Child sex abuse charges are roiling the Catholic Church in Europe. It started in Ireland where 15,000 complaints have now been collected (out of a country of 4 million), and has since spread to Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands.

Yet Irish Cardinal Sean Brady has said he won’t resign over the scandal. This despite his collection of information in 1975 about Father Brendan Smyth who pleaded guilty in the mid-90s to 74 counts of child sex abuse. Brady then sat on the information for decades while more children were abused.

He told the Irish Times:

“Frankly I don’t believe that this is a resigning matter.”

The Pope, thus far, incredibly, he has not accepted the resignations of 3 other Irish Bishops implicated in the abuse cover-ups. He is in the process of writing a pastoral letter to the Irish people that contains a “clear and decisive voice.” About what, exactly, we’ll have to see.