VATICAN CITY
La Croix International
July 20, 108
By Robert Mickens
There is an elephant in the sacristy no one is talking about, at least not in a healthy way
Just three days before the 2013 conclave began I wrote a few brief words about Scottish Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien’s decision not to attend the papal election.
A few weeks earlier he had been accused of having forced a number of seminarians and young priests into having sex (one that turned into a relationship) in the 1980s.
O’Brien, who died this past March, immediately resigned as Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh even though he was still months shy of his 75th birthday. He also announced, obviously under the Vatican pressure, that he would not attend the conclave.
“I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me – but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor,” the cardinal said.
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