saints

“The man paid a terrible price for his acts of kindness,” said long-time friend Pat Roper. “There will be a deep feeling of sadness, but the one thing St Patrick’s is all about is forgiveness.”

Read the rest of the piece on how his friends rallied behind Fr Nugent ahead of his funeral – an article which, as the above quote indicates, takes “being in denial” to whole new heights. It seems Father Nugent was this, that and the other while he took up space on the face of this earth, but now that he’s gone, well, where else could he be but in Heaven?  Thus, we can only say nice things about him.  Not that this thread is for the purpose of inviting nasty comments about Father Nugent, or anyone else, for that matter, because it most definitely is not:  however, the principle is clear: once you die, you’re in Heaven – we don’t pray for you but to you.  Gimme strength.

Now click here to see the “grieving” clergy going in to Our Lady of Lourdes Church to celebrate the scandalous life of Fr  Gerry Nugent and click here to read archbishop’s tribute to sex scandal priest

A number of readers contacted me on the day these news reports were published to express their horror at such a large turnout, especially of clergy, when everyone knows that modern funerals are all about celebrating the life of the deceased, not praying for their release from Purgatory.  Very few of us will make it straight into Heaven and it is always more charitable  to pray for the speedy release of the deceased from Purgatory.

Had those priests been gathered together for that purpose, fine.  But everyone knows that belief in Purgatory is about as rare among modernist priests and bishops as a vegetarian Haggis at a Burns Supper.  Thus, the saying “every picture tells a story” springs to mind as we view the procession of white-vested, laughing clergy winding their way into the Church for what should have been a very low-key, humble affair. And that, not just to spare the feelings of the family of Angelika Kluk and others involved in the terrible events and scandals associated with St Patrick’s, but for the sake of Father Nugent himself.  Faced with the reality of his own judgement before God, there can be little doubt that Father Nugent would  much prefer our sincere prayers to our empty praise.

A journalist contacted me to ask if, in fact, the large turnout of priests signalled their “solidarity” with Father Nugent. Certainly, in all the years that Father Nugent was running a hostel for the homeless from his presbytery, not to mention a coffee shop at the back of the church, I’ve never heard of any concern, let alone complaints, from Glasgow priests, most of them on the wrong side of 29 as the tabloid photos reveal. So, the signal sent out by this high profile funeral, is not good. The tragic likelihood is that most, if not all, of his fellow priests thought (and still think) that by sheltering the homeless and providing a cafe for the lonely, he was being a good priest, and let the Salvation Army eat their hearts out.

The newspapers, of course, focused on Father Nugent and his lamentable history.  The real story here though, is the negligence of Father Nugent’s superiors. If Cardinal Winning (RIP) and his successor, Archbishop Conti, had acted as true shepherds they would have brought Father Nugent to an understanding that it is not priestly work to throw a few sofas, coffee tables and refreshments at the back of the church for the purposes of allowing any drifter who happened along, a place to relax and socialise.  Had they been good, (truly) compassionate bishops, then  life for Father Nugent (not to mention Angelika Kluk and Peter Tobin) might have taken a very different course.  “What if” suddenly seems the most important phrase in the (next) world…

Try to imagine the great priest-saints like the Cure D’Ars being contented with offering people a place to develop their social lives instead of their spiritual lives. That’s what Father Nugent’s “bosses” should have told him. Don’t let’s make this thread an excuse to have a go at Father Nugent.  He’s been a victim of the episcopal  laxity prevalent in Scotland today. Archbishop Conti remarked at the funeral that  Father Nugent would always be associated with the (tragic and criminal) events at St Patrick’s – but then, so will he. However, we must all take responsibility for our own actions and that applies, too, to Father Nugent. When he authorised the back of his church to be used as a social area, surely something deep in his soul must have told him this was an insult to Our Lord: “We don’t want to talk to You, Lord, or even just rest in Your Presence –  we’d sooner have coffee and talk to each other”. Father Nugent must have known  - surely – that such profanity was a highly improper use of his church, to put it mildly?  No wonder that, in the end, that most beautiful church building of St Patrick’s was marked off by a police cordon.

Let’s hope and pray that Father Nugent did not meet an unprovided death: hopefully, he had availed  himself of the Sacrament of Penance before he left this world to give an account of his life and his priesthood, to explain why he handed  his church over to Buddhists for a (packed) concert, why he allowed himself to indulge in a dissolute lifestyle and why he felt more drawn to social work than priestly work.

Please, be sensitive in this thread to the fact that Father Nugent is no longer with us and therefore cannot defend himself. There can be no doubt that he suffered hugely at the end of his life, and was, undoubtedly, filled with regrets. Pity him, that he did not, apparently, properly understand or appreciate the glory of the Catholic priesthood. And pray for the repose of his soul.

Let’s focus our discussion on what the real culprit – Archbishop  Conti – should learn from the life and death of this priest, who, before his fall from grace, was (as more than one priest has described it to me) the “golden boy” of the archdiocese, selected to be the Catholic “face” of Glasgow during an ecumenical project, when his photo smiled down from city buses alongside the “chosen” of the various non-Christian ‘world religions’. Let’s see if we can come up with some positive advice and holy episcopal role models that we might recommend to the Archbishop of Glasgow. What advice would you give to Archbishop Conti about his dealings with his priests now. “Live and let live” or “supervise, direct, govern”?  Do you think the Father Nugent scandal will have made the Archbishop think more deeply about the fundamentals – or not?

And, do you have any advice for Father Nugent’s brother priests – apart from “try to be more dignified in future processions into Mass”?

Click on ‘comments’ to share your thoughts, now.