Cardinal Keith O’brien ‘blocked’ Independent Sex Abuse Inquiry

By Mark Molloy
The Metro
August 23, 2013

http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/23/cardinal-keith-obrien-blocked-independent-sex-abuse-inquiry-3935318/

Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned after admitting sexual misconduct (Picture: PA)

An independent inquiry into historic allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was ‘blocked’ by disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien before he resigned, it has emerged.

The report was commissioned by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland in 2011 but was delayed after Cardinal O’Brien objected, the former archbishop of Glasgow Mario Conti has said.

It was to analyse statistics relating to abuse and allegations of abuse over a 60-year period from 1952 to 2012.

Cardinal O’Brien resigned from his position in February after admitting inappropriate sexual conduct with other priests.

His opposition to an inquiry into Church-related abuse allegations was revealed by Mr Conti in a letter to the Catholic newspaper The Tablet.

‘It was the intention of all but one member of the Bishops’ Conference to commission an independent examination of the historical cases we had on file in all of our respective dioceses and publish the results,’ he wrote.

‘This was delayed by the objection of the then president of the conference; without full participation of all the dioceses the exercise would have been faulty.’

Cardinal Keith O’Brien objected to an abuse report (Picture: Reuters)

A Church spokesman confirmed Cardinal Keith O’Brien ‘withdrew from the project’.

‘Without the participation of all the dioceses a ‘national audit’ was not possible so the analysis was stopped,’ the spokesman added.

After his resignation, the cardinal issued an apology, saying ‘there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me’.

He stated that he would play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland and has since left the country for a period of ‘spiritual renewal and reflection’.