UK Cardinal Accused of Blocking Sex Abuse Probe

Press TV
August 23, 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/23/320059/uk-cardinal-blocked-sex-abuse-probe/

Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien

Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has been accused of blocking a report into sex abuse in the church before resigning over sexual misconduct during his career.

In a letter to the Catholic newspaper The Tablet, former Archbishop of Glasgow Mario Conti revealed that O'Brien prevented an independent investigation into cases of historic sexual abuse a year before stepping down from his post as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh over his inappropriate sexual conduct.

The Bishops' Conference of Scotland commissioned an inquiry into church-related abuse allegations in 2011, but it was halted when O'Brien withdrew his support as the then-president of the conference.

"It was the intention of all but one member of the bishops' conference to commission an independent examination of the historical cases we had on file in all of our respective dioceses and publish the results but this was delayed by the objection of the then-President of the Conference," Archbishop Conti wrote.

The scandal came into limelight after the British paper the Observer revealed that three priests and a former priest in Scotland had complained to Vatican’s ambassador to Britain, nuncio Antonio Mennini, about allegations of O’Brien’s inappropriate behavior against them about 30 years ago.

The clergyman admitted to sexual misconduct during his career, issued an apology and resigned in February.