The Hybrid Cardinal
May 15, 2008
There is a curious anomaly about Cardinal Keith O'Brien. Here is a man who defended the notorious radio-priest, Fr 'Andy' Monaghan when he effectively condoned fornication, abortion, and divorce on his phone-in radio programme, and yet now he has been made Cardinal, he is forever 'grabbing the headlines' by complaining about the self-same things! By Iain Colquhoun.
'SHAMELESS SCOTLAND - A NATION LIVING IN SIN - CARDINAL LAUNCHES ASTONISHING ATTACK ON 'OBSESSION' WITH SEX' – a 'Mail on Sunday' headline on 21/12/03 - was a typical example. His latest protest is at the Government's plans to permit human hybrid embryo experimentation - so perhaps this is an appropriate time to look at his own early development, to see how such an 'anomaly' came to be. What has led up to such 'hybrid' behaviour?
His behaviour, I think, is inextricably linked with the career of Fr Andrew Monaghan. This link developed, I would suggest, from 1975 when Fr Monaghan started broadcasting a religious affairs programme called 'View From Earth' on Radio Forth. It is relevant to point out that Fr Monaghan's uncle was Auxiliary Bishop to Cardinal Gray, and that this relationship afforded Monaghan the opportunity to influence the Cardinal directly or indirectly.
After three years, the programme began to adopt a more challenging stance towards Catholicism, even at times criticising Pope John Paul II. It was supposed to promote ecumenism but Monaghan made it a platform for his own liberal viewpoints. However, the stark fact was that Cardinal Gray – on whose permission his radio career had depended - was due to retire in seven years. Unless he was succeeded by someone suitably 'liberal', there was a danger that his radio activities would be curtailed for ever. But with his access to the Cardinal, he would have been well-placed to proffer the name of a friend from student days at the Seminary, someone who was as liberal as he, and thus inclined to support him..
Enter Fr Keith Patrick O'Brien, a near contemporary of Monaghan's at the local seminary and, until 1978, a curate at his home parish at Bathgate.. O'Brien has a basic science degree (BSc) and after ordination had taken a Diploma in Education, enabling him to teach science in a local girls' school. But in 1978 he was appointed as spiritual director of the above Seminary at Drygrange. This pastoral role would have conferred a clear clerical status.
The following year, Fr Monaghan took part in a new phone-in programme on Radio Forth called 'The Open Line', as one of its counsellors. Advice given by Fr Monaghan on this programme provoked complaints by Catholics. Significantly the following year, 1980, Fr O'Brien moved up a step of the ladder, being appointed Rector of the Scottish Junior Seminary near Aberdeen. Such a post would have enabled him to develop the necessary administrative skills.
When 1985 came, Cardinal Gray had still not announced his retirement, nor the name of his successor. But on 28th of May, the local Scottish press ran an exposé of Monaghan headed 'AGONY UNCLE PRIEST UNDER FIRE' about his advising pregnant women to an abortion-referral facility and his referring homosexuals to a 'gay'organisation with links to a paedophile group'. This exposé was a result of a leafleting campaign by Hamish Fraser and me revealing Fr Monaghan's advice broadcast on his 'Open Line' programme. When Cardinal Gray saw this, he must have known that the time had come for him to 'face the music' regarding the cleric he had protected. But he took the coward's way out, and on the 30th May he announced his retirement, naming his successor as Fr O'Brien. However this appointment came hastily, while he was still merely 'Father O'Brien', thus making an abrupt change from Fr. to Archbishop-designate.
Instead of a more senior cleric - someone with a well-established profile within the archdiocese - this comparative 'unknown' was appointed archbishop. The anomaly of his rank was soon remedied by his being made a Monsignor. From then on he refused to accept evidence sent re Fr Monaghan, and has given total support to his confrere until the present day.
Thus the key 'pointer' to O'Brien having committed himself to defending Fr Monaghan is the fact that Gray 'deserted the field' when the press exposed Monaghan's activities - leaving O'Brien to defend him. Within two days of the Daily Record printing its exposé, Gray appointed O'Brien to take over.
This is consistent with what we know of Cardinal Gray's personality. He was someone who simply hated having to make decisions, and had no 'stomach for a fight'. Those in pro-life groups had no support from Gray. He never attended their marches even one led by Mother Teresa of Calcutta! His debility regarding governance of his clergy was well-known. For example, he left a compulsive alcoholic priest, as Administrator of the Cathedral. On another occasion I had to ask him to appoint a new Chaplain to a hospital as the then chaplain was refusing to bring the Sacraments to the sick and dying!
Clearly Gray sought above all to avoid confrontation, and such a personality could easily be 'led' by someone as forceful and persuasive as Fr Monaghan. For one thing, Gray must have succumbed to Monaghan's persuasive talents to give him permission to accept a role as an 'agony uncle' on the radio. Then, when laymen complained, even to the Vatican, that Monaghan was advising pregnant women to use the 'Brook Advisory Centre', an abortion referral agency among other things, Gray willingly went to the Vatican to persuade them of Monaghan's orthodoxy and win their approval for his broadcasts. The same propensity for covering-up emerged when O'Brien took office. I have a letter from O’Brien to me in July 1985, writing from the Junior Seminary at Blairs near Aberdeen, in reply to my request to send him evidence of Monaghan’s scandalous advice on ‘The Open Line’. O’Brien declined the offer. He soon affirmed his support in other ways. After his consecration he appointed Fr Monaghan as his Episcopal Vicar for Communications with the powers of a Vicar-General (Ad Clerum 21.11.85).
At the same time he wrote to concerned laymen denying that Fr Monaghan was contravening church teachings in his radio advice, and denying that the ‘gay group’ Monaghan recommended, had links with a paedophile group! O'Brien claimed instead that Monaghan was ‘doing God’s work and the Pope’s’ (as quoted by Hamish Fraser in Approaches 93/94, 1986). Indeed in another letter O’Brien claimed that 'Open Line' provided Fr Monaghan with an opportunity to spread the Gospel! So while the taped evidence proves that Monaghan disregarded Church teachings, O'Brien claimed otherwise..
But the personalities aside, the key piece of evidence is that coincidence of dates in May 1985 following the exposé on 28th, when Gray announced his retirement and the fact that he was to be succeeded by Fr Keith O'Brien: one moment a ‘Fr’ in Blairs Seminary - the next designated as Gray’s successor.
And the rest as they say is history. From that time on, O’Brien has defended Fr Monaghan, even refusing to comply with the Vatican’s request to remove him from broadcasting - thus setting back his elevation to the Cardinalate for years (or perhaps, in the light of Vatican politics, securing it) - but an honour which was finally bestowed on him in 2003, as the Pope was suffering a terminal illness, and in circumstances that posed grave concerns, as his nomination 'circumvented' the scrutiny of curial Cardinals including the present Pope. No matter, the cardinalate has projected him into the very corridors of Church power, and no doubt his tendency to grab the press headlines by championing moral causes, suggests that his final ambition is the papacy itself - he is in effect establishing a name for himself in the papal stakes. It is also significant that since his elevation, 'Open Line' no longer deals with sexual problems from teenagers, but features the same elderly people calling in with concerns about their pets or about vandalism!
It almost suggests that after the elevation Monaghan undertook to improve his programme, in order not to sabotage O'Brien's chance of impressing his fellow-Cardinals with his papal credentials. O'Brien's actions correlate with those of one 'pitching to be pope' - and heaven help the Church if he succeeds.
(A version of this article appeared in 'Christian Order' May 2008.)
Iain Colquhoun - (for transcripts of Fr Monaghan's advice on 'The Open Line' programme see www.solvesecret.co.uk).
The Hybrid Cardinal