Cardinal Keith O'brien: I've Said Sorry... Now I'm Trying to Live Best Christian Life I Can

By Kevin Duguid And Douglas Walker
Scottish Sun
May 2, 2013

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/4911527/Cardinal-Keith-OBrien-Ive-said-sorry-now-Im-trying-to-live-best-Christian-life-I-can.html

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien vowed to be a “good Christian” as he begged forgiveness over his gay sex scandal.

The disgraced churchman — who emerged from hiding this week — confessed to The Scottish Sun he has failed to live his life according to his OWN religious teachings.

But he claimed he has been swamped by messages of support despite lurid revelations that saw him axed as the country’s top Catholic cleric after plunging the Church into crisis.

O’Brien, 75, said: “I’m just trying to do my best to live a good Christian life myself now. Many people have been helping me to go back on the right path and that’s what I have to do.

“But I haven’t always managed to live that in my own life.”

We told yesterday how the cardinal finally broke cover two months after admitting inappropriate conduct with four priests.

He is now moving from his official mansion in posh Morningside, Edinburgh, to a modest church home in Dunbar, East Lothian.

It comes after he was forced to quit as Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews by the former Pope, Benedict XVI.

But O’Brien said: “I have been supported in a number of ways by many good Christian people and many people of no religion at all who realise I have said sorry for anyone I have offended.

“If Christianity is about anything at all it’s about forgiveness.

“That’s what I have to do as a Cardinal priest — just forgive the wrongdoer and help them go back on to the right path again.”

He added: “It’s been quite a difficult time for me, quite a humbling experience for me.”

O’Brien, from Northern Ireland, was axed after he was summoned to the Vatican over complaints of “lewd behaviour” and “drunken fumblings”.

The accusations by three priests and one former priest only came to light after O’Brien branded gay marriage a “grotesque subversion”.

But he told The Scottish Sun: “It’s very difficult for them.

“That is why I have apologised for being a teacher who has not been able to live up to the teaching of the church.

“We know what’s against God’s law. Consequently we should try to live by God’s law. I’ve apologised for my failures in that respect.”

Despite his fall from grace, O’Brien remains a cardinal and Scotland’s most senior Catholic.

Only the new Pope Francis can remove him from the role — and O’Brien is in the dark over whether the Vatican is still probing the allegations against him.

He said: “It’s up to those who are responsible in Rome for me to answer that sort of question.”

But it’s believed Scotland’s Catholic hierarchy will ask the Vatican to remove his title and privileges. Church leaders are understood to be deeply concerned that he has returned to the country and taken one of their empty properties as his retirement home.

A top-level source said: “The Scottish Church is helpless in what is happening.

“He is still regarded as the highest ranking Catholic in the country despite his behaviour.

“Ideally, the hierarchy want to see him move away from the country. It is likely that Rome will be asked to take action soon to prevent further embarrassment.

“He has inflicted massive damage on the Church and ordinary churchgoers have seen their faith shaken to the core.”

Senior Scots Catholic figures are said to be furious that O’Brien retains the benefits of his lofty position despite his sex shame.

The source said: “What message does that send out to the Catholics of this country and through the rest of the world who have been so let down by the Cardinal and his actions, his lies and his deceit.

“But he retains other privileges and is still regarded as a Citizen of the Vatican.”

The source added: “When he left in February, he was told his public life was over. He asked: ‘Am I to live like a hermit’? He was told that is exactly what it amounts to.”

Yesterday O’Brien remained behind closed doors at his old official residence in Edinburgh.

In Dunbar, a short morning service took place just yards from his new home at Our Lady of the Waves Church.

Contact: kevin.duguid@the-sun.co.uk