A priest has been suspended since 2013, when he accused the Catholic Church in Scotland of being run by a 'powerful gay mafia'.
A priest who wrote a book accusing the Catholic Church in Scotland of being run by a "powerful gay mafia" says he has been bullied by church hierarchy.
A Vatican court ruling in 2016 cleared the way for a possible return - but the church says he will not be allowed to return until he makes a public apology.He was suspended from his parish at St John Ogilve's in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, after publishing a book called Priesthood in Crisis.Father Depard refused to leave his parish home but was evicted through court action in 2014. He now lives in a flat which is paid for by the church.
Its ruling cleared the way for a possible return to parish duties, but the Catholic Church said the ultimate decision is a matter for the Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal."I have privately asked Bishop Toal again and again to return to a parish but have been ignored," he said."I feel I have been systematically bullied and silenced by the church."
The controversial book came to light at the same time as allegations emerged surrounding Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who was Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric and head of the Scottish Catholic Church., was forced to resign in 2013 amid claims of sexual misconduct by three former priests and a former priest dating back to the 1980s.