Scottish Cardinal Who Admitted Misconduct Gives up Rights of Office
By Francis X. Rocca
A Scottish cardinal who admitted sexual misconduct has given up the right to vote in any future papal conclave following a Vatican investigation of his actions, in one of the most significant outcomes of the pope’s efforts to hold church leadership accountable. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who until 2013 presided over the archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, gave up the “rights and privileges of cardinal,” including voting in a papal election—the most important power exercised by cardinals—and advising the pope on governance of the Catholic Church, the Vatican announced Friday. The move, which the Scottish bishops’ conference called “unprecedented,” followed an investigation into claims that Cardinal O’Brien had had inappropriate sexual contact with seminarians under his authority in the 1980s. No cardinal has experienced such a demotion since 1927, when French Cardinal Louis Billot resigned after friction with the Vatican over his involvement in French politics. Unlike Cardinal Billot, Cardinal O’Brien will retain his title. But he will lose the prerogatives ordinarily attached to it. It is one of the most concrete results of Pope Francis’s push for greater accountability by church leaders. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, head of the papal commission on child protection, said in February that his commission would recommend punishing bishops who mishandled accusations of child sex abuse by priests under their authority. The financial reforms the pope has initiated are also supposed to require greater transparency and accountability by heads of Vatican offices. Pope Francis personally ordered the investigation of Cardinal O’Brien, which began last April and was conducted by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, a former sex abuse investigator for the Vatican. The pope met with the cardinal in Rome last December to discuss the case, according to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Cardinal O’Brien’s decision was “not a punishment or a result of a trial,” but the result of a “dialogue” with Pope Francis, said Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman. Spokesmen for the Vatican and the archdiocese said Archbishop Scicluna’s report, prepared solely for the pope, was unlikely to be published due to privacy concerns. In 2013, shortly before the election of Pope Francis, the cardinal resigned as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh—a jurisdiction of more than 100,000 Catholics—and announced that he wouldn't take part in the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. He apologized for “sexual conduct ... below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” and said he didn't want media attention to his case to distract from the papal election. In a statement released Friday, Cardinal O’Brien repeated his earlier apology, thanked Pope Francis for his “fatherly care,” and stated that he would dedicate the rest of his life to prayer, especially “for those I have offended in any way.” Through an assistant, the cardinal said he would have no further comment. The cardinal’s successor, Archbishop Leo Cushley, praised Pope Francis’ handling of the case as “fair, equitable and proportionate.” “Cardinal O’Brien’s behavior distressed many, demoralized faithful Catholics and made the church less credible to those who are not Catholic,” the archbishop said in a statement. “I hope now that all of us affected by this sad and regrettable episode will embrace a spirit of forgiveness.” According to an archdiocesan spokesman, the archdiocese currently faces no civil claims related to the O’Brien case.
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