Scottish cardinal admits to sexual misconduct
Days after pulling out of the conclave to elect the next pope and vowing to fight the charges against him, disgraced Scottish cardinal Keith O’Brien admitted on March 3 to inappropriate “sexual conduct.”
O’Brien, who until his resignation was the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric in England and Scotland, had served as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh for the last seven years and was made a cardinal in 2003.
After a week of turmoil among Scotland’s 700,000 Catholics, the cardinal said in a statement released by the Scottish Catholic Media Office in Glasgow that “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”
