Scotland’s cardinal scandal casts an extended shadow as conclave starts

The vote casting procedure to elect a brand new Pope, which is getting below method in Rome, would be the 2d conclave in a row with no cardinal from Scotland.

Experts imagine Scotland remains to be within the “sin bin” with The Vatican after the rustic’s final cardinal, Keith O’Brien, used to be compelled to surrender as a result of sexual misconduct allegations.

In February 2013, Cardinal O’Brien used to be about to participate within the historic custom of electing a pope – and his enthusiasm used to be there for all to peer.

During an interview with BBC Scotland News he confirmed off the neat brown oblong vote casting paper for use in the name of the game poll.

But it might without end stay clean.

Cardinal O’Brien, who on the time used to be the Catholic Church’s maximum senior cleric in Britain, were because of meet his friends to come to a decision who used to be to switch Pope Benedict XVI – however he by no means made it at the aircraft to Rome.

The 74-year-old Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh resigned days earlier than the conclave following The Observer newspaper’s allegations of beside the point behaviour against clergymen relationship again to the 1980s.

The scandal sparked international media consideration and rocked the Catholic Church at a time when all eyes will have to had been on Rome’s Sistine Chapel and the method that at last noticed Pope Francis elected.

It used to be a seismic blow to Scotland’s status within the Catholic Church after many years of arguably punching above its weight.

Scotland has simplest ever had a handful of cardinals. The Reformation, which ended in restrictions on practicing Catholicism lasting centuries, used to be in large part in charge.

Even when the Catholic Church used to be officially re-established in Scotland in 1878, virtually a century handed earlier than such an appointment could be made once more.

The conventional purple cardinal hat used to be passed to Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Gordon Gray. He took phase in two conclaves – August and October 1978, which noticed Popes John Paul I and John Paul II elected respectively.

But Cardinal Gray’s crowning second used to be in 1982 when Scotland welcomed a serving Pope for the primary time.

On a roasting summer time’s day, an estimated 300,000 folks accrued in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park for a Papal Mass celebrated via John Paul II.

The subsequent cardinal appointed in Scotland used to be Thomas Winning, a miner’s son from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire.

Earning the nickname “Cardinal Controversy” for his interventions on social problems – together with clashing with Prime Minister Tony Blair on abortion – he died in 2001 with out collaborating in a conclave.

His alternative used to be Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who had labored his method up the church’s hierarchy earlier than being proclaimed a cardinal via Pope John Paul II in 2003.

Cardinal O’Brien took phase within the 2005 conclave which elected Pope Benedict XVI after which 5 years later welcomed the German-born pontiff to an open-air Mass, once more at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

The clergyman, who used to be born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, used to be at the trail to retirement when the scandal that used to be to finish his occupation broke in early 2013.

The Observer first reported the allegations of 4 people who accused Cardinal O’Brien of beside the point sexual behaviour throughout the Diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

The Herald newspaper later steered that the cardinal had used confession via younger clerics as a tool for sexual grooming.

He contested the allegations, however in his resignation commentary there used to be an indirect connection with the claims.

“For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended,” he mentioned.

While the church had authorized his resignation from prime administrative center it allowed him to stay his cardinal moniker.

After the general public highlight light, he to begin with lived in a retirement house in East Lothian.

He then moved to the north east of England the place in March 2018, on the age of 80, he suffered a fall and later died.

His Requiem Mass came about in Newcastle and his stays had been laid to relaxation together with his oldsters at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Edinburgh.

Mario I Aguilar, Professor of Religion and Politics at St Andrews University, who wrote a biography of Pope Francis, says the Scottish cardinal scandal nonetheless looms huge.

“Scotland has one peccadillo and that is Cardinal O’Brien,” he says.

“Cardinal O’Brien was the only cardinal in the history of the church who was sacked, so we have a stain or whatever you want to call it.

“There used to be scandal in Rome and subsequently they puzzled, what to do with the Scots?

“It was clear that the Vatican had had enough and therefore they sent Archbishop Cushley to intervene.”

Leo Cushley used to be appointed Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and promised a length of “reconciliation and healing” for Scotland’s Catholics.

Stephen McGinty, a documentary manufacturer and writer of This Turbulent Priest, a biography of Cardinal Thomas Winning, is of the same opinion that the O’Brien scandal nonetheless casts a shadow.

“People forget that at the time he was the highest ranking figure in the Catholic Church to be sucked into this kind of behaviour. It was a world scandal.

“Scotland has an extended custom of Catholicism and up till O’Brien it used to be seen smartly,” he said.

Mr McGinty said there had been a clear approach by The Vatican when it came to Scotland’s cardinal status.

“Cardinal Winning used to be informed that the Vatican’s point of view used to be that Scotland used to be break free England and Wales so it will have to all the time get a purple hat, rotating between Glasgow and Edinburgh relying on who had essentially the most senior determine.

“I have no doubt Scotland will get a red hat in the future, we’re just in the sin bin at the moment.”

For the primary time in historical past, fewer than part of the cardinals given a vote within the conclave to come to a decision who will lead the arena’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholic will probably be European.

This displays the truth the expansion spaces of the church are in Africa and Asia.

Professor Aguilar is much less positive in regards to the prospect of some other Scottish cardinal any time quickly.

He mentioned: “I don’t see how someone is going to let Scotland in again when there are other growing places like in Africa, for example.

“We are an excessively small nation, there are 5 million Scots and 1.4 billion Catholics – you need to be sensible.”

If the case for appointing new cardinals under the next Pope is a numbers game then Scotland’s case is not helped by its declining Catholic population.

The final census confirmed, for the primary time, {that a} majority of folks in Scotland don’t seem to be spiritual.

The change has been driven by a sharp decline in the number of people describing themselves as being Church of Scotland or Roman Catholic.

The number of Roman Catholics is down by more than 117,000 in the past decade and now stands at 13.3% of the population.

Attendance at Mass has also dropped steeply. The annual Catholic Directory for Scotland reported that the average weekly Mass attendance in 1997 was 235,613.

By 2023, this had fallen to 95,029 – part of a downward trend believed to have been accelerated by the Covid pandemic restrictions.

In the same year, there were an average of just 15 Catholic weddings a week across Scotland.

Archbishop Cushley, who became Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in September 2013, has been described as “a protected pair of palms” by Mr McGinty.

Having spent most of his career as a diplomat for The Vatican, it is perhaps not surprising that the 63-year-old’s tenure as an archbishop has been relatively low profile and controversy-free.

However, he has not been made a cardinal.

Archbishop Cushley is probably Scotland’s best chance of holding a voting card in future conclaves – but it will all hinge on his links to the next Pope and how long The Vatican takes to forget and forgive the “stain” of the O’Brien scandal.