Cardinal O'Brien's Scandal

Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland

The first day of discussions in the Vatican was again rocked by revelations of scandal. Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien admitted that he had engaged in sexual misconduct not befitting a priest, archbishop or cardinal.

O'Brien resigned last week as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and said he wouldn't participate in the conclave. Four men came forward with allegations that he had acted inappropriately with them. The is first time a cardinal has stayed away from a conclave because of personal scandal.

The Vatican is still reeling from the fallout of the scandal over leaked papal documents, and the investigation by three cardinals into who was behind it.

Some of the cardinals listen to ex-pope Benedict

Italian news reports have been rife with unsourced reports about the contents of the cardinals' dossier. Even if the reports are false, as the Vatican maintains, the leaks themselves confirmed a fairly high level of dysfunction within the Vatican bureaucracy, with intrigues, turf battles and allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the highest levels of the church hierarchy.

In one of his last audiences before resigning, Benedict met with the three cardinals who prepared the report and he decided that their dossier would remain secret. But he gave them the go-ahead to answer cardinals' questions about its contents.

Another topic facing the cardinals is the reason they're here in the first place: Benedict's resignation and its implications. His decision to end 600 years of tradition and retire rather than stay on the job until death has completely altered the concept of the papacy, and cardinals haven't shied from weighing in about the implications for the next pope.