Brendan Smyth
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Father Brendan Smyth (1927–1997) was a Northern Ireland-born Catholic priest, member of the Norbertine Order, and convicted child molester.
In one of the most egregious cases of active paedophilia in the Catholic priesthood, Smyth systematically raped hundreds of children in parishes in Belfast, Dublin and the United States.
The Norbertines, also known as the Presonstratensians, which Smyth had joined in 1945, were aware of Smyth's crimes as early as the late 1940s, yet they failed to report him to the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force), or the Royal Ulster Constabulary (the RUC, the police force in Northern Ireland). Instead he was moved from parish to parish and between dioceses whenever allegations were made against him. In some cases, the Order did not inform the diocesan bishop in Ireland or the U.S. that Smyth had a history of paedophilia and should be kept away from children.
His arrest led to the collapse of an Irish government when the incompetent handling of an extradition request from the RUC by the Irish Attorney-General's office led to a further delay of some months in Smyth facing trial. An award-winning UTV Counterpoint programme on the scandal by journalist Chris Moore (which was followed up by a book), accused the head of the Norbertines and the Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh of mishandling the case, as well as the Norbertines' negligence and failure to tell others of his longstanding paedophilia, enabling Smyth to sexually abuse large numbers of children freely for forty years. When Smyth died in prison in 1997, the Norbertines held his funeral late at night, and covered his grave with concrete to deter vandalism. In the aftermath, in less than a decade, Ireland's Mass attendance rate plummeted from 68% to 48%.
Additional Reading
- Chris Moore, Betrayal of Trust: The Father Brendan Smyth Affair and the Catholic Church (Marino, 1995) ISBN 186023027X