DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, chairman of the Irish bishops' conference, insisted he will not resign after it was revealed that he failed to report allegations of child abuse by a priest to the police in 1975.

Speaking with reporters March 14, Cardinal Brady said it was not his responsibility at the time to report the allegations involving Norbertine Father Brendan Smyth to the police.

"Even today the appropriate person to do that is the designated person (within his order). I was not that person," he said.

"But I insist again I did act, and act effectively, in that inquiry to produce the grounds for removing Father Smyth from ministry and specifically it was underlined that he was not to hear confessions and that was very important," Cardinal Brady said.

"The responsibility for his behavior as a priest rested with his religious superior," he added.

The allegations surrounding Father Smyth involved a group of teenagers who told then-Father Brady that the priest had abused them. At the time, Cardinal Brady insisted that the complainants swear an oath of secrecy and not discuss what happened with anybody other than an approved priest.

After a church inquiry, Father Smyth was removed from active ministry. However, civil authorities were not informed of the allegations and Father Smyth continue to abuse children until his eventual arrest and conviction in 1994.

Details about the meetings between Cardinal Brady and the teenagers were revealed by an attorney representing a woman in a lawsuit who claimed that Father Smyth abused her. The lawsuit in the Irish High Court said Father Smyth assaulted and beat the woman.

The suit named Cardinal Brady as one of three defendants. The others are Father Gerard Cusack, head of the Norbertine order, and Bishop Philip O'Reilly of Kilmore, Ireland, where Father Smyth was assigned.

Cardinal Brady told reporters he had been following his bishop's orders and there were no guidelines for dealing with abuse investigations in 1975.

He insisted that "this is not a resigning matter."

In December, following an independent report that faulted the church for its handling of 325 sex abuse claims in the Archdiocese of Dublin in the years 1975-2004, Cardinal Brady said he would resign if he was found to have acted improperly.

After the report found that the behavior of Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick was "inexcusable" in his failure to properly investigate allegations against a priest, Cardinal Brady called on his colleague to "do the right thing" and resign. Bishop Murray and three other bishops named in the report subsequently resigned.

Colm O'Gorman, a campaigner for victims of clerical child abuse, said Cardinal Brady should resign as well because he was "deeply personally implicated in the gross failures of the Catholic Church."

"He believed that this out-of-control pedophile 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," O'Gorman said.

"Instead he took part in a cover-up of Smyth's crimes and swore his child victims to secrecy."

Marie Collins, who was abused by a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese, called for Cardinal Brady's resignation in an interview with Catholic News Service.

"He has lost all moral authority or credibility," Collins said.

Father Smyth is believed to have abused at least 20 children over four decades and eventually was convicted in court of more than 90 offenses. He died in prison in 1997.

Belfast-born Father Smyth was the subject of abuse allegations during more than 40 years of ministry in Ireland, Scotland and Wales and in Rhode Island and North Dakota in the United States.

The Norbertine order admitted that it was aware of the allegations against Father Smyth as early as the late 1940s. 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 that Father Smyth had a history of sexual abuse and should be kept away from children.

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