March 2013: Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned from his position as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after a newspaper published unnamed priests’ accounts of unspecified inappropriate behaviour. Cardinal Keith O’Brien who served as Britain’s highest-ranking Roman Catholic leader acknowledged unspecified sexual misbehaviour and promised to play “no further part” in the public life of the Catholic church. The Church of Scotland issued a statement quoting O’Brien as stating that there had been times “that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”O’Brien initially rejected the claims, stating he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave which is due to pick a new pope.

O’Brien gave no clue as to what exactly his sexual misbehaviour consisted of but O’Brien’s time as cardinal ended as it began in controversy. In 2003, as a condition of being made a cardinal, he was forced to issue a public pledge to defend church teaching on homosexuality, celibacy and contraception. He was pressured to make the pledge after he had called for a “full and open discussion” on such matters. At the time, O’Brien stated he had been misunderstood and wanted to clarify his position. However previous statements made before the scandal over his behaviour broke, O’Brien stated celibacy should be reconsidered because it’s not based on doctrine but rather church tradition and “is not of divine origin.

March 2012: Cardinal William Levada, who heads the Vatican’s office to ensure doctrinal orthodoxy, met with Bishop Bernard Fellay, who leads the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X. The Vatican has told the head of the breakaway group of traditionalists that they have so far failed to overcome doctrinal differences blocking their return to the Catholic church fold.

The Society has opposed the Vatican’s decades-long outreach to Jews, Muslims and members of other faiths. More broadly, it opposes the liberalizing reforms the Vatican enacted in the 1960s. Pope Benedict XVI is striving for church unity.

The Vatican stated that Fellay’s group has been given until mid-April “to reflect and clarify” its position.

February 2012: The Vatican took over the Legion of Christ in 2010 after the order revealed that its founder had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children. Now the female branch of the scandal-plagued Legion of Christ religious order is in turmoil following the resignation of its director and the decision of a group of 30 members to split off from the movement.

The Vatican launched an investigtion into the women’s branch after discovering problems in their highly regimented life. The Legion confirmed that Malen Oriol had resigned as the assistant to the Legion’s general director. In that role, Oriol headed the Legion’s branch of consecrated women. Beloved by Pope John Paul II for its orthodoxy, six hundred [600] women live like nuns working in Legion schools, recruiting and fundraising.