He passed it on, and passed on it

Why do we keep hearing this?

Cardinal Brady has insisted that his role in the 1975 internal church investigation was secretarial in nature and that he had fulfilled his duty by passing on to his superior accurate transcripts of meetings with children who said they had been abused.

Even if his description of his position were accurate (about which there is some dispute), the man was a priest. He was in a position of moral authority. He was supposed to be taking care of those children. Like Joe Paterno, he "passed on" the information and then promptly put it out of his mind, allowing a predator to continue damaging and destroying children.

Brady says

he "felt betrayed" on learning almost two decades later that the notes he had passed on had not been acted upon by his superiors.

Let's allow that emotion to be genuine. Why the hell did it take a highly skilled canon lawyer two decades to notice that nothing had ever been done in a case that would have shocked (at the least) any normal person? Why the hell didn't he ever just look it up, see what was the result of the investigation? Why did he feel "passing on" the information was enough?

Until the Church (and other institutions) grasp that the people, especially the children, in their care are more important than they are, people like Brady will continue to thrive. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the cardinal to resign. That would be an admission of systemic fault.