Cardinal O'brien "Ordered to Leave Britain" by Vatican

By Damian Thompson
The Telegraph
May 4, 2013

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100215291/cardinal-obrien-ordered-to-leave-britain-by-vatican/

O'Brien: ordered into exile

Gerry Braiden of the Glasgow Herald is reporting today that Cardinal Keith O'Brien, former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has been ordered to leave Britain by the Vatican following his admission that he made sexual advances to priests during his time as Primate of Scotland. It's a terrible end to the career of a flawed but likeable man who, clearly, should never have accepted a cardinal's hat in the first place. Writes Braiden:

Friends of the cleric have said he has been told by Rome to shelve his plans to retire to a church-owned cottage in East Lothian and instead leave the country.

The Herald understands Cardinal O'Brien was given the news yesterday afternoon, three days after being photographed moving his personal belongings from his official residence in Edinburgh to the residence in Dunbar where he had been spending regular weekends over the past few years.

The parish priest in Dunbar, Canon John Creanor, is understood to have voiced upset at the Vatican's move against his "dear friend".

It is the clearest indication yet of the Vatican's unwillingness to let the matter drift and concern that the Cardinal's admission of gay activity over decades and allegations of abuse towards trainee priests continues to damage the Church.

Investigations also continue into claims made by a serving priest in Lanarkshire of a "gay mafia" running seminaries in the 1980s and naming leading Catholic figures.

The Herald revealed on Thursday Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia was behind an appeal to the Vatican to intervene after Cardinal O'Brien's re-emergence in Scotland this week.

You can perhaps tell from reading the above that the Catholic Church in Scotland is in the most terrible crisis – "just falling apart at the seams", I was told this week. Do read the full story. O'Brien did not abuse minors, so far as we know, and has admitted his guilt – and his friends are furious that he is being hung out to dry at a time when other prelates who covered up shocking abuse are left alone. The name of Cardinal Mahony, formerly of Los Angeles, comes to mind.

I can imagine why the ambitious Archbishop Tartaglia wants this embarrassment out of the way – which is not to say that it isn't the right decision. Presumably a key player in this was the excellent Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, whom certain English bishops are plotting to have removed from his post because his sympathies are too conservative.

What a catastrophic mess. I predict that Mass attendence, already falling fast in Scotland, will now nosedive. Archbishop Tartaglia has quite a job on his hands.