Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned from the church in Scotland in 2013 after admitting inappropriate sexual conduct with priests, is to lose all the rights and privileges of his office, the Vatican has announced.
Last year, Pope Francis sent Bishop Charles Scicluna to Scotland’s archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct made against Cardinal O’Brien, the Irish Times reports.
On Friday, the Vatican announced that O’Brien, who was the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh from 1985 until he stepped down, would now be a cardinal in name only. O’Brien will now longer be allowed to participate in public religious events and will be denied other privileges such as voting for pope
“The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of the rights and privileges of a Cardinal, expressed in canons 349, 353 and 356 of the Code of Canon Law, presented by His Eminence Cardinal Keith Michael Patrick O’Brien, Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, after a long period of prayer,” read a communiqué from the Dean of the College of Cardinals.
Comments