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Subscribe to RSSThe leader of the Scottish Catholic Church, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has resigned amid allegations of inappropriate behavior, involving four priests in the 1980s. The Cardinal used his resignation to apologize to those he'd offended. ITV's Lewis Vaughan Jones report.
LONDON — Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric has resigned amid allegations of inappropriate behavior made by priests.
The Vatican said Monday that Pope Benedict XVI had formally accepted the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. The Observer newspaper reported Sunday that the Vatican had been notified of allegations of inappropriate behavior stretching back 30 years.
Three priests in Scotland, as well as a former priest, have lodged complaints to the Vatican's ambassador to Britain and demanded O'Brien's immediate resignation, according to the newspaper.
The 74-year-old cardinal has contested the claims and said he is taking legal advice.
O’Brien had been prepared to resign, citing his age as the cause. He turns 75 on March 17, and the Vatican said the pope had in November accepted a resignation letter under the condition of “nunc pro tunc,” meaning “now for later.”
The Vatican said Monday, however, that the pontiff had now accepted the resignation “definitively.”
Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images, file
The Vatican confirmed Monday that it had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Keith O'Brien, 74.
It means O'Brien will not take part in the conclave to elect the pope's successor - a process that could begin earlier than March 15 after the rules governing the process were changed in a move announced Monday.
O’Brien said in a statement that it was the pope himself who had decided his resignation would take effect immediately.
“Approaching the age of 75 and at times in indifferent health, I tendered my resignation … some months ago,” he said. “The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today.”
O'Brien would have been Britain's only elector in the papal conclave that will gather to decide on a successor to Benedict XVI.
"I will not join them for this conclave in person," O'Brien said. "I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me -- but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor."
A hint of O’Brien’s accelerated resignation was found Sunday in Edinburgh, when the cardinal did not appear as scheduled to lead a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Instead, Bishop Stephen Robson made a statement on O’Brien’s behalf.
“A number of allegations of inappropriate behavior have been made against the cardinal,” the statement said. “The cardinal has sought legal advice, and it would be inappropriate to comment at this time. There will be further statements in due course.”
Robson is an auxiliary prelate in the Edinburgh diocese.
O'Brien's statement went on to say: "I have valued the opportunity of serving the people of Scotland and overseas in various ways since becoming a priest. Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologize to all whom I have offended."
Controversy
O’Brien had gained a reputation as a hard-line conservative and opponent of gay rights.
In 2009, O’Brien urged the Scottish National Party to abandon plans to give gay couples the same foster-parenting rights as straight ones, calling the idea “misguided” and saying that gays were known for unstable relationships.
Scandals are still on the minds of Catholics as Benedict's time as pope grows short. NBC's Ann Thompson reports.
Last year, he wrote an editorial in the Daily Telegraph in which he urged people to stand up against a proposal to allow gay marriage, which he said was “madness.” He referred then to same-sex marriage as a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.”
O’Brien’s stance and other comments led the gay rights group Stonewall UK last year to nominate him for its “Bigot of the Year” award.
“Ten-thousand people overwhelmingly, decisively voted that he should be given that award,” said Colin MacFarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland. “We don’t call people a bigot because they disagree with us. We reserve that for people who use the kind of language the cardinal has used. He has gone out of his way. It has not been fair discourse. His language has been cruel, hurtful and pernicious.”
The group's response to news of O'Brien's resignation was unsurprising.
“We trust there will now be a full investigation into the serious allegations made against Cardinal O’Brien,” MacFarlane said. “We hope his successor will show a little more Christian charity towards openly gay people than the cardinal did himself.”
Two weeks ago, the pope’s brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, said scandals had troubled Benedict XVI and may have contributed to his decision to retire.
He specifically mentioned that Benedict had been bothered by the "Vatileaks" scandal in which a butler leaked secret documents, as well as the "the relationship to the Pius Brotherhood."
That organization, formally known as the Society of St. Pius X, fell into a harsh public spotlight in December when its leader, Bishop Bernard Fellay, said Jews were "the enemies of the church." His comment drew criticism from all corners of the church and from the public in general.
Georg Ratzinger said he thought his brother had handled those problems well but that they had taken their toll.
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This story was originally published on Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:55 AM EST
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In order to even be around this cult one needs to be a moron since it's beliefs are so stupid and moronic but the power and money it has also makes it the most dangerous. Of course all the sheep will post their usual denials and cry baa baa baa! It is probably the reason that the big sheep indoctrinate their little sheep at such an early age because no sane person in their right mind would ever believe any of the garbage they claim to "know"1
Went to Italy for a vacation to Venice. Talked to locals about some of the quaint small building hotels that always seemed to full of priests and nuns. Well guess what, we were told the Catholic church owns the buildings and the priests stay there for free because the building is labeled a church property. The church also rents out rooms to tourists and keeps the money tax free. Kind of a nice racket if you can swing it.
If you have time some day ask a Jehovah Witness when they come by your neighborhood to briefly explain the meaning of Christendom in the bible book of Revelation. It means false religion and the Catholic church is a leading component of it all. I was talking to a Witness that came to my house and asked about all the church problems and the Witness guy showed me some interesting scriptures. Quite and eye opener and it confirmed my suspicions of the Catholic church. The whole idea of a celibate priest hood that fosters homosexual activity is a church doctrine. It has nothing to do with any scriptural mandate.
yes scripture does say to be unmarried to better serve God, read 1 cor 7:8 and 7:1
Lordy--he was SUCH a bad boy....
Naughty.
Dirty.
A liturgical dirge, in reverence: "BAD BOY, all dressed up in fancy clothes.... "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhcVx5Txk3Y
Rats going down with the sinking ship....
The priests blame the Bishop, the bishop blames who? The Pope?
What a mess the Catholic church has become!
I love the language: "inappropriate behaviour". Peeing on a building? Left "tits" graffiti behind on a paper napkin in a bistro after lunch? A bit of a dalliance with the right sex? Tsk tsk, say a rosary, make a novena and keep your pants on. Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, if it was child molesting - say it! I think they're hoping that the worldwide attention to finding a new Pontiff will shroud any in-the-news right now newer scandles, and the rotten stench rising from the "zinger"s investigator-general history with almost no progress against sex-abuse by priests for thirty-plus YEARS. He was the major domo of the house, for God's sake. That was our soon to resign-Pope's claim to fame and prime function as Cardinal! I am Catholic and was all set to hear something wonderful and inspiring from this interesting intellectual Pope from an interesting background, and thought he might cleverly use the power of the see from the throne to straighten a few corners. Instead he used it to obfuscate. No. We've survived 4-concurrent Popes all claiming the one-and-only-throne (remember Avignon?), the terrible original Spanish Inquisition to reinforce know-nothingness, simony, parsimony, payoffs, and dangerous liaisons of all kinds. We'll live through this if we get really honest and get rid of the biggest cancer we've had to operate on yet!
One less queer in the rectory. "Rectory". Does the word have its roots in the Latin for rectum?
With this latest homosexual outing against a Catholic church official why don't they just make the Catholic church a gay and lesbian church, headquarter it in San Francisco or Holland and be done with it.
What does the bible scriptures say in Revelations 18:4 and 5. Get out of her before her destruction, her sins have amassed clear up to heaven and God has called her acts of injustice to mind.
The Catholic church is a leading component of her, her being the world empire of false religion.
Perhaps the 'activities" will help the Blessed understand why parts of the world resent and deeply distrust the Crusaders of various ilks and their hypocrisy on the Holy moral virtues.
If history is any guide, it won't make a bit of difference.
Blessed be the little children....with their silence extorted through the instilled terror of eternal damnation....
A time of cleaning is coming - for centuries, the catholic church has bluffed its way along, now the crime is getting too big to hide. After this all shakes out, maybe we will see the businessmen, politicians and perverts kicked out, then hopefully we will see a smaller but more Christ oriented catholic church.
Another Middle Class - This does happen in other religions, and the media does report it, but these other churches do not have the huge scope of the RCC. We have a local minister of one of the biggest Baptist churches in our area who just pled guilty to charges of transporting a minor over state lines for sex. His wife forgave him - of course, because in the world of the Southern Baptist the husband is always right and her father who was minister before her husband was accused of adultery himself (that one got swept under the rug) - and his parishoners are writing letters to the federal court judge asking him to be leniant in sentencing this jerk. Such is the blindness of those who place their faith in men disguised as annointed ones.
There is something about Irish and british priests.....jejejejejjeje
I just wish we could all go back to the day when our priest told us the biggest trouble facing our Catholic Church was obamacare!
Excellent, one less psycho in the church.
Now if only we could get about 3 thousand of his fellow church employees to do the same.
All of these people are guilty of either participation in, condoning of or just plain lying about all of this sexual abuse.
Which probably still continues to this day.
This church is nothing more than one gigantic sex play toy game to these people.
If the Cardinal can't accept himself, then how can he accept others? So pathetic to have lived all those years frustrated by false beliefs and made worse by his condemnation of the very thing that was a part of him. Unfortunately, he's not alone. When judgement about homosexuality is put aside and replaced by acceptance of oneself and others as unique creations of God, then some peace and serenity may occur and spirituality finally flourish. Otherwise, this transitory life we have is meaningless.
Sex is the one issue the Church cannot deal with: celibacy, divorce, same sex marriage, abortion, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, birth control, you name it. It can't deal with it but it's obsessed by it.
It just gets deeper and deeper. The Roman Catholic Church had better take a long hard look inside itself and clean up this God foresaken mess.
As we've seen many times before, the most vehemently anti-gay are usually hiding/denying/suppressing their own true sexual orientation. Once again, the hypocrisy is revealed.
''We don’t call people a bigot because they disagree with us. We reserve that for people who use the kind of language the cardinal has used. He has gone out of his way. It has not been fair discourse. His language has been cruel, hurtful and pernicious.”---Yep--That never happens when you disagree with the LGBT community LOL
hmmmmm. let me guess....
This and all the 'unspeakable' behaviors of late have likely occurred throughout the churches history and because of it's power and prestige, no one would have complained and none would have listened anyway. A former catholic.
The church is imploding ! It's about time...
"inappropriate behavior"
If it turns out that he is a pedophile, that's the most forgiving allegation ever.
He's a probable criminal, and he would be a felon after conviction.
That's a long way from 'inappropriate'.
These kinds of stories coming out about the sexually deviant behavior by Catholic Priest are never ending.
This is not a huge surprise! And he wont be the last! And things will just get worse! This is what happens when people choose to sweep things under the rug and hope they never come out, instead of dealing with the problems. And of course they felt if these allegations would ever come to light people would not believe it because of who they are, and they are finding out not everybody is choosing to bury their heads in the sand.
And the beat goes on. And on. And on........