UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard
Melanie McDonagh
26 February 2013
Oh God. Not again. Catholics are used to weathering the worst when it comes to revelations, and allegations, about clerical sexual abuse so we’ve grown something like a hardened carapace. Even so, to lose the head of the church in Scotland, one of the two cardinals in Britain, is quite something.
The practical result of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s resignation is that there are no electors from Britain at the papal conclave — that’ll be one less vote, then, for the man from Ghana. The longer-term effect will be to diminish that bit further the church’s authority when it comes to sex.
For Cardinal O’Brien, who was to retire in three weeks, on St Patrick’s Day, his 75th birthday, it’s a devastating humiliation. As for the Vatican, one cleric in the Curia took his head out of his hands long enough to tell me: “It feels like the church is under siege from the forces of chaos.” Well, that’s one way of putting it.
To be honest, there isn’t that much love lost between the bishops of England and those of Scotland. For English bishops, who favour a nuanced approach when it comes to public debate, the abrasive style of Cardinal O’Brien, a pitbull polemicist, was embarrassing. They cringed when he sounded off on subjects such as gay marriage because he’d alienate more people than he won round. “You spend so much time trying to build bridges with gay people,” one (London) priest told me, “and when Keith O’Brien opens his mouth, it’s all undone.” But the fallout will affect them too.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.