UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Independent
Paul Vallely– 26 February 2013
Make no mistake about it, Cardinal Keith O’Brien has not resigned as Scotland’s leading Catholic. He has been sacked by the Pope. And that is a measure of just how grave the crisis in the world’s biggest church has become. Cardinal O’Brien was due to retire next month anyway because he will then be 75. The usual drill is for a bishop to hand in his resignation to the Pope (pictured) a few months ahead of the due date and for it to be accepted nunc pro tunc, which in Latin means “now for later”. The cardinal handed in his resignation back in November, expecting it to take effect later this year.
The Pope’s decision that he must stand down forthwith came just one day after a newspaper report that three priests and one ex-priest from his diocese have complained to the Pope’s representative to Britain, the nuncio Antonio Mennini, alleging “inappropriate behaviour” towards them in the 1980s.
All this adds to the sense of crisis gripping the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, still reeling from a papal resignation unprecedented in almost 700 years. To add to that, the Pope himself condemned the manoeuvring of factions within the church. And last Friday the punch drunk church was told by the respected Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’ that a report into the Vatileaks scandal claimed there was a gay mafia within the Vatican involving several cardinals and sexual shenanigans in a Rome sauna.
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