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Tequila
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25 Feb 2013, 10:16 am

...'inappropriate' behaviour.

Quote:
Cardinal Keith O'Brien resigns over allegations of 'inappropriate' behaviour
  • The Pope has accepted Cardinal Keith O’Brien's resignation as he fights allegations of “inappropriate” behaviour with priests.
The 74-year-old, who was due to retire, has denied the allegations but is stepping aside with immediate effect.

He will not now be taking part in the Conclave of Cardinals to elect the next Pope after Benedict XVI steps down later this week.

In a statement he said that he did not want media attention to be focussed on him rather than the new Pope.

This sounds very vague. Do they think he has abused some of the priests? Or that he has attacked children (I'm not too sure the Catholic Church would have too much of a problem with this)? Or is it simply that he might be gay?



visagrunt
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25 Feb 2013, 4:56 pm

All the more interesting, not only has he resigned his See, his also will forego participation in Conclave.


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25 Feb 2013, 5:40 pm

According to the BBC

Quote:
The former priest claims Cardinal O'Brien made an inappropriate approach to him in 1980, after night prayers, when he was a seminarian at St Andrew's College, Drygrange. The complainant says he resigned as a priest when Cardinal O'Brien was first made a bishop

A second statement from another complainant says he was living in a parish when he was visited by O'Brien, and inappropriate contact took place between them

A third complainant alleges dealing with what he describes as "unwanted behaviour" by the cardinal in the 1980s after some late-night drinking

And the fourth complainant claims the cardinal used night prayers as an excuse for inappropriate contact
Link

He is alleged to have made intimate contact with other priests. Due to the Catholic Church's recruitment policy we know that these priests were male making that the acts, if of a sexual nature, homosexual.



Mummy_of_Peanut
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26 Feb 2013, 6:13 am

At the time that these incidents are alleged to have happened, the male homosexual age of consent was 21. As at least one of the complainants was just 18 then, the cardinal (then a bishop) could have been prosecuted, under paedophilia laws. It's been reported that the complainants did not want him being involved in the election of the new Pope and that the Pope asked him to resign immediately. It doesn't look too good for Keith O'Brien - what do we call him now, is it just Mr O'Brien?


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visagrunt
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26 Feb 2013, 1:44 pm

Ordination as a bishop if for life.

As I understand it, he has resigned his see--as he was bound to do this year, in any event, so he ceases to be Archbishop of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh and he ceases to be a metropolitan. But so far as I know, he has not resigned from cardinalate, and he remains both a cardinal and a bishop unless he is released from the former office or the latter orders.

And let's at least be thankful that the victims in this case were adults. Though that's going to open a whole new door...


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27 Feb 2013, 5:51 pm

The allegations have to taken seriously and investigated of course,but I do find something disconcerting about the time delay and vague nature of "inappropriate behaviour" complaints.
At the moment there are also similar "inappropriate behaviour" complaints against a Liberal politician and I read that one of the women alleges that at a conference he "may have brushed against her without it being accidental,then followed her and asked her if she'd like to go to his room for a drink and a chat". It concerns me that there's a general blurring between what constitutes serious abuse and clumsy
social approaches. In the Cardinal O'Brien case I say innocent until proven otherwise.


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