Was the cardinal's confession and resignation a missed opportunity for the Church? There are good reasons why Cardinal Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien of Scotland should have participated in the last Conclave.
(I'll get to that in a minute.)
Instead, he resigned as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh just
before the papal election got underway. Four men had gone public and
accused him of pressuring them into having sex years ago when they were
junior priests (one was actually an adult seminarian). The papers ran
wild with the story and the cardinal could no longer deny it.
http://www.globalpulsemagazine.com/news/in-defense-of-cardinal-keith-obrien-sort-of/980
http://www.globalpulsemagazine.com/news/in-defense-of-cardinal-keith-obrien-sort-of/980