The Holy See is turning a blind eye-for-an-eye to yet another sex scandal by taking no further action over Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s admission of sexual misconduct following allegations by four priests.
O’Brien resigned as the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland in February after four priests accused him of inappropriate behavior prior to Pope Benedict XVI’s own resignation.
The priests, including one former priest, feared that if O’Brien had been allowed to participate in the conclave, their accusations would not have been addressed.
Imagine that.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Well, O’Brien didn’t participate in the election of Pope Francis I, but that didn’t stop the Vatican from ignoring the scandal surrounding the 75-year-old former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh anyway.
According to Scotland on Sunday, the Vatican has no active investigation into Cardinal O’Brien’s actions, and is keeping only a “loose watching brief” over his case:
It is understood that senior figures in the church do not believe a formal investigation is now warranted as he has already admitted and apologised for his behaviour. He has not been seen in public since stepping down as archbishop on February 25.
A source close to the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s civil service, said: “When an investigation takes place people expect some kind of public result of the investigation, but there is just no way there is going to be some kind of public examination and a published report on this matter. The Church doesn’t work that way.”
A second source also explained that the Vatican, whilst keeping a “loose watching brief” in case of further allegations against O’Brien, has not launched any official investigation.
This should come as good news to O’Brien (and possibly his longtime boyfriend) and maybe he’ll spend the rest of his retirement repenting for all that anti-gay crap he’s been slinging over the years. ‘Cause if he’s learned anything from this, it’s that saying sorry makes everything better.
Of course, try telling that to his four victims.
(h/t: PinkNews)
kevininbuffalo
There was a line from an old rock song, don’t remember the name, “Meet the new boss same as the old boss.”
Might be a good entrance tune for Francis.
Yiannis
@kevininbuffalo: The song is “Won’t get fooled again” by the Who. Very appropriate indeed.
kevininbuffalo
@Yiannis: That’s it! Thanks
Yiannis
@kevininbuffalo: Anytime, buddy 🙂
alexoloughlin
What I find so strange is that O’Brien is in hiding and nobody really knows his whereabouts except for the hierarchy. You’d think with the gutter tabloid press, they’d pay someone to find out where he is but they don’t seem to be taking any interest in it. Very odd especially for rags that like to sensationalize gay issues to foment hostility and homophobia. It’s as if it’s ‘hands-off’ clergy to avoid a backlash from the god botherers, the very people who actually fuel the spurious comments that daily rags such as the Mail and Telegraph thrive on.
2eo
@alexoloughlin: If I may.
The SNP are pushing for independence from the rest of the UK, which as anyone with any knowledge of economics and understanding of reality knows it will be an unmitigated disaster. This has put Alex Salmond and many on the right in an awkward position.
Lots of them loathe catholics equally as much as they hate us gays, however they make up enough of the population in Scotland to destroy the vote should they vote against them in number, therefore they’re terrified of taking this any further because they’re worried catholics will rebel against the SNP.
Plus the other UK papers won’t carry stories like this for very long because the religious are notoriously lacking a sense of humour and ALL of them lack a sense of fair play.