An overview of comment with links to full reports in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The New York Times, The Scotsman, Scottish Catholic Media Office, and Ekklesia. Statement by the Primus, Most Rev David Chillingworth
Catholic Church: cardinal errors
Editorial in the Guardian – The future pope Joseph Ratzinger dragged the Catholic church into the poisonous American presidential campaign of 2004, through a memo about denying pro-choice politicians communion. Its target was John Kerry, a sincere Catholic who nonetheless believed that the law should not dictate to women on abortion, and went on to lose to George W Bush (before popping up in London as President Obama’s secretary of state). Three years later, in an outburst that also suggested abortions were resulting in “two Dunblane massacres a day”, Cardinal Keith O’Brien attempted to unleash American-style culture wars on the UK, by questioning whether MPs supporting abortion rights should continue receiving communion.
It is only one expression of a notably unreflective priest’s desire to build a narrow church – there was also, for example, the intemperate likening of embryology research to Frankenstein. Another manifestation – and one that seems poignant in the aftermath of the Observer’s disclosure of allegations about “inappropriate acts” with younger priests, which prefigured his departure on Monday – was his trenchant denunciation of reforms to advance gay rights. After having opposed civil partnerships in the past, the cardinal – who was the archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews, and the leader of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland – last year pledged fresh funding for propaganda against gay marriage.
There is no Catholic monopoly on sexual scandal – as current events within the atheistically led Liberal Democrat party underline. It is also important to acknowledge that despite having been “resigned” (or, more precisely, “prematurely retired”) by the Vatican, Cardinal O’Brien has contested the allegations, which is what the claims reported by the Observer remain. But, stepping back from the specifics of this case, one cannot brush off the evidence that Rome has a special problem with sex. More at –
http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/commentisfree/rss/~3/ljsKZd_OOwc/catholic-church-problems-with-sex
Pope accelerates cardinal’s resignation amid accusations about sexual behavior
The Scotsman – Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Britain stepped down today amid allegations of his “inappropriate behaviour” with three priests and one former priest. The decision to bring forward the 74-year-old cardinal’s resignation by three weeks was made personally by the pope. In a statement this morning he said: “The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today.” … Four claimants had made allegations to nuncio Antonio Mennini, the Vatican’s ambassador to Britain, that Cardinal O’Brien had committed ‘inappropriate acts’ dating back to the 1980s.
He did not attend a special mass to celebrate the reign of Pope Benedict XVI at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, and was reported to have stayed away after seeking legal advice. … He had been due to retire on March 17 this year. … He is no stranger to making the news with his views, landing him the Bigot of the Year award, from the gay rights group Stonewall following comments he made about homosexuality. In 2007 he caused controversy when speaking on the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act he said the termination rate north of the border was equivalent to “two Dunblane massacres a day”. And in 2008 he described the implications of The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill as “grotesque” and akin to “Nazi-style experiments”.
Read the rest in The Scotsman at –
http://www.scotsman.com/news/cardinal-keith-o-brien-resigns-as-archbishop-1-2808711
The New York Times provides context:
Cardinal O’Brien’s announcement came a day after The Observer newspaper reported that four men had made complaints to the pope’s diplomatic representative in Britain, Antonio Mennini, and that the complaints had reached Archbishop Mennini in the week before Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation on Feb. 11.
The timing of The Observer’s article, which was apparently drawn from church sources with access to the file that Archbishop Mennini had forwarded to Rome, became an immediate focus of attention.
The Scottish Catholic Media Office issued this statement.
An extract:
The Cardinal had already presented last November his resignation in view of his 75th birthday on 17 March 2013, and it was accepted by the Holy Father with the formula ‘nunc pro tunc’ (now for later). Given the imminent Vacant See, the Holy Father has now decided to accept the said resignation definitively.
Reacting to the acceptance of his resignation, Cardinal O’Brien said;
“Approaching the age of seventy-five and at times in indifferent health, I tendered my resignation as Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh to Pope Benedict XVI some months ago. I was happy to know that he accepted my resignation ‘nunc pro tunc’ – (now – but to take effect later) on 13 November 2012. The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013, and that he will appoint an Apostolic Administrator to govern the Archdiocese in my place until my successor as Archbishop is appointed. In the meantime I will give every assistance to the Apostolic Administrator and to our new Archbishop, once he is appointed, as I prepare to move into retirement.
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 apologise to all whom I have offended.
…
O’Brien had planned to attend the conclave to elect a new pope. There have been calls for other cardinal with tarnished reputations to skip the election. More at Scottish Catholic media office –
http://www.scmo.org/articles/-pope-accepts-cardinal-obriens-resignation.html
It was only last week that O’Brien told the BBC speaking of the future of the church post-Benedict expressed the opinion the priests should be able to marry.
For example the celibacy of the clergy, whether priests should marry – Jesus didn’t say that. There was a time when priests got married, and of course we know at the present time in some branches of the church – in some branches of the Catholic church – priests can get married, so that is obviously not of divine of origin and it could get discussed again.
Cardinal O’Brien and the church’s sexual confusion
Andrew Brown in the Guardian provides insight – They call it a resignation, but it looks to me as if Cardinal Keith O’Brien was pushed before he could even think of jumping. Only yesterday he was defending his position. Then we were told that the Pope was considering it. Now – miraculously – the cardinal has reconsidered.
In any case, this shows how very sensitive the Roman Catholic church has become towards sexual scandal. The long years of trying to tough out problems and of circling the wagons are over, at least in the developed world. Cardinals now get the same treatment as priests.
The other remarkable change shown by this is within the culture of the church. Priests now dare to complain about their superiors through the back channel to Rome provided by the Vatican’s diplomatic service. That is how these allegations were made. There was a time when complaining about your bishop or cardinal to Rome was a one-way ticket to a posting on Craggy Island. There are probably still a great many crimes or misdemeanours that a priest with a sense of self-preservation would hesitate to denounce his superiors for – but it seems that sexual abuse is no longer one of them. This is progress, though slow and belated.
Otherwise, the story illustrates the grotesque and humiliating difficulties that the Roman Catholic church has knotted itself into where sex and gay people are concerned. More at –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2013/feb/25/cardinal-obrien-resignation-church-sex
Cardinal O’Brien gay sex scandal: this was a hit job that succeeded beyond the plotters’ wildest dreams
Damian Thompson in The Telegraph – The Cardinal Keith O’Brien Downfall video had been ready to run for ages. The story of three priests and one ex-priest complaining of inappropriate behaviour was timed to break when the Scottish prelate retired at 75 next month. The aim was to expose his alleged hypocrisy.
[…] Cardinal O’Brien’s decision not to attend the conclave has thrown the Church into disarray: if he judges himself unsuitable to vote, how can Cardinal Roger Mahony, disgraced by cover-ups in Los Angeles, possibly be judged fit to do so? But the implications in Britain are equally far-reaching. This country is in the middle of a debate about gay marriage in which, given the support of politicians and the media for the innovation, there is a shortage of public figures prepared to speak for the 50 per cent of voters unhappy with the measure. Until now, the Catholic Church has been given a respectful hearing. But now, with its senior clergyman accused of touching up young men after drink-fuelled “counselling”? We do not, it should be stressed, know that the behaviour actually occurred.
What we do know is that, thanks to this grubby scandal, gay marriage seems even more of an inevitability – and the Catholic Church’s freedom to oppose it is suddenly looking more fragile. More at –
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100204332/cardinal-obrien-gay-sex-scandal-this-was-a-hit-job-that-succeeded-beyond-the-plotters-wildest-dreams/
Simon Barrow of Ekklesia writes – Britain’s most senior Catholic leader, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, will now not take part in the conclave to chose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, having been forced to resign early by allegations of “inappropriate conduct” made to the Vatican by several priests, both now retired and still serving.
It would be wrong to prejudge the specific issues and charges involved, but in a fast-paced, media-driven culture where comment precedes reflection that is the almost unavoidable tendency.
Yesterday, faithful Catholics outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh were pronouncing that Cardinal O’Brien, being a good man and a good Catholic, had to be innocent.
Meanwhile, a slew of other commentators, angry at the Church’s cover-up of abuse and staunch opposition to homosexuality, are already speaking as if he was guilty.
Cardinal O’Brien’s outspokenness, moral certitude and sometimes overbearing public manner (which those who know him say belies considerable personal likeableness) has done him few if any favours in his moment of crisis. Judgemental sounding words make good soundbites when the judgers are accused.
All of this misses the real point, however. Irrespective of the guilt or otherwise of one man, it is the culture of the Church as a whole — its secrecy, bureaucracy, autocracy, infighting, unaccountability and repressive instincts around sexuality — which is once again under severe judgement here. This is not to minimise the importance of what Cardinal O’Brien may or may not have done, less still to push aside the voices of those who have brought these conduct concerns to light. It is, however, to recognise that what is being discussed in this particular case is part of a much wider pattern that simply will not go away through force of rhetoric among the Church’s many advocates or detractors.
One of those making allegations against Cardinal O’Brien, recorded this weekend in The Observer, has spoken of endemic hierarchy and closedness as a “dark side” to what he still regards as a “beautiful institution”. The holding together of tendencies towards both good and ill, corporately and personally, is vital here. The idea that the Church (or any of the other institutions implicated in abuse and misconduct, including music schools, parliament, corporations and the media) is either unremittingly evil or overwhelmingly innocent cannot be borne out by any fair examination of the facts. Self-delusion and self-righteousness are two sides of the same soiled coin.
More at – http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18066
Episcopal Church response to Cardinal O’Brien’s resignation
The Most Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church says: “Cardinal Keith O’Brien has served his Church and the people of Scotland faithfully over many years and it is with sadness that we note his resignation today and the circumstances surrounding his announcement. Our prayers are with the Cardinal and with the Catholic Church in Scotland.”