Disgraced Cardinal Keith O'Brien should stay away from Scotland for the good of the Catholic Church, according to his successor.
Monsignor Leo Cushley, who is taking over as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said that although he is a free man, it would be "wiser" for him not to return.
Cardinal O'Brien stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.
He issued an apology, saying "there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me".
Following his resignation, he stated that he would play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland and has since left the country for a period of "spiritual renewal and reflection".
Mgr Cushley, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Sunday Programme, said: "He is a free man in a free country so he can come back if we wants but the Holy See will be the ones to ask him to do whatever it is they intend.
"We all have our own opinions about that and what would be best for him, what would be best for those who have been affected his actions, what would be better for the local Church."
He continued: "What can I say? I think it's not impossible for Cardinal O'Brien to come back to Scotland, of course it's not impossible, but personally speaking I think it's somewhat unlikely that he would return to Scotland.
"Looking around myself, it would probably be wiser and more helpful for the future of the church here if he were not to be back in the country."
The former member of the Vatican's diplomatic team was also asked for his views on the Scottish independence referendum.
He said: "When it is something that is strictly political we tend to leave that up to citizens and voters."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article