SIN BIN

Irish Priest Refuses to Resign

For covering up sex abuse in church.

Another bad week for the Catholic Church and it’s only Tuesday. While Ireland’s senior cardinal Sean Brady refuses to resign for not informing police about a child-molesting priest he had collected evidence against, a German priest was suspended for breaching a ban on working with children that had been in place ever since he was convicted of molesting boys in 1986. Working as a canon lawyer in 1975, Brady had helped investigate claims of sex abuse at the hands the Rev. Brendan Smyth. But they were never reported to the police and Smyth went on to molest and rape scores more children until his arrest in 1994. "Yes, I knew that these were crimes," Brady said. "But I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police. Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more." Meanwhile, the German priest Father Peter Hullermann was suspended for abusing children in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising when Pope Benedict XVI was the archbishop there.