Letter sent to Bishop Terence Brain, 1 November 2010

18 Dean Head

Todmorden Road

Littleborough

OL15 9LZ

1 November 2010

Dear Bishop Brain,

Re. Your ‘commitment’ to implementing the recommendations of the Nolan Report in the case of Father Thomas Doherty

On 15 November 2010, it will be exactly nine years since you along with the other Catholic Bishops of England and Wales declared at your meeting in Leeds, "We now commit ourselves to implementing the Final report published on 17 September 2001" (see http://www.cathcom.org/mysharedaccounts/cumberlege/nolanresponse.htm ). You were, of course, referring to A Programme for Action. Final Report of the Independent Review on Child Protection in the Catholic Church in England and Wales in which the committee chaired by Lord Nolan recommended, amongst other things, that

As a general rule, clergy and lay workers who have been cautioned or convicted of an offence against children should not be allowed to hold any position that could possibly put children at risk again. The bishop or religious superior should justify any exceptions to this approach publicly (for example, by means of a letter to be read out in churches at Mass)

And

If a bishop, priest or deacon is convicted of a criminal offence against children and is sentenced to serve a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more, then it would normally be right to initiate the process of laicisation. Failure to do so would need to be justified. Initiation of the process of laicisation may also be appropriate in other circumstances (Nolan, 2001, 3.5.32, p44).

(see http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/reports/NolanReport.pdf )

On 15 November 2010, it will also be over 12 years since Thomas Doherty, former parish priest of St Joseph’s, Todmorden, was sentenced to six years imprisonment for five offences of indecency against a boy under 16 and more than eight years since he was released from prison.

It will, however, be only a little over a month since people in his former parish learned from their local newspaper, the Todmorden News , that Doherty had never been laicised (dismissed from the clerical state under canon 290) and an even shorter time since they learned that the Chair of the Salford Safeguarding Commission, Michael Devlin, and the Salford Diocese Safeguarding Coordinator, Barry O’Sullivan, had admitted during a meeting held at St Chad’s on 10 September 2010 that, although Doherty had written a letter requesting laicisation, you had never sent this to the Vatican (see http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news/convicted_priest_was_never_laicised_1_1997754 and recording of the meeting available for download at http://www.mediafire.com/?se3udyzz3jql7gr).

In these contexts and in view of the Church’s repeated and public commitment to openness and transparency about such matters, I request that you please answer the following questions about your actions and inaction with regard to the case of Thomas Doherty:

1) Why did you not send Doherty’s letter requesting dismissal from the clerical state to the Vatican and thus fail to initiate the process of laicisation in his case?

2) Why have you never publicly justified your failure to initiate the process of laicisation in Doherty’s case “(for example, by means of a letter to be read out in churches at Mass)”?

3) When can the people of your diocese expect you to publicly justify your failure to initiate the process of laicisation in Doherty’s case?

I should, also, advise you that I am making this letter publicly available. I do so because, it has been my consistent experience, since I first asked you for information about Doherty’s canonical status, two years ago, that you do not respond to such requests (see, for example, http://caads.blogspot.com/2010/04/bishop-terence-brain-4-unanswered.html ). I, therefore, wish others to at least know what questions you are being asked.

However, I do, of course, hope that on this occasion, you will finally respond to my questions; in which case, I shall also be very pleased to share your answers with others in an open and transparent way.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Gilligan