Catholic Church in Scotland faces allegation of gay assault cover up

By Dan Littauer
KaleidoScot
November 1, 2014

http://www.kaleidoscot.com/catholic-church-scotland-faces-allegation-gay-assault-cover-1901

The Catholic Church is denying allegations by parishioners it is shutting their local Church in Scotland in an attempt at a cover up claims of gay sexual assault.

Father Matthew Despard was suspended last year after publishing allegations of gay bullying within the Church in the wake of the Cardinal O’Brien sex scandal.

A parish in Blantyre is now being closed in the wake of its former Father, Matthew Despard who was suspended from the Church after publishing allegations of gay sexual assault, reported The Herald.

Fr Despard published the allegation in the wake of the Cardinal O’Brien sex scandal, and was then suspended, last year.

His parish, St John Ogilvie, in Blantyre, is now one of about 40 parishes in Lanarkshire facing closure, bring forced to merge with St Joseph’s, Blantyre, which has a much larger Catholic population within its vicinity.

But parishioners claim they were told by his stand-in, Fr Willie Nolan, that they had “no permission” to pray for the priest, and say this is effectively an attempt at silencing the affair.

According to The Herald Fr Despard is facing further legal action relating to his accommodation, which is due to come before the Sheriff Court in the coming weeks.

Despard, who has now been suspended for a year and has been ordered by the courts to vacate his church-owned property, published a book in the aftermath of the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was relieved of his duties after admitting decades of sexually assaulting other clergy.

In his book, Fr Despard claims he was approached inappropriately as a seminarian and said trainee priests who spurned the advances of others were bullied.

He also complained of having his claims ignored. The book has since been withdrawn by Amazon in the UK, following legal threats by individual priests who claimed to have been defamed.

Church officials however deny the allegation, despite the plans to move Fr Despard’s supporters parishioners to St Joseph’s, where the clergy are hostile to the priest and his campaign.

Patrick Stirling, a supporter of Fr Despard, told The Herald: “For the last two weeks we have been gathering after Saturday vigil, but last week Fr Nolan came in and told us we did not have his ­permission to pray for Fr Despard within the church.

“We left without any confrontation because we don’t want to be labelled demonstrators but two within the wider group had a real go at Fr Nolan, who told them they would only have his permission to pray for Fr Despard if it was that he obeys Bishop Toal.”

He added: “The sale of St John Ogilvie has always been on the cards. It’s a good location and could bring the church in a decent amount of money. But the last year could hasten the merger. And there will be chaos if they move us to St Joseph’s.”

However, Motherwell Diocese’s Bishop Toal denied and said themerger is due to falling attendance and that “public prayers should only be arranged with the prior agreement of the priest in charge.”