LONDON — Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has been accused of committing ‘‘inappropriate acts’’ in his relations with three priests and one former priest, the Observer newspaper reported Sunday. The accusations, which date to the 1980s, have been forwarded to the Vatican.

The newspaper said that the four men had made their complaints to the pope’s diplomatic representative in Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, and that the complaints had reached Mennini in the week before Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation on Feb. 11.