When one thing isn't something else.

With Cardinal OBrien riding off into the sunset there are a few questions that should really be addressed about his conduct.

The main one being was his behaviour in fact criminal?

He sexually harassed, and it would appear sexually assaulted, those who held positions below him in the Roman Catholic Churches hierarchy.

He has as much as admitted it now with a sort of bland apology.

Now that's a whole can of worms opened up right there.

Some are happy about the revelations as they can use it to sharpen the knives they wish to stick into the RCC.

Meanwhile others are deeply unhappy about it, and are ludicrously claiming that any negative assessment of what has happened is an attack on their personal faith.

I'm not sure what Jesus would say about that, but it may well be a query about why the wandering hands of one man has anything to do with him or his father, or the Holy Ghosts or even all three of them at the same time.

From the outside looking in it would appear that those using the story to attack the RCC have a little more ammunition on their side due to the continued inability for the organization to accept criticism, or address wrong doing by those within their ranks.

It's a problem that they share with apparently all religious groups though.

Sadly though all that talk is slowly doing little more than distancing the debate from the crux of the problem.

Here we have a man who used his position to abuse others.

Let us just leave everything else to the side just now and focus on that.

Consider if the same behaviour was displayed by the manager of a retail outlet.

Would an acceptance of being in the wrong, and an apology, be enough to avoid some serious questions being asked, or criminal charges being considered?

I'm not so sure.

If anyone attempts to paint it any differently due to the position that O'Brien held then there's something far wrong with that.

His actions have nothing to do with the molestation of children, or the fraud issues that have plagued the Vatican, nor have they anything to do with the Magdalene sisters scandal.

Of course there is an overlap in how these issues are treated internally by the RCC, but as I have said let us just set that aside and dispassionately consider what we have, and what we have is a hypocritical man who used his power to satisfy his own urges.

Urges that are not unnatural, but could have been indulged in without stooping to using abuse to quench them.

On that basis I would expect that there should be some legal consequences, but I will not be holding my breath as I wait for them.