Gay Cardinal - no apology to LGBT people

Gay Cardinal of Scotland Keith O'Brien, who has very recently been caught out and had to resign from his post a month early due to priests alleging he had sex with them, has given a vague sort of apology to those he "offended", the Catholic Church, and the people of Scotland.

I don't know the guy as I've not followed his rantings from afar. We have enough rantings from our own Cardinal Pell here. But I can imagine the usual sort of diatribe that comes out of mouths of bigots like that. Indeed he sounds like quite the quintessential bigot coming out with this shit:

O’Brien has previously compared gay marriage to slavery, claiming it is a ‘violation of human rights’ and slammed its planned introduction by the Scottish and parliament and Westminster as ‘madness’.

He also said gay relationships are inferior and damaging in comparison with straight ones.

In November, Cardinal O’Brien was named ‘Bigot of the Year’ by Stonewall, a UK gay rights charity, due to his outspoken views on marriage equality. more

Being as he was in an enormous position of influence and trust, you'd think as a so called Christian he'd want to make amends to the damage he's caused the LGBT community. Seriously, how many thousands of people have his words alone hurt and damaged over the decades? 

But no. After all he's done to these people (let alone his own priests) he's made no indication that he's going to in any way help gay people and the psychological damage done to them by people like him. In fact he's not even apologised for his actions to inflict such pain on an entire minority within his country. An extraordinary lack of empathy. I don't know the particular situation around him as I said, it being half a world away from here, but it's common knowledge that the sort of hate speech that people like him come out with from the pulpit can contribute to suicide of people struggling to find their sexual identity. But no, no apology to them.

Now the LGBT community over there is demading he do so, at the very fuckin least.

LGBT rights campaigners have demanded Cardinal Keith O'Brien apologizes for his 'vicious' gay hate propaganda after he admitted he had engaged in sexual 'acts' with his own male priests.

While O'Brien has come forward, acknowledging and apologising for sexual misconduct following the allegations by four priests and one former priest, LGBT rights campaigners says this does not go far enough.

Others have suggested he is 'self-loathing' and may need therapy.

In a public statement yesterday (3 March) O'Brien admitted 'that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me' adding: 'To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness'.

He also apologized to 'the Catholic Church and people of Scotland'.

But the Cardinal must also apologize to gay people for his outspoken anti-gay views, say LGBT rights groups.more

It's just not good enough that a man can use religion as a platform to vent his own inner struggles and his personal hatred of who he really is, project that onto the LGBT community over many years, and then not even offer an apology to that community when he gets sprung fucking guys. If he had any conscience at all, an iota of empathy for his fellow man, he'd spend the rest of his life helping repair some of the damage he's done. 

Or is this where he goes to confession and comes out all clean and all like he's done nothing? Just be an asshole to a minority, then say sorry to and imaginary sky man, and magically it's all better? News flash Cardinal, that may be how the church works but it's not how things work in a community where people genuinely care for each other. It takes more than just a sorry, even if he did say it.      

Veteran British human rights activist Peter Tatchell said: 'The Cardinal is a troubled man. I pity him. He needs counselling to help him deal with his decades of deception, and to come to terms with his obvious self-loathing and deeply repressed homosexual desires. 

'O'Brien's statement falls well short of what we would expect from a spiritual leader. 

'He has failed to apologize for the hatred and harm he caused the LGBT community. 

'I urge the Cardinal to show true remorse for his homophobia and hypocrisy by saying sorry to the LGBT community for the hatred and harm he has caused - and by publicly repenting his homophobia. 

'He should make amends by dropping his opposition to marriage equality and by beginning a new gay-affirmative ministry to LGBT Catholics'. more