SCOTLAND
The Guardian
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 July 2013
A senior Vatican official has been appointed to replace the disgraced Scottish cardinal Keith O’Brien as archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews.
Monsignor Leo Cushley, 52, a close and influential adviser to Pope Benedict and his successor Pope Francis, is based in Rome as head of the English language section of the Vatican’s civil service, functioning as a senior career diplomat for the Holy See.
The appointment to succeed O’Brien, five months after he resigned in disgrace after the Observer revealed allegations of sexual impropriety, has come sooner than commentators had expected, suggesting the Vatican is keen to draw a line under the affair.
In a statement to mark his appointment, Cushley alluded to the O’Brien crisis by acknowledging it was a “delicate” time for the Scottish church, and warned he would need months to get to grips with his new post and the damage caused by the scandal.
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