Cardinal Keith O’Brien is being ordered to leave Scotland for several months and atone for his sexual misconduct with his male priests.

The Vatican has confirmed he will be leaving the country for several months ‘for the purpose of spiritual, prayer and penance’.

In a statement from the Catholic Church, senior colleagues at the Vatican will decide his future.

Friends of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien say he’s been ordered by the Vatican into exile and ditch his plans for retirement in Scotland.

The Herald commented that: ‘It is the clearest indication yet of the Vatican's unwillingness to let the matter drift’ of the Cardinal’s sexual assault on male priests when he run seminaries in the 1980s and during a drinks party in Rome.

The head of the Catholic church in New Zealand has responded to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the country last week.

Archbishop John Dew of Wellington said:

'We find it bizarre that what has been discarded is an understanding of marriage that has its origin in human nature and is common to every culture.'

The Archbishop added 'we know many New Zealanders stand with us in this', Catholic News Agency reports.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has had a second secret meeting with gay rights campaigners as he re-thinks the Anglican Church’s attitude to LGBT people.

And it has emerged that Anglican bishops in Africa – where the church has been criticized for promoting LGBT persecution in some places – have also started to meet with gay Christians.

France’s top Catholic bishop has warned legalizing marriage equality will breed more violence in the country.

Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois told a meeting of French bishops the law, which has been passed by both the National Assembly and the Senate, was a sign society had lost its capability to respect different views.

The archbishop of Paris said the difference between the sexes was a basic human trait and denying it by legalizing marriage equality and adoption for same-sex couples would weaken society further.

Conservatives in the Church of England have paved the way for the clergy to bless gay and lesbian couples entering civil partnerships.

It comes at a time when Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church worldwide, is rumored to be considering formally backing civil partnership ceremonies.

On the holiest day for Christians, Cardinal Timothy Dolan went on a Sunday news program reaffirming the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage while also calling for better messaging from traditional marriage defenders.

The newly elected Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand says that it is too early to say what official stance his church will have on same-sex marriage – but he personally believes that governments have the right to decide whether same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into civil marriages.

Taranaki Bishop Philip Richardson was elected to the role of Archbishop of New Zeakand on Saturday and will jointly head the church with Archbishop Brown Turei, who heads the Maori arm of the church, and Archbishop Winston Halapua – the Bishop of Polynesia.

Reading through the gay press, Facebook and Twitter and talking to friends, there is general bewilderment, anger and some disgust in our community at the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was inspired to join the clergy by an anti-gay American pastor, The Times has claimed.

The British newspaper says the head of the world’s Anglican Christians took holy orders after hearing California Pastor John McClure speak in London.

McClure is a vocal opponent to gay marriage and abortion. He also believes the Apocalypse has started, that the ‘new Babylon’ is on America’s East Coast and will burn in an hour and that the world will end in the first half of this century.

Pope Benedict XVI may have officially resigned, but he will not give up his alleged secret boyfriend.

Personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein, dubbed ‘Gorgeous Georg’, will continue to be the former leader of the Roman Catholic Church’s personal secretary.

Since 2005, the two have had breakfast, lunch, dinner together every day, but not anymore as Gänswein will now be serving both pontiffs.

He will live with Benedict at the monastery inside the Vatican, and keeping his day job as prefect of the new pope’s household.

Britian’s most senior Catholic and a leading opponent of gay and lesbian marriage, Keith O’Brien, has quit after claims he initiated ‘inappropriate acts’ with his priests.

The Vatican is going to investigate the claims.

Four priests, one who has now left the church, have accused the archbishop of ‘inappropriate behavior’ over 30 years.