SCOTLAND
STV
[with video]
The Catholic Church in Scotland has been engulfed in crisis following the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien amid allegations of “inappropriate behaviour” stretching back 30 years.
Cardinal O’Brien is to step down with immediate effect after three priests and a former priest made complaints to the Vatican.
The move leaves the Catholic Church in Britain with no vote in the forthcoming conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI after the Cardinal said he would not attend.
Cardinal O’Brien’s resignation is the latest in a series of scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church. Two years ago, the Bishop of Bruges stepped down after admitting to sexual abuse. And in Ireland, revelations have come to light that 10,000 women were kept as virtual slaves in church-run laundries across the country.
The current scandal is so profound that Professor Tom Devine of the University of Edinburgh said: “This is possibly the biggest crisis in the history of Scottish Catholicism since the Reformation.
“It has come from the heart and soul of the church.”
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