Brendan Boland, who as a 14-year-old boy was sworn to secrecy by Seán Brady after testifying that he had been sexually abused by paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth, has welcomed the Cardinal's public apology to him.
In a statement this evening, Mr Boland also said he hopes he may yet find the strength to take up Dr Brady's offer made last November to meet privately.
Mr Boland added: ''I note that Cardinal Brady has now acknowledged that the information I gave him regarding other children being abused or at risk of abuse, should have been passed on to their parents in 1975.
''When I confided in the Youth Club to Father McShane in 1975, he did the right and proper thing in immediately bringing me to my parents and telling them what had been happening to me. It was only after that, that he informed his Superiors.
''If the right thing had been done by Father (now Cardinal) Brady, and Bishop McKiernan, the unspeakable abuse of the other children I had sought to save would not have happened. Both Cardinal Brady and I will have to live with our guilt in that regard."
But he said that his healing, and that of many other abuse victims, would not begin while Cardinal Brady remained as Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
