Holy Cow! (No pun intended). This is massive.

From what I read, he wasn't molesting under aged boys, but by the standards of his church was acting inappropriately towards the young priests at the seminary. So, if this is true, his crime is one of extreme hyprocricy.

That Cardinal is so opposed to marriage equality and spoke out against it in such unmeasured terms that he was named the bigot of the year last year by Stonewall UK.

His interest ran to priests.

And yes, it stunned me too. One can hope this signals a sea change in how the church moves forward with regard to sexual misconduct within its ranks...but for as surprised as I am, I remain a cynic.

Of course when this hypocritical liar wanted to do his part to castigate LGBT people who live honestly and openly, he did far more than mumble and leave the stage, he built his career in a homophobic organization and used that as a platform to gain great personal power, which he then abused.
I don't see much worth in this sort of half muttered exit line from those who spent years doing harm and spreading hatred. He specialized in hyperbolic and vicious attacks shouted in the press for full attention:

A year ago the cardinal put on record his view that gay marriage was a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21572564

At the same time, he didn't have to make this admission. He could easily have done as the Pope and slipped into monastic retirement, never to be heard from again.

Let's face it. He only admitted it because evidence is at hand. Those words I posted of his were just a few months ago. When he said that he was fully aware of his own actions and fully in desire of more power to abuse.
It is a simple fact that the words of hate he spoke for so long were delivered with vehemence while his admission only comes after much denial, begrudgingly and without any actual sign of remorse or of intention to rectify his great vicious self service, which he did in the name of God, no less.

But he did, and as we know he's far from the only one. And the Catholic Church isn't alone in its hate and hypocrisy. I totally agree with your rage and feel it too.

At the same time his admission is a stunning departure from business as usual within the church on these matters. Like I said, he didn't have to admit a thing; he could have gone to his grave without uttering a word. By no means does it make up for all the harm he's done. But I can respect it without condoning all the rest.

Tell me, how in Catholic theology is one's actions mitigated by other people doing the same? You wish to ignore that the man is all over the press, lawyers told him to step down, not to got to Rome, and law suits are pending. The notion that a man in his position is being generous to confess that he did something wrong is ludicrous. He is trying to save as much of his own skin as he can, as fast as he can and only because others brought his truth to light.
There is nothing worthy of praise in this action. Nothing. And I find the 'others did it too' defense to be chillingly out of place.

Demonizing the LGBT community occurs in other religions too.

He made himself rich and powerful on the backs of good people. Outside the odd world of faith, people see actions as definitive of that which is inside of a person. His actions expressed great hate and intolerance for others and a view of himself that involved splendorous garments and people fawning over him. Seems to me he hated others as actively as he indulged himself.
Why is he not going to do penance in the form of service to those he attacked for his own advancement? Because he wants to go indulge himself some more. Good lord almighty

I rely on the people who know the truth to know what's going on in these issues.

My advice to those who are upset by these events is that so much more is coming out that they might want to think carefully prior to helping mitigate some of these horrible people's horrible actions. It would be prudent not to take up the defense of men whose truths are still unspoken.
This one left upon advice from his lawyers, who also said he should not dare vote in the conclave. So the rest of the story is unknown.

he forbade to use birth control because it broke the rules?

He compared the rate of abortion to "two Dunblane massacres a day".

Dunblane was a mass shooting at a school.

He also wanted women who wanted termination of pregnancy to be shown ultrasound scans of their unborn baby.

have at it. Believe it and do it. But conservative estimates say that at least half of them are not. And at the same time, they are insisting that their followers follow their rules to the letter, at great physical, emotional and financial cost.

It takes a special kind of sociopathy to insist that others follow the rules that you won't.

"If you're Lifschitz, then my ass whistles"

...and he could have continued denying he did anything wrong.

I might have a SMIDGEN of sympathy for him if he owned up to the allegations before the story was broken in the media.

But no, he devoted his professional life to screwing over other gay people that had the courage to live more openly than he did. Keep in mind he still hasn't apologized for being a raging bigot, only for having gay sex as if that was the real problem here.

And it doesn't matter if no one believes the denial. That doesn't stop any of them from continuing to deny misconduct. What matters - at least to me - is the admission. Even if it's only for this one thing he's done wrong it still matters, because it's so unlike anyone in the Catholic Church to come clean. He didn't have to. And hopefully it will have good repercussions.

Just wow!

...I seem to recall something in the Bible about "thou shalt not lie".

...and I think it was one of the biggies.

And the Church shouldnt let him "retire" with no punishment. He should be excommunicated.

We will never know what the Cardinal is guilty of, since Savile is dead. Papers are sensationalizing it, but waited until Savile died, then piled on untouchable people. Read if you have the stomach for it:

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Axed-Cardinal-OBrien-was-close-friends-with-child-sex-monster-Jimmy-Savile-193252531.html

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/bbc-censored-online-accusations-jimmy-1724679

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/46782/bbc-inquiry-begins-as-jimmy-saville-sex-abuse-scandal-grows

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20081021

...will finally be forced to answer to some of this horror. And seeing the Catholic Church brought down would be nice too, but I won't hold my breath for that.

Might ready the next generation to be more careful with whom they give their trust or adoration.

The investigation will continue for a while.

And only the dead are untouchable.

just sayin'

It would be wasteful not to use it.

But first, go to prison...

Still, at least it wasn't aimed at little boys for a change.