CND campaigner Monsignor Bruce Kent backs scandal hit Archbishop

Cardinal O'Brien resigned two years ago over allegations he had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with junior priests.

The CND vice president said: "Cardinal O'Brien has lost his job, status and public respect. He has made his remorse clear. Do we need more anonymous allegations?

"Could we not now just pray for him and hope that he will find other ways of living out his Christian calling?

"Whatever his failings, the man I knew was, and I'm sure is now, warm hearted, generous, approachable and hospitable."

Cardinal O'Brien attended a number of Easter rallies over a long number of years protesting against the continuing presence of nuclear weapons at the Clyde Naval Base at Faslane and Coulport.

Mgr Kent "He was also brave enough to speak out, without ifs and buts, about the immorality of weapons of mass destruction - both the threats and the use."

It has been speculated that there were as many as 40 victims, mainly priests and seminarians, of the Cardinal.

An editorial in the paper the Catholic journal The Tablet suggested: "The victims of O'Brien's sexual misconduct, mainly fellow clergy, suffered greatly. They felt trapped and powerless because of his seniority.

"It is still not clear how many there were - around 40 has been suggested - and though the new archbishop will need time to address all the issues, there is nothing in place so far that looks likely to give the victims justice.

"It is suggested that many of the 40 have not made formal allegations, though they are known to fellow victims. That indicates a lack of confidence in the Church's procedures for dealing with such complaints."

The new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, described the actions of his predecessor, who has apologised for his sexual failings, as damaging the Church's credibility and demoralising Catholics.

The Vatican recently announced announced that Cardinal O'Brien had renounced the rights and privileges of a cardinal, though he retained that title.

Cardinal O'Brien has been accused of sexual misconduct by five men, four of them priests.

The Tablet said it has spoken to one of the priest accusers of Cardinal O'Brien who said there were multiple incidents of sexual misconduct by the cardinal against seminarians and young clergy.

Father Hugh Sommerville Knapman, a Benedictine priest based at Douai Abbey in Berkshire, told the newspaper: "You labelled Cardinal O'Brien a hypocrite on the basis that, as a "gay" man, he nevertheless "outspokenly attacked the proposal for gay marriage".

"Surely it is not hypocrisy but courage that moves a man to rise above his own self-interest to affirm publicly the teaching of the Church he was ordained to serve. More worthy of the label hypocrite is the man who accepts all the rights and privileges of pastoral office in the Church and then sows doubt about church teaching in order to court favour with the secular establishment.

"Hypocrisy, like beauty, seems now to lie in the eye of the beholder. However, the Church will be in serious danger indeed if her members blithely accept the principle that Christian teaching must conform to human behaviour, rather than human behaviour conform to Christian teaching."

Mgr Kent's intervention is not the first time he has defended a Scottish cardinal. Speaking shortly after the death of the Archbishop of Glasgow in 2001, Cardinal Thomas Winning, praised his work in supporting the anti-nuclear movement.

He described him as "always absolutely staunch on this issue, as he was on poverty and much else. He made many unfortunate statements on homosexuality, but I think he was an admirable man who had a very big problem with that particular issue. I'm sorry he's gone at this crucial time in the anti-war movement''.