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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMarch 3rd, 2013
Britain’s most senior Archbishop, Keith Cardinal O’Brien of Scotland, resigned last week when three priests and one former priest came forward with allegations of sexual harassment over a period spanning thirty years. He denied the allegations, and pinned his resignation on his approaching mandatory retirement when he turns 75 in March and said that he did not “wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me.” Well, now that the Cardinals are preparing for a conclave to select the next Pope, O’Brien is doing a fantastic job of returning media attention back to him, with this statement in which he cops to those feels:
“In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.
However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.
To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness.
To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise.
I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”
Oh yeah, he says. Now I remember… And by the way, the way things are going these days, his sexual conduct was actually better than expected. I mean c’mon. They were grown-ups.
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Soren456
March 3rd, 2013
He avoids the most damning aspect of his sexual “conduct”: the abuse of his power.
If you’re a young priest just starting out and the archbishop feels you up and gets smoochy after dinner, he puts you in quite a predicament. You aren’t harmed by the touching, and you can resist it, but you’ll never be sure that your career isn’t dead because you did resist. And that is the real abuse.
Sexual harassment law was created not just to keep hands off, but to even the field on which the powerful and the powerless both stand.
O’Brien surely knew that his position, and his power to detour a career, would work to compel some sort of submission to his “sexual conduct.” I don’t think it’s rape, but it’s awfully close to it. If he doesn’t address this issue, he has no reason to claim integrity in any sense of the term.
Marcus
March 4th, 2013
Exactly, Soren. Whether the victim is an adult or child, abuse is abuse, and this was abuse. Read and be outraged:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/02/cardinal-keith-obrien-sex-scandal-priests
Ben in Oakland
March 4th, 2013
Asshole. You should be apologizing to every homosexual in the UK, if not the world.
Not for your blatant hypocrisy.
Not for your lies.
Not for your slander of us.
But Just for this: becuase they will think that because we’re gay, too, that we must be like you.
Andrew
March 4th, 2013
Why is it that every time we catch an anti-gay church leader in a sex scandal, they mis-use the sacrament of confession? In my view, belated public admissions forced by someone else’s hand (with the requisite preachy talk about forgiveness) somehow makes it worse, not better.
.
Preston
March 4th, 2013
It’s discouraging to know that our biggest enemies are often persons of our own orientation. One can take the stance that they, too, are victims of a cruel society and are only exhibiting self preservation instincts. I, however, choose to believe persons like Cardinal Obrien are bottom feeding (no pun intended) spineless worms.
Steve
March 4th, 2013
The biggest thing he avoided is apologizing for being a raging hypocrite and constantly attacking and condemning others for being gay. He has hurt people with his numerous and vitriolic public statements
Timothy Kincaid
March 6th, 2013
Oh, that sexual impropriety. Silly me, I misunderstood the question.
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