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Jill Stephenson and Andrew Hook
Catholics across Scotland were eagerly anticipating the possibility that their very own cardinal would become pope in succession to Benedict XVI, whose resignation shocked the world. It was a huge source of pride for them that Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien would be Britain’s only representative eligible to cast a vote at the conclave in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
It put them one up on the English and Welsh that he was the only British prelate with a red hat under the age of 80 who would be in possession of a ballot paper. And it was just possible, although highly improbable, that he himself would be elected to the Throne of St Peter. Scoff if you will, the Scottish faithful told sceptics, but the very fact Cardinal O’Brien was going to be in the Vatican taking part in the election meant he could be the next pope. He was in it and could very well win it, they said.
The foundations of their joy trembled ever so slightly however when it was revealed at the weekend that four priests – one of them now married – from his own archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh had accused Cardinal O’Brien of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards them. Although he immediately contested these allegations, the tremors increased when he failed to show up in his own cathedral of St Mary’s on Sunday morning. He was scheduled to preach a homily he had carefully prepared to praise the achievements of Pope Benedict during his eight-year reign. Copies of the sermon had been circulated by the cardinal with instructions for it to be read out at services throughout the archdiocese.
In the Jesuit church of the Sacred Heart at Lauriston, where I attended mass, the priest said it was Cardinal O’Brien’s wish that his words should be heard by everyone. And he asked for the congregation’s prayers for the success of the conclave. There was no hint at that stage that he would not be travelling to Rome to cast his vote for the new pope. It was only later that it emerged that his recently appointed auxiliary, Bishop Stephen Robson, had been sent to the cathedral at the eleventh hour to step into his shoes. It was the bishop’s unenviable task to inform the large congregation, which predictably included a number of journalists, that His Eminence would not be turning up.
I have been around resignations of important people previously in my role as a journalist and as special adviser to one first minister, Henry McLeish, who resigned suddenly. It struck me immediately that something remarkable was happening on Sunday: that the cardinal’s media handlers had kept him away to spare him the indignity of being ‘monstered’ by reporters and cameramen on the steps of his own cathedral. What next? I wondered.
I was genuinely shocked when word emerged yesterday morning that the cardinal had resigned with immediate effect. This was because it had come across very clearly to me in his homily the previous day that he was looking forward to being present at the conclave. I thought the homily said more about Cardinal O’Brien than it did about Pope Benedict.
Cardinal O’Brien is no shrinking violet and he has always enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the big occasion, dressing up in scarlet and purple vestments and being in the media spotlight. The conclave was going to be another day in the sun for him and all the indications were that he would revel in it, just as he had during the papal visit to Scotland two years ago. What he has never enjoyed, or looked comfortable with, were suggestions that the Catholic Church in Scotland was in any way involved in the sexual abuse of children.
Unlike Ireland, where he was born and where clerical abuse was widespread, Scotland had experienced little of this and what there had been had been dealt with promptly and properly in his view.
It was something about which he would brook no criticism and anyone suggesting anything to the contrary received short shrift from him. Just as did those people who opposed his views on gay marriage, gay adoption, assisted suicide and abortion, which he religiously and roundly condemned. His views caused him to be despised in some quarters and to be labelled a bigot by his sternest critics.
Like many observers of the Catholic Church in Scotland, I was surprised last week when the cardinal spoke out in favour of priests being allowed to marry. And then I thought this was the old silver fox throwing his mitre into the ring for the papal election.
If he wasn’t the best known cardinal around St Peter’s Square before this, he would certainly be talked about now.
It was clear to me at least that when he accepted the appointment of Bishop Robson as his auxiliary last year Cardinal O’Brien had every intention of staying in post well beyond the official retirement age of 75. He said just a week ago though that he was looking forward to spending his imminent retirement – his birthday is on 17 March, St Patrick’s Day – in the seaside town of Dunbar.
However, even though he gave up the presidency of the Scottish Conference of Bishops to Glasgow’s recently installed Archbishop Philip Tartaglia because of increasing ill health – he has heart problems – he was still viewed by many as a ‘kingmaker’ in the Church. And he would have expected to have played a part in the selection of new bishops for the dioceses of Paisley, Galloway, Dunkeld and Motherwell and an auxiliary bishop for Glasgow. Now his own diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh can be added to the list of vacant or soon to be vacant bishoprics, which will have to be filled by the new pope.
The Catholic Church in Scotland may be stunned by what has happened, but it will not consider itself a church in crisis. The Barque of Peter complete with Saltire flying proudly at its masthead will sail on determinedly as it has always done, buffeted but not beaten by the storm that has this week engulfed it.
Bill Heaney is an award-winning journalist who has worked in the media in the Catholic Church in Scotland and as a special adviser on media matters at Holyrood and Westminster
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