.
"There was no cover up, I believed those people. I brought what I heard 
to the bishop," Cardinal Brady said.
The complaints of abuse were investigated by Cardinal Brady in his 
capacity as secretary to the bishop of Kilmore in 1975.
Cardinal Brady said he had been following his bishop's orders and there 
were no guidelines for dealing with such investigations at that time.
"Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more. I thought at 
that time I was doing what I was required to do, and not just that, but 
most effectively. I acted with great urgency to get that evidence and 
produce it.
“ Child sex abuse is a very serious crime and very grave and if I found 
myself in a situation where I was aware that my failure to act had 
allowed or meant that other children were abused, well then, I think I 
would resign ”
Cardinal Sean Brady, December 2009
"I believed in doing so, I was following the most effective route to get 
this stopped. That is my concern and always was - the safety of children."
He said his actions were part of a process that removed the shamed 
cleric's licence to act as a priest.
He said he did not believe this was a resigning matter.
However, in an interview with Irish broadcaster RTE last December, the 
cardinal said he, himself, would resign if he found that a child had 
been abused as a result of any managerial failure on his part.
"I would remember that child sex abuse is a very serious crime and very 
grave and if I found myself in a situation where I was aware that my 
failure to act had allowed or meant that other children were abused, 
well then, I think I would resign," he said.
At that time, the cardinal apologised on behalf of the Church after an 
Irish government report revealed abuse over decades, a systematic 
cover-up by the Church and a lack of action by Irish police.
He said: "No-one is above the law in this country.
"Every Catholic should comply fully with their obligations to the civil 
law and co-operate with the Gardai (Irish police) in the reporting and 
investigation of any crime."
He said children's welfare was now a priority for the Church.
Father Smyth was a notorious child sex offender who was believed to have 
abused at least 20 children over a 40 year period in the north and south 
of Ireland.
He was eventually convicted and jailed for more than 90 offences, many 
of them committed after the Brady meetings.
However campaigners believe the cleric could have abused hundreds of 
children as he was moved around parishes, diocese and countries by the 
church.
They have accused Cardinal Brady of reckless endangerment and demanded 
his resignation.
A campaigner for victims of clerical child abuse in Ireland, Colm 
O'Gorman, said Cardinal Brady should resign.
"He believed that this out of control paedophile [Smyth] had abused 
children and he did nothing to report this crime to the police either 
then, or it would appear, at any point over the next 20 years during 
which Smyth continued to rape and abuse in parishes across the world 
with near impunity," Mr O'Gorman said.
"Instead he took part in a cover-up of Smyth's crimes and swore his 
child victims to secrecy," he said.
"At 36 years of age he (Cardinal Brady) was no fresh-faced seminarian, 
fresh out of college, he was a professor, a teacher and a canon lawyer."
The revelations come as the Catholic Church worldwide grapples with 
accusations that it covered up abuse by priests.
In recent months paedophile scandals have rocked the church in Ireland, 
the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
The Vatican recently denounced attempts to link Pope Benedict XVI to a 
child abuse scandal in his native Germany.
Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said there had been "aggressive" 
efforts to involve the Pope, but added: "It's clear that these attempts 
have failed."
The Pope's former diocese earlier said he once unwittingly approved 
housing for a priest accused of child abuse.
The episode dates back to 1980 when he was archbishop of Munich and 
Freising, and known as Joseph Ratzinger.

 Pope.
così la merda finisce tutta in testa a Nazinger. Bene così