Winds of Change Blow through the Vatican – Not before Time

By Paul Vallely
Irish Independent
February 26, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/winds-of-change-blow-through-the-vatican-not-before-time-29093776.html

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.

There are signs in the forcing-out of Cardinal O'Brien that change is possible within the church. The outgoing Pope has been firmer in dealing with what he described as the sex-abusing clerical "filth" in the church than his predecessor, even if he has handled it behind closed doors.

But the latest developments show priests daring for the first time to complain openly about the behaviour of the bishops upon whom they depend for ecclesiastical preferment. Perhaps the winds of change truly are beginning to blow through the windows of the Vatican. Not before time.