London, England, Aug 28, 2007 / 08:19 am
The spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has resigned from Amnesty International in protest of the organization’s policy promoting abortion.
Cardinal O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, is the second UK bishop to leave the group because of its decision to support the decriminalization of abortion in developing countries.
Just over a week ago, Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia, a member of Amnesty International for 31 years, became the first bishop to withdraw his support.
The cardinal said today that he was resigning as “a matter of conscience and with great sadness”. O’Brien joined Amnesty as a student more than 40 years ago, and explained that throughout his ministry he has been committed to defending life in all circumstances.
Cardinal O’Brien noted that he and all of the bishops of Scotland stressed in the run-up to the recent elections, that Catholics should be committed to life at all stages. “It was not something narrow [protecting the unborn] but something wide and all encompassing. And we said then that: “We believe in a consistent ethic of life. We are pro-life in the fullest sense of that term”.