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	Convicted Priest Was Never Returned to Lay State Todmorden News October 9, 2010 http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news/Convicted-priest-was-never-returned.6573438.jp After the death of a former Todmorden priest, who was convicted of serious sexual offences, a man has questioned why he was never laicised - returned to lay status - by the Diocese of Salford. Thomas Doherty, the former priest of St Joseph's Church, was given a six year prison sentence in February 1998, after being found guilty of five counts of committing serious offences of indecency against a boy under 16, but was never stripped of his title. However Phillip Gilligan, of Littleborough, who runs an online blog called Concerned About Abuse in the Diocese of Salford, which "provides information about the actions and inaction of the Diocese of Salford in cases where their priests have been convicted of criminal offences involving the abuse of children", feels the Diocese isn't doing what it promised in the wake of the 2001 Nolan Report. "Since 2008 I have been trying to raise the issue with the Bishop of Salford," said Mr Gilligan. "They signed up to the Nolan Report, which is very clear in what it says and the Diocese hasn't done what the bishop said he was going to do. "In general terms we need to know that the church are doing what they said they were going to do, rather than just waiting until the person in question dies. "If they have valid reasons for not laicising someone they should let the public know, rather than keeping quiet." Under Recommendation 78 of the Nolan Report it states that "if a bishop, priest or deacon is convicted of a criminal offence against children and is sentenced to serve a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more, then it would normally be right to initiate the process of laicisation and failure to do so would need to be justified." The Diocese has defended the action it took in relation to Mr Doherty saying that it had valid reasons for not laicising him. "Salford Diocese does abide to the Nolan Report and has done since it first came into effect," said Rev Barry O'Sullivan, Safeguarding Co-ordinator at the Diocese. "We worked very closely with the police and Probation Services and managed Mr Doherty, because it was felt by all parties that it was the best thing to do. "We would normally laicise someone who had been jailed for 12 months or more as is our policy, but Mr Doherty was suspended from being a priest for life and was monitored by the church. We took the brunt of that and the church paid towards it, but we worked with the police and Probation Service and successfully monitored him and for more than ten years he never came into contact with children."
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