MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron said Wednesday that he will ask the Vatican to laicize the Rev. Timothy Murray, a Catholic priest suspended from working as a priest because of long-ago child sexual abuse. Murray is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday on child pornography charges.

“I can tell you that I have already determined that I am going to ask that he be dismissed from the clerical state,” said Vigneron, who leads the six-county Detroit archdiocese.

In laicization, the Catholic Church cuts all ties with an individual, who is returned to layperson status.

Murray pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography in July, after a 2012 investigation found large volumes of pornographic movies and images stored on his Novi home computers. Federal prosecutors asked that U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts sentence him to 22 years;…