Leader of Ireland’s Catholics apologizes for priest abuse

Reporting from London — 

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland apologized Wednesday for failing to tell police 35 years ago about an abusive priest who went on to molest more children before being convicted and imprisoned.

Amid calls for his resignation, Cardinal Sean Brady expressed regret for his part in a 1975 case in which the church asked two boys to sign oaths of secrecy after they reported being sexually abused. The offending priest, Brendan Smyth, was transferred from parish to parish, where he victimized more children.

Brady told worshipers at a St. Patrick’s Day Mass in Northern Ireland that he was ashamed for not upholding “the values that I profess and believe in.” But he gave no indication that he would step down, as victims groups and others in Ireland have demanded.

Brady’s apology came as the Vatican sought to contain a growing crisis over priestly abuse across Europe. Public anger with the Roman Catholic Church has risen amid allegations of child molestation and beatings in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, Pope Benedict XVI’s homeland.

Nowhere has the outrage been greater than in Ireland, where government-ordered investigations have exposed a systematic pattern of abuse and coverup involving thousands of children in churches and other religious institutions over several decades. The church’s authority on the island is now at a low ebb.

To assuage the anger, the pope said Wednesday that he would issue a special pastoral letter at the end of the week to the faithful in Ireland.

“I ask all of you to read it for yourselves with an open heart and in a spirit of faith,” the pontiff said. “My hope is that it will help in the process of repentance, healing and renewal.”

The Smyth case has emerged as something of a symbol of the Irish church’s shocking response to allegations of abuse. Despite complaints against him as far back as 1975, Smyth was continually reassigned to new parishes and dioceses until the 1990s, when he was finally arrested and convicted of more than 100 counts of abusing children. Smyth died in an Irish prison in 1997.

Brady acknowledged Wednesday that the church in Ireland is going through “momentous times.”

“Over the next couple of weeks -- especially Holy Week, Easter time -- we will be reflecting on what the new future requires,” he told reporters after Mass in Armagh, Northern Ireland. “Dealing with the past is never easy, for individuals, for society, for the church. But it has to be done.”

henry.chu@latimes.com