SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland
Tuesday 17 March 2015
A CATHOLIC priest who made allegations of sexual abuse against a fellow cleric has failed in his last ditch attempt to reverse a decision by the Vatican effectively sacking him.
Father Patrick Lawson has been told by the church’s highest court that it was upholding a decision dismissing him as a parish priest in Ayrshire, citing ill-health as preventing him doing the job.
The ruling, by the Signatura in Rome, added that Father Lawson’s “ministry has been rendered substantially ineffectual to a large body of parishioners”.
But one fellow priest said “all fingers pointed” to the priest speaking out against Father Paul Moore in the 1990s, as the root cause of his dismissal. Moore later admitted to his bishop he abused boys
The Galston priest, who once described the church as a mafia seeking to destroy him, had been issued with a decree to remove him back in mid-2013, with his then bishop raising concerns about his physical and psychological health.
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