SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Angela McManus
Monday 18/11/2013

THE suspension of a priest who spoke out about alleged homosexual bullying in the Catholic church led to a furious congregation walking out of mass in protest.

Only a handful of parishioners remained to take mass at St John Ogilvie’s Church in High Blantyre yesterday with the Archdiocese of Motherwell’s acting Bishop Joseph Toal after Father Matthew Despard was removed from his ministry the night before.

Before they went into church, people signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of Father Despard, suspended for writing a controversial memoir that claimed there is a culture of homosexual bullying in the church.

When Bishop Toal, accompanied by Father William Nolan, tried to take mass, Geraldine Penches said she wanted to make a statement and received a roar of applause from the congregation in a packed church in which many stood at the back.