Scottish Cardinal Apologizes for Conduct

By Jeanne Whalen
Wall Street Journal
March 3, 2013

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324678604578338722387488756.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien apologized on Sunday for "sexual conduct" unbefitting a priest and said he would play no further role in the public life of the Catholic Church.

The apology followed his abrupt resignation last week as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after allegations surfaced that he had inappropriate relations with seminarians stretching back to the 1980s.

Cardinal O'Brien initially contested those allegations and had said he was seeking legal advice. But in a statement Sunday he said: "In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and nonspecific nature led me to contest them. However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal."

He added: "To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness...I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland."

The cardinal's troubles have jolted a Catholic hierarchy already battered by years of child-sex-abuse scandals and the abrupt resignation in recent weeks of Pope Benedict XVI, the first pontiff to resign in about 600 years.

A message left at Cardinal O'Brien's residence in Edinburgh on Sunday evening wasn't returned. A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland didn't respond to a request for comment Sunday evening. Last week, the spokesman said the cardinal had retained his rank because it is an honorific awarded by the pope from which a person can't resign.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi declined to comment Sunday evening.

When he resigned as archbishop, Cardinal O'Brien said he wouldn't attend a conclave of cardinals set to meet soon in Rome to choose a new pope, saying he didn't want to attract media attention and serve as a distraction.

Shortly before his resignation, Vatican officials reviewed a series of complaints by men alleging they had inappropriate contact with the cardinal when they were under his charge at a seminary, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The allegations by three unnamed priests and a former priest that Cardinal O'Brien had sought "inappropriate contact" were first reported by U.K. newspaper the Observer. The paper said that in February, the four had given the Vatican's ambassador in the U.K. complaints about alleged actions by the cardinal over a period of years beginning in the 1980s. The Vatican Embassy in London declined to comment on the allegations in that article.

According to another Observer story published Sunday, one of the complainants alleged Cardinal O'Brien had kissed and fondled him.

Victims of sex abuse by priests in various countries have called on some other cardinals, who have admitted to mishandling abuse cases, to not attend the conclave. Those cardinals have refused, pledging to vote.

Cardinal O'Brien, who has been in that role since 2003, has attracted attention over the years as an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and has often raised the ire of gay-rights activists. In 2012, he publicly criticized the U.K. government coalition's proposal for legalizing same-sex marriage, calling the plans "madness" and "a grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right."

Scottish Prime Minister Alex Salmond said last week that the cardinal's resignation was "both a surprise and something I greeted with great sadness," praising him for being an "extraordinary progressive on issues of social equality in Scotland."

Contact: jeanne.whalen@wsj.com