Irish people asked to petition for Primate Sean Brady’s resignation

As an American RC I am completely disillusioned with my Church. The Pope and hierarchy have turned the Church into a criminal enterprise by facilitating and enabling perpetrators for decades. Now it a campaign of obstruction, and obfuscation at every level as they ask the Faithful to pay financial to subsidize civil liabilities and keep the enterprise going. Cardinal Brady is very much embedded in this unseemly destruction of the Church. No wonder we read elsewhere herein that the average age of a dwindling number of priests is 64 ! I believe that nothing short of a General Council of the Church pursuant to the resignation of His Holiness down to individuual bishops is the only process to restore the Authority of the Church in an age when "Big Box" religion is already on the ropes for other reasons. Meanwhile you have these lay gatekeepers, Pope's coat holders like Mr. Donohue blaming the clergy abuse scandal on some ubiquitous "gay agenda" and the like. Face the music; face the Truth. The Body of Christ has been hijacked by the hierarchy.

@GeorgeDillon - Tis the fate of ev'ry Messenger to be a candidate for target practice; Cross-hairs are off a bit George; try again :)

Ireland and the Irish people have done "FAR MORE" than the U.S.to combat child abuse within the church and to speak truth to Vatican power. In the states the bishops jumped in to do “damage control” and quiet the up swell against the church where in Ireland you had courageous leadership (Martin) willing to lose all while speaking truth to Vatican power.

What a screed of nonsense from The last poster. This SIMPLETON seems to think I work for the Irish hierarchy. The fact that I live 4000 miles from them doesn't enter his head, Always the fool, bjo.

@GeorgeDillon - But of course you are aware that it is a Protestant from Belfast who is heading up the Irish Church's team to put effective Child Protection measures in place across all Irish Diocese. His name, Ian Elliott. He was appointed by the Irish Bishops Conference, NOT because of his religion, rather because he was judged the best person that merited this appointment. It may also interest you to know that Saint Patrick's Pilgrimage & Retreat Centre at Lough Derg, in Donegal has a Pilgrimage Director who is both a) non- catholic, and b)from Northern Ireland. You should be after the Irish Bishops to get "on message" George :)

Intercessor: I will answer your question. I will ignore the nonsense posted by seamus60, who appears to be a fool. You ask me how "men who molest, rape and sodomize children and teens should be handled?" It's a rather weird question on your part. Do you think there's some kind of choice here? What the hell do you think my answer is going to be? I'll tell you anyway, since goodness knows how convoluted is your thought process. Men (and women) who abuse and rape children, or commit shocking violence on them--very common in Ireland in the past--should face the full rigors of the law. That means very long jail terms. And that should extend to all who collaborated and acquiesced. That includes nurses, doctors, non-religious teachers, police, parents in some cases. The Irish state itself is very complicit. Even the bloated "judges" who sent children into "care" just because their father was unemployed or whatever. These creeps sent the children away, and never went back to investigate they were doing three or six months later. The Irish are baying about all of this now, but the sicko here is Ireland, and the servility of its people, not just the particular malefactors who did the abuse and rapes. I believe Brady should resign. I have a right to that opinion, since I am a Catholic. My point--is it so complicated that you don't get it?--is that non-Catholics should keep their nose out of Catholic affairs, just as I don't tell Mormons, AME or Southern Baptists who should lead them.

Jacersagain. There should be NO HIDING PLACE for child abusers or their protectors. Not even Donegal. As for implying the possability these victims are coming forward for financial compensation, they were very smart at that young age to think so far ahead. I hope they get as much as they truely deserve. Is there enough money in the world ?

Look, let’s get some facts in here… there are families that abuse their own children, be it fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, cousins and so on… I know because my wife, a social worker, had to work with abused children and the aftermath on the children, hardly any of which, in her wide-spread work, involved clerics from any religion. So I can tell you, quite fiercely, that I am not speaking from an ignorant side armchair or fence on the ditch. Through her social worker network, it was known that there were many family-abused children in Donegal (and other places, especially islands off the coast of Ireland). This cry from Donegal for Cardinal Brady’s resignation is completely coming from a community that has already been abused and continues abusing its own people and children. Social study statistics also show that most abused children grow up to be child-abusers themselves or gay-orientated people. That’s something that Irish Central’s gay Donegal man, Cahir O’Doherty, might like to explain why he is gay and fights so strongly for the right for fellow-human-body-abusers to continue to abuse fellow human beings, men and women. No wonder this article is based on calls from Donegal… be warned, ladies and gentlemen in pursuit of happiness, do not get ‘friendly’ with Donegal people or their ilk. Having been a Dublin tourist there a few times, I can tell you that ‘outsiders’ are not welcome when chat comes close to the bone. Donegal, this part of our Ireland and our world has a definite cause for world-wide human study into child-abuse within its precincts, one which I fear the Catholic Church may have used, even abused, in posting child-abusing priests into, because it was “the norm” amongst the people there… that is until the possibility of getting “compo” money became the newest form of free money. How "sick" does "sick" meanly mean or measure in non-existent cash?

George you are yet again on the defencive in regards to the catholic church. Get with the times. Your attitude was the one that stopped this tradittional abuse being exposed many decades ago. I could imagine your children (if any) suffering in silence rather than have the confidence to inform you as a parent (protector) for fear of your reaction. The one that young victims feared, the one that allowed the priest remain above redicule. Even the community culture was against the victim, surely another misjustice that we (well most of us) have woken up to. The church is not bigger than the faith although it behaved as if it were.Time to pay the piper regardless of religious or political grouping. This crime has no borders of either and is all of our responsability.

The Bourgeois Proletariat, A`la Brendan Smyth, would also like an Upgraded Facebook and Twitter account, a Hollywood Kardashian Romance, a Complimentary Keg of Guinness,a Seatin the House of the Oireachtas, and a Castle in the Highlands @?

To GerogeDillon: Would you please explain to us, as a Catholic, how you think that men who molest, rape and sodomize children and teens should be handled? Also, how should society handle clerics and members of the Hierarchy who allow for the coverups of such abuse and the sexual abuse of children to continue for decades? I think it would be appropriate for you to explain your short comment or accusation.

Getting a statement from a child in an Inquisition-like setting about sexual abuse and then, not only not reporting it to the Gardai but actually taking steps to silence the boy by imposing an oath of secrecy. This is the crime of obstruction of justice. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is in Ireland for this offense, in the states the statute is stayed in sex cases involving children and only begins to run when the child attains majority. What is the law in Ireland? Can Brady still be criminally prosecuted? He really deservesprison for this along with his co-conspirators.

Children in the United States were also abused, molested, sodomized and raped by Fr. Brendan Smyth. Was the good Cardinal Brady ever informed of these accusations against Fr. Brendan Smyth or was Fr. Brendan Smyth part of the Church's unofficial, "Pedophile Priests WITHOUT Borders Program!"

Are these people Catholics? If not they should keep their ugly noses out of our Catholic affairs.

Cardinal Brady's resignation wouldn't undo the pain, and humilitation inflicted by some priests on children and teenagers, about 2/5rds of whom were boys