VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
[with video]
Sex Abuses in Church: 1st Case for Pope Francis Involves Claims that Cardinal O’Brien Had Long-Term Physical Relationship With Priest
By Vittorio Hernandez | March 23, 2013
Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s problems apparently did not end with his being sacked just before Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI retired as pontiff on Feb 28. It appears that the cardinal’s sex abuse case would be the first that new Pope Francis will have to investigate following claims by the complaining priest that he had a long-term physical relationship with Cardinal O’Brien.
When Pope Benedict quit it post, among the legacies or headaches he left for his successor was to solve a slew of sex abuses cases involving clergymen. The last case to be made public was that of Cardinal O’Brien who not only had to back out of attending the conclave in early March but had to quit days before his official retirement following complaints that he abused three priests and an ex-priest – accusations that had been made way back in the 1980s but were apparently swept then under the rug.
Reports by Scottish daily The Herald that came out on Saturday said that the abuse complaints did not involve casual sex encounters but the first priest complainant actually had a long-term physical relationship with Cardinal O’Brien. It said that the two clergymen had known each other for over three decades and were in close contact through phone calls and meetings in Edinburgh until they had a falling out in 2012.
The priest, who initially left his vocation but eventually returned and assigned in Europe in a post the cardinal helped him secure, turned against the Scottish cardinal as an act of revenge for Cardinal O’Brien being outspoken against homosexuality and gay marriage, describing it as moral degradation and harmful.
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