Edit: we checked the Motherwell Diocesan webpage and found Father Mathew Despard still listed as a priest, but has no Parish. Well, as he appealed to Rome, the canonical decision was partly reversed, but was kicked back to Bishop Joseph Toal who has, we are informed by the Chancellor, will not reinstate Father Despard unless he does what Toal wants him to do. Apparently, the conditions set for reinstatement to his benefice is too high, and Father will continue in what is effectively the loss of his clerical state.
While the Catholic Church has been suspending clergy for sounding the alarm, or trying to make amends for the damage being done as Father Mark Morris, who held a rosary in reparation for a GLBT-P event, it has been turning a blind eye or mildly rebuking others like Motherwell’s own
Father Paul Morton, whom the Bishop has reinstated after 2015 . It’s fortunate for Father Paul that all he did was criticize the obscurantism of his priestly colleague, instead of rebuking GLBT-P depravity, for he would surely be facing suspension
a divinis now.
One wonders if Cardinal O’Brien would have kept silent about GLBT-P, that he would also have retained his place of honor in today’s modern Church. Some will recall that there was a firestorm of anger from former clergy boyfriends and victims of the Archbishop when he defended traditional marriage.
Life Site Rememebers Father Mathew Despard in its recent story:
Also in 2013, Father Matthew Despard of the Motherwell diocese self-published a book called Priesthood in Crisis in which he alleged the existence of a “gay mafia” among Scottish clergy. He claimed they had bullied him, among others. Condemning the book as defamatory, Bishop Toal rebuked Despard and eventually removed him from his parish ministry.
AMDG
