report ‘hot enough to burn the varnish’ off the Pope’s desk

ROME
Wall Street Journal

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
March 20, 2015

ROME—A Scottish cardinal who admitted sexual misconduct has given up the right to vote in any future papal conclave following a Vatican investigation of his actions, in one of the most significant outcomes of the pope’s efforts to hold church leadership accountable.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who until 2013 presided over the archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, gave up the “rights and privileges of cardinal,” including voting in a papal election—the most important power exercised by cardinals—and advising the pope on governance of the Catholic Church, the Vatican announced Friday.

The move, which the Scottish bishops’ conference called “unprecedented,” followed an investigation into claims that Cardinal O’Brien had had inappropriate sexual contact with seminarians under his authority in the 1980s.

No cardinal has experienced such a demotion since 1927, when French Cardinal Louis Billot resigned after friction with the Vatican over his involvement in French politics. Unlike Cardinal Billot, Cardinal O’Brien will retain his title. But he will lose the prerogatives ordinarily attached to it.

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