SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

Monday 24 November 2014

SCOTLAND’S newest ­Catholic bishop will take up his new post after almost of a year of being embroiled in an ongoing row involving a controversial fellow cleric.

Pope Francis appointed Father William Nolan as Bishop of Galloway on Saturday.

Father Nolan is currently parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes, East Kilbride and Vicar General of the Diocese of Motherwell, effectively its number two.

But Father Nolan has also been a key player in the fallout surrounding Father Matthew Despard, suspended last year after publishing allegations of homosexual bullying within the Church in the wake of the Cardinal O’Brien sex scandal.

Father Nolan had been charged with taking over his colleagues parish in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, and has been called to give evidence in a case to remove Father Despard from the parish house.