SCOTLAND
The Tablet
Abigail Frymann
17 May 2013
So Rome has ordered Cardinal Keith O’Brien to leave Scotland, three months after it was first reported that four priests and a former priests accused him of ‘inappropriate acts’.
For a Prince of the Church this is a colossal and rare humiliation – not just for the owner of the red hat but also for the Vatican that gave it to him. The Church has no process for stripping a cardinal of his position in the way that it can remove a priest from ministry – O’Brien is not, as one national newspaper wrote this week, an ‘ex-cardinal’.
Back in 2003, curiously, when he was given his red hat, O’Brien was made to swear an unusual oath that reaffirmed his allegiance to defending the Church’s teaching, especially on priestly celibacy, the immorality of homosexual relations, and contraception.
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