Maltese Chaplain Gets £10,000 After Being Sacked by the [British] NHS [National Health Service]

Times of Malta ^ | 4/2/23 | Matthew Xuereb

[marshmallow]

Fr Patrick Pullicino was dismissed for upholding Catholic marriage teaching

A London National Health Service (NHS) trust has reached a £10,000 settlement with a Maltese priest and retracted its statement that its policy on equality and diversity took precedence over religious belief, admitting that the phrase should have been worded differently.

Patrick Pullicino, a 73-year-old former professor of neurosciences, put up a fight after he was removed from the chaplaincy of a psychiatric hospital for answering a patient’s question about the Church’s teaching on marriage.

Pullicino, who left the medical profession to join the priesthood nearly four years ago, filed a claim against the trust for harassment, religious discrimination and victimisation.

Pullicino was a temporary member of staff at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust when the incident took place in August 2019.

He had been assigned to visit a male patient on one of the hospital’s mental health wards who had specifically requested to see a Catholic chaplain. They went for a walk accompanied by another member of staff.

Pullicino recounted that, during their 20-minute conversation, the patient said he was in a same-sex relationship and wanted to marry his partner. He asked Pullicino for his opinion as a Catholic priest.

“I wondered why he would ask me such a question so I simply told him: ‘Well, what do you think God would say about that?’ This is a Catholic asking a Catholic chaplain. It was not a confrontational conversation, although it ended abruptly,” he said.

[TalBlack]

She also assured Pullicino that “there was no suggestion that the Trust felt you had told the patient that he would go to hell”.

God promises hellfire to unrepentant sinners. Take it up with Him.