SCOTLAND
Scotsman
A PRIEST who wrote a controversial book claiming there was a culture of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church in Scotland has been suspended.
Parishioners at St John Ogilvie’s Church in High Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, reportedly reacted angrily and walked out after being told shortly before mass that their parish priest Father Matthew Despard had been removed from the ministry.
Father Despard alleged in his self-published memoir Crisis In The Priesthood that sexual misconduct had been rife for decades in seminaries where teenagers train for the priesthood.
Parishioners had been greeted by a weeping Father Despard outside the church as they arrived for the 4:30pm mass on Saturday. Bishop Joseph Toal, Acting Bishop of the Diocese of Motherwell, read out a statement informing them “a penal judicial process” had been instituted against Father Despard.
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