SCOTLAND
Scotsman
by STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on the 23 August 2013
DISGRACED Cardinal Keith O’Brien blocked an independent inquiry into cases of historic sexual abuse that had the support of every other bishop in Scotland, the retired Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti, has revealed.
The Catholic Church in Scotland had planned to invite an independent academic to compile a report on each diocese’s “secret archives” and each bishop’s handling of allegations, which would then be made public.
However, Cardinal O’Brien, then the president of the Bishops’ Conference, refused to co-operate and the planned inquiry was shelved, Archbishop Conti wrote in a letter to be published in the Catholic newspaper the Tablet today.
Cardinal O’Brien was forced to resign in March after admitting “inappropriate behaviour” with priests and a seminarian, and is currently in an unknown monastery for a period of “prayer and penance” ordered by Pope Francis.
In a letter defending the Catholic Church in Scotland’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse, Archbishop Conti wrote: “It was the intention of all but one member of the Bishops’ Conference to commission an independent examination of the historical cases we had on file in all of our respective dioceses and publish the results, but this was delayed by the objection of the then president of the conference; without full participation of all the dioceses the exercise would have been faulty.”
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