Edit: Father Mathew Despard has been suspended for only putting in writing what so many of us already know. The book, available on Amazon, is in part about homosexual bullying in the Catholic Church. Father was outside the parish church before a Mass in which the Bishop announced his decision to bully the priest. The People of God expressed their opinion of this injustice by walking out of the church.
The book has been removed from Amazon in the UK.
Of course, we've been talking about homosexual bullying for a while now here on this blog.
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The furious congregation of a church has walked out in protest after the suspension of their parish priest.
Only a handful of parishioners remained yesterday to take mass at St John Ogilvie's Church in High Blantyre with Archdiocese of Motherwell acting Bishop Joseph Toal after Father Matthew Despard was removed from his ministry the night before.
Before they went into church, people signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of Father Despard, suspended for writing a controversial memoir that claimed there is a culture of homosexual bullying in the Catholic Church.
When Bishop Toal, accompanied by Father William Nolan, tried to take mass, Geraldine Penches said she wanted to make a statement, and received a roar of applause from the congregation in a packed church.
Her short statement referred to Father Despard as "a very honest man" and said: "This is more scandal to rock the Catholic Church which has to be hushed up.
"Because Father tells the truth he is removed from his priestly duties. We the people are the church, not the bishops. When people said on Saturday night they wouldn't return, the Bishop said we'll close the church. I don't think Pope Francis would be very pleased with that."
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[Scottish News] “The Catholic Church here in Scotland, and I am ashamed to admit this, has justified itself to Catholic papers by telling lie after lie, denying charges that are true, and claiming they have been defamed when the facts reported in the press are quite simply true.”
The priest’s shocking revelations will be another blow to the Church hierarchy, already reeling from the claims that Cardinal O’Brien tried to seduce a number of trainee priests.
The 74-year-old quit as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh after the accusations by former and serving priests emerged.
Fr Despard says in his book that he was the victim of inappropriate approaches during his time as a seminarian.