LONDON — Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric has resigned amid allegations of inappropriate behavior made by priests.

The Vatican said Monday that Pope Benedict XVI had formally accepted the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. The Observer newspaper reported Sunday that the Vatican had been notified of allegations of inappropriate behavior stretching back 30 years.

Three priests in Scotland, as well as a former priest, have lodged complaints to the Vatican's ambassador to Britain and demanded O'Brien's immediate resignation, according to the newspaper.

The 74-year-old cardinal has contested the claims and said he is taking legal advice.

O’Brien had been prepared to resign, citing his age as the cause. He turns 75 on March 17, and the Vatican said the pope had in November accepted a resignation letter under the condition of “nunc pro tunc,” meaning “now for later.”

The Vatican said Monday, however, that the pontiff had now accepted the resignation “definitively.”

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images, file

The Vatican confirmed Monday that it had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Keith O'Brien, 74.

It means O'Brien will not take part in the conclave to elect the pope's successor - a process that could begin earlier than March 15 after the rules governing the process were changed in a move announced Monday.

O’Brien said in a statement that it was the pope himself who had decided his resignation would take effect immediately.

“Approaching the age of 75 and at times in indifferent health, I tendered my resignation … some months ago,” he said. “The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today.”

O'Brien would have been Britain's only elector in the papal conclave that will gather to decide on a successor to Benedict XVI.

"I will not join them for this conclave in person," O'Brien said. "I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me -- but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor."

A hint of O’Brien’s accelerated resignation was found Sunday in Edinburgh, when the cardinal did not appear as scheduled to lead a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Instead, Bishop Stephen Robson made a statement on O’Brien’s behalf.

“A number of allegations of inappropriate behavior have been made against the cardinal,” the statement said. “The cardinal has sought legal advice, and it would be inappropriate to comment at this time. There will be further statements in due course.”

Robson is an auxiliary prelate in the Edinburgh diocese.

O'Brien's statement went on to say: "I have valued the opportunity of serving the people of Scotland and overseas in various ways since becoming a priest. Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologize to all whom I have offended."

Controversy
O’Brien had gained a reputation as a hard-line conservative and opponent of gay rights.

In 2009, O’Brien urged the Scottish National Party to abandon plans to give gay couples the same foster-parenting rights as straight ones, calling the idea “misguided” and saying that gays were known for unstable relationships.

Last year, he wrote an editorial in the Daily Telegraph in which he urged people to stand up against a proposal to allow gay marriage, which he said was “madness.” He referred then to same-sex marriage as a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.”

O’Brien’s stance and other comments led the gay rights group Stonewall UK last year to nominate him for its “Bigot of the Year” award.

“Ten-thousand people overwhelmingly, decisively voted that he should be given that award,” said Colin MacFarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland. “We don’t call people a bigot because they disagree with us. We reserve that for people who use the kind of language the cardinal has used. He has gone out of his way. It has not been fair discourse. His language has been cruel, hurtful and pernicious.”

The group's response to news of O'Brien's resignation was unsurprising.

“We trust there will now be a full investigation into the serious allegations made against Cardinal O’Brien,” MacFarlane said. “We hope his successor will show a little more Christian charity towards openly gay people than the cardinal did himself.”

Two weeks ago, the pope’s brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, said scandals had troubled Benedict XVI and may have contributed to his decision to retire.

He specifically mentioned that Benedict had been bothered by the "Vatileaks" scandal in which a butler leaked secret documents, as well as the "the relationship to the Pius Brotherhood."

That organization, formally known as the Society of St. Pius X, fell into a harsh public spotlight in December when its leader, Bishop Bernard Fellay, said Jews were "the enemies of the church." His comment drew criticism from all corners of the church and from the public in general.

Georg Ratzinger said he thought his brother had handled those problems well but that they had taken their toll.

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This story was originally published on Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:55 AM EST

By Aarne Heikkila, NBC News

The first thing you notice about Blake Leeper is his megawatt smile. The second thing you notice are his prosthetic legs. Leeper was born without feet, ankles and lower leg bones, a congenital birth defect that's set him apart but never slowed him down.

This weekend, Leeper competes in the 200 meters at the Paralympics Games in London and is a top contender for gold. (He also races in the 100 meters, 400 meters and 4x100-meter relay next week.)

Although he's only been running competitively for three years, he's quickly made a name for himself.

Watch the story tonight on NBC Nightly News.

At the Boiling Point Track Classic in Windsor, Canada, in July, Leeper tied the world record in the Paralympic 100 meters with a run of 10.91 seconds. His motivation, he says, is simple. "Every time I step onto the track, whoever's in the stands, whoever's watching, I'm out to prove to them, and prove to myself that I've done it, I've accomplished something great."

NBC News

From left, cameraman Carlos Rigau, Blake Leeper, producer Aarne Heikkila, and correspondent Miguel Almaguer.

Accomplishing the seemingly impossible is nothing new for Leeper. He played basketball and baseball growing up and seems to get pleasure in proving the doubters wrong.

"At birth the doctors said I would never even walk," he says with a grin. 

It is natural to compare Leeper to fellow double below-knee amputee Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, who has blazed trails in competing against able-bodied athletes, most recently at the Olympic Games in London.

At their first head-to-head meeting at the 2011 Paralympic world championships in New Zealand, Leeper came up short, but his coach, Joaquim Cruz, was impressed by what he saw.

'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage 

"(Blake) was right there competing with the giant. He wasn't intimated by the world record holder, he just went to compete, and I said, 'I can work with that.'"

Cruz is optimistic about Leeper's chances in London, but no matter the outcome, he says, Blake's already proven to have the heart of a champion.

"This is a kid who not too long ago was not able to run at all," says Cruz. "They gave him a set of legs and three years later, he's breaking world records."   

David Gray / Reuters

China's Ye Shiwen poses with her gold medal on the podium during the women's 400m individual medley victory ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Center on Saturday.

BEIJING – On the heels of her second gold medal performance, China’s state media have come to the defense of Chinese swimmer, Ye Shiwen, ending their relative silence on the doping allegations that have plagued the young female swimmer since her recording-breaking performance last weekend.

On Saturday night, the 16-year-old Ye demolished the world record in the 400 individual medley, coming from behind to win gold in 4:28.43. Besides swimming that race nearly seven seconds faster than her winning performance at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai last year, she also incredibly outpaced American gold medalist Ryan Lochte’s final 50 in the men’s race by a split-second.

(Watch the 400 IM race here) 

Lochte won the 400 medley with the second-fastest time in history.

Ye’s dominant performance raised eyebrows among some swimming experts, including John Leonard, the head of the American Swimming Coaches Association who openly questioned the legitimacy of Ye’s victory.

“History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I put quotation marks around this, ‘unbelievable,’ history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved,” Leonard was quoted as saying.

Questions were renewed Tuesday after Ye won again, this time breaking her own Olympic record in the 200 IM.  The win made Ye the first two-time gold medal winner in Chinese swimming history.

It also made her a target for pointed questions regarding her impressive performances so far.

By all accounts, Tuesday’s press conference for Ye Shiwen following her 200 IM victory was inundated with questions regarding doping and performance-enhancing drugs.

However, for the Chinese press corps yesterday, the story was not so much Ye’s answers – as the media’s questions.

Chinese outrage
One Chinese account of the press conference noted angrily that toward the end, one Western reporter directly asked Ye, “I’d like to ask you if you doped to win that gold medal. Please answer me directly with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”

According to the report, Ye looked the reporter directly in the eye and shot back, “Absolutely no! Why am I the only one who is suspected of cheating when other foreign athletes also win multiple gold medals?”

The tone of the reporter’s question led to complaints from the furious Chinese press, many of whom felt professional and etiquette boundaries were breached.

“A 16-year-old genius not only can't enjoy her victory, but also has to be subjected to this ‘interrogation,’” one Chinese journalist reportedly said. “As Chinese journalists, we have the right to protest."

One person who did protest was Ye’s father, Ye Qingsong, who told a local Chinese news website here that, "The Western media have always been arrogant, and suspicious of Chinese people."

State media: a ‘deep bias’ by Western media
China’s state media have largely stayed quiet on the subject of doping, only mentioning in passing in some reports the accusations and Ye’s dismissal of them.

But following the press conference, the media stepped up to defend Ye.

China’s reliably nationalist newspaper, Global Times, chimed in with an editorial Wednesday that said negative comments about Ye were rooted in a “deep bias and reluctance from the Western press to see Chinese people making breakthroughs.”

“If Ye were an American, the tone would be different in Western media,” continued the editorial. “Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Games. Nobody seems to question the authenticity of his results, most probably because he is American.”

Nobody that is, except for China’s former Olympic doctor who claimed Tuesday  he long suspected Michael Phelps as a doper, but remained silent because  he had no evidence. 

The Global Times acknowledged the country’s past doping incidents were an understandable source of suspicion towards Ye, but pointedly noted that she has passed doping tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

On China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, coverage of the Olympic Games included an on-air comment from host Zhou Yafei, who noted that Ye had passed her doping test and she hoped “the Western media will change their bias and jealousy.”

Meanwhile, on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, the nearly 2.7 million comments about the embattled swimmer were overwhelming supportive and helped make her the biggest trending topic on the popular microfeed service as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Do they have to be so obvious with their envy?” wrote one poster of the West’s coverage of Ye’s victories.

“All medalists and other athletes are tested at the Games,” wrote another. “It’d be way better if everyone would shut the hell up unless the test finds anyone positive from doping.”

But for many netizens in China, solidarity with Ye has manifested itself in one simple play on her name that has spread around Weibo: “Ye Shiwen = Yes she wins.”

NBC News’ Tianzhou Ye and Joy Li contributed to this report