SCOTLAND
National Secular Society
Thu, 17 Sep 2015
St Andrew’s University has rejected attempts to strip Cardinal Keith O’Brien of an honorary degree, despite his role in blocking an inquiry into sex abuse and his admission of sexual misconduct.
A campaign by Manfredi La Manna, an academic at St Andrew’s, to have O’Brien stripped of his honorary degree in divinity has been rebuffed by university authorities, who said it would be “no more than an empty gesture”.
In response, Dr La Manna asked “how low should an honorand’s behaviour sink” before a degree is revoked.
Cardinal O’Brien admitted in 2013 that his “sexual conduct” had “fallen beneath the standards expected of me” after a series of allegations about him were made public. One priest who came forward to expose O’Brien’s conduct described him as a “predator”.
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