Whitewash at the Whitehouse


Once upon a time one of America's more infamous Presidents - Richard 'Tricky Dicky' Nixon - reassured his fellow Americans in the wake of the Watergate scandal with the immortal words - "There will  be no 'whitewash' at the Whitehouse".

If only the same sentiment applied at another 'white house' - the Vatican - where another scandal is brewing as one Pope retires and a 'conclave of cardinals' gets ready to select his successor - after much prayer and communing with God.

Yet according to the latest news reports a 'whitewash' operation has been underway at the Vatican for some time - after complaints were made to the now retired Pope (Benedict XVI - aka Joseph Ratzinger) - about inappropriate behaviour by the UK Cardinal Keith O'Brien.

For example, The Times newspaper reported yesterday that a claim of 'inappropriate behaviour' towards a priest in 2001 - was lodged with the Vatican in October 2012.

According to The Times the priest making the complaint wrote directly to the Vatican  last autumn because he did not think he could trust the church hierarchy in Scotland - to handle the matter.

The report goes on to say that the allegation was taken seriously and in a 'deal' brokered by Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Montreal - Cardinal O’Brien agreed to resign, but deferred leaving office until his birthday in March 2013.

Apparently Cardinal O’Brien spoke openly of his resignation months before his departure, citing ill health - but had previously indicated he would continue to serve beyond his 75th birthday in March 2013.

Now instead of doing a deal which allowed Cardinal O'Brien to retire from office 'gracefully' - you would have thought the first and proper thing for the church authorities to do - would have been to investigate and test the allegations.

Especially after all the recent scandals involving paedophile priests - and subsequent allegations about senior figures within the Catholic Church doing their best to sweep these matters under the carpet.

So all these months later there appears to be no official investigation underway - never mind the results of an investigation - and two of the key people involved (Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal O'Brien) have both resigned and left their respective positions.

Now if that's not a 'whitewash' at the White House - then I don't know what is.

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