Cardinal Keith O'Brien Saying Sorry Should Not Be End of the Matter, Says Angry Priest

Daily Record
March 6, 2013

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cardinal-keith-obrien-saying-sorry-1745749

Priest John Robinson

FATHER John Robinson welcomed the shamed cardinal's apology but said the Catholic Church should not now brush the scandal under the carpet.

THE first priest to criticise the Catholic Church in the wake of the Keith O’Brien scandal has called for the affair to signal a new beginning.

Father John Robinson welcomed the axed cardinal’s apology for sexual misconduct.

But he said it was wrong for Catholic leaders to now try to draw a line under the scandal.

In a strongly worded attack on the Church, Robinson, 71, said: “I’m happy that His Eminence has said sorry.

“But that can only be the start of the matter, not the conclusion – as some in our Church would dearly love it to be – and then be consigned to the dustbin of history.”

The priest also revealed he had emailed O’Brien, telling him he needs “psychological and counselling” help.

On Sunday, Robinson broke ranks to call for an open investigation into allegations made against the axed cardinal.

And following O’Brien’s subsequent confession, Robinson repeated his calls for an inquiry to look into those claims and historic allegations made against other churchmen.

The priest accused the Catholic Church of decades of cover-ups and a conspiracy of silence over abuse.

He added: “There has to be a thorough, transparent and preferably independent inquiry to establish why such secrecy reigns supreme in the Catholic Church and why anyone, especially clergy, who dares to breach it risks losing their good name and reputation at the hands of Church authority.”

O’Brien, 74, quit as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh a day after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour going back to the 1980s.

A week later, he admitted his sexual conduct had at times “fallen beneath the standards expected of me”.

Yesterday, Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy said she feels “huge compassion” for O’Brien.

The QC added: “Here was a man who quite clearly had wanted to have a sexual life and felt that it was a failing for him to want to have a sexual life and that he was going against his commitment to celibacy.

“It is terrible to torture people by expecting that of them and I just feel huge compassion for him. I feel very sad for him and for his victims.”

Kennedy, from Glasgow, was speaking at the launch in the House of Commons of the Catholic Scholars Declaration on Authority in the Church.

The group are lobbying for more openness in the Catholic Church.