Oh, well.
Cardinal O'Brien has been "accused" of seeking sexual relationships with adult male seminarians who were under his supervision.
This isn't a pedophilia scandal, but rather one of hypocrisy and ethics, where the loudest-voiced and most public homophobe in Britain turns out actually to be a gay man and one who is accused of using his position to attempt to pressure priests whose careers he controls into having sex with him.
Who could have guessed.
Conservative Catholicism, as the Telegraph article notes, has been on the wane in Scotland -- where O'Brien hails -- in recent years. Glasgow, Britain's second city, drew enormous numbers of Irish immigrants in the 19th century, transforming it into not just a center of industry, but of Catholic faith and fervor. (In 1848 alone, about 45,000 Irish immigrated to Glasgow.)
But the world is changing and it's not the 19th century anymore.
The Telegraph article notes that O'Brien won't vote in the papal conclave either.
As a Catholic, I'm hoping that these waves of scandal finally force the church to grow up a little bit and stop acting like a spoiled, fitful child. I want the church to be made accountable for the way it has abused its members. And I'm hoping that victims will find justice, compensation and a bit of peace at some point along the way.