SCOTLAND
Scotsman
by CHRIS MARSHALL AND STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on the 24 July 2013
A VATICAN career diplomat appointed to be the new archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has promised a period of “reconciliation and healing” following the scandal surrounding his disgraced predecessor.
Monsignor Leo Cushley said the standing of the Catholic Church in Scotland had taken a “battering” when Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned after admitting inappropriate behaviour with a number of priests.
Mgr Cushley, a Scot who has worked all over the world in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, said Catholics in Scotland had been left “upset and dismayed” at what had happened. But he said the task facing him was “comparatively easy” when compared to missions he had carried out for the Church in Africa.
The 52-year-old, who was born in Airdrie, has been a priest of Motherwell diocese for 28 years, but has not worked in Scotland since 1993.
He will be ordained at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh on 21 September. His appointment comes after revelations emerged earlier this year about inappropriate relationships Cardinal O’Brien had with priests and seminarians.
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