I don't believe Brady has any legitimate excuses for his actions at the time or now. It could be argued with hindsight that that perhaps even the secular gardai would have done nothing or deferred the issue back to the church given how influential the church was at the time. But we will never know because the church didn't bother to report this crime let alone press the gardai to prosecute. We could argue that it wasn't Brady's job to second guess his superiors intentions but that doesn't excuse his silence when they failed to act.

Brady failed to live up to the morality his church professes to uphold and betrayed countless children in the worst way possible. A paedophile that Brady and others could have stopped was allowed to continue abusing children for another 20 years. I think Brady's position is untenable. I think that by continuing to cling to power he is just drawing this horrible episode (one of many) out longer than it needs to causing even more suffering to those children now grown. If he has any sense of compassion for the victims or shame for his inaction he should go.