Bishop of Motherwell

Born: August 7, 1937;

Died: May 23, 2019

THE Right Reverend Joseph Devine, who has died aged 81, served as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Motherwell for three decades, and as a priest for almost six decades.

Devine belonged to the generation of clergy ordained during the upheavals of the Second Vatican Council, which was called the year before his ordination as a priest in 1960, and convened from 1962-65, while he was engaged in postgraduate study in Rome, before returning to become private secretary to James Scanlan, who had then just taken up his post as Archbishop of Glasgow (and who had himself previously been Bishop of Motherwell).

Though an active and longstanding member of the Bishops’ Conference, Devine’s ministry was largely pastoral, and he showed no obvious ambitions towards an archbishopric or cardinal’s hat; indeed, when studying at the Scots College as a young priest, he had expressed the opinion that anyone who wanted to become a bishop probably deserved to become one – with the clear implication that it was a thankless task.

In common with many senior clergy, Devine faced unwelcome challenges and was unable to avoid controversy; in particular, the allegations of historical sexual abuse levelled at Catholic clergy in recent years. Around the time of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s resignation in 2013, Alan Draper, a former child protection consultant in Devine’s diocese, complained that as Bishop of Motherwell, Devine had routinely ignored his recommendations. He claimed to know of at least 20 cases in which no action had been taken, and that Devine failed to prioritise the complaints of victims, instead concentrating on protecting the church’s reputation. The bishop, he alleged, had had to be “dragged kicking and screaming” towards implementing good practice in monitoring the behaviour of clergy.

These claims naturally overshadowed Devine’s resignation at the age of 75 – as required by canon law – and his actual departure a year later, just after his 30-year anniversary in the post, though there was no real suggestion that they hastened his departure.

Joseph Devine was born on August 7 1937 at Kirkintilloch, the son of Joseph Devine and his wife Christina (née Murphy) and attended St Ninian’s Primary School, Blair’s College in Aberdeen and St Peter’s College in Dumbarton. He was ordained priest on June 29 1960 at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow, and then went to study at the Scots College in Rome and to take a PhD from the Gregorian University.

After serving as secretary to the Archbishop of Glasgow, he served as an assistant priest at St Robert Bellarmine in Pollok and then, from 1967, at St Joseph’s Helensburgh, in tandem with joining St Peter’s College as a lecturer in philosophy.

From 1974, he combined a role as assistant chaplain to Catholic students at the University in Glasgow with a post on the staff of the Episcopal Vicar for the Lay Apostolate and in May 1977, aged 39, was appointed Titular Bishop of Voli, and then ordained at St Francis Church as an auxiliary bishop for Glasgow. Six years later, he was translated to the diocese of Motherwell.

Devine was a diligent bishop who, in accordance with the principles of Vatican II, concentrated on the sacramental aspects of his role, though he was also much involved in Catholic education and made outreach amongst young people a priority. His attitude to denominational schooling was mixed; he once described it as “an enabler of sectarianism” and admitted it was “divisive”, but concluded that it was a price worth paying to instil Catholic values.

In 2007, he came in for criticism after he said he would rather close down Catholic adoption agencies than have them forced to let same-sex couples adopt, and also said that he thought homosexuals should be barred from teaching in schools. The following year, he complained that “the homosexual lobby” had been attempting to align itself with “persecuted minority groups”, and objected to their attendance at Holocaust memorial services (though homosexuals were one of the groups selected for persecution in Nazi concentration camps). His statement that “like Mel Gibson” (who had been in the news for a drunken anti-semitic outburst), he was “going to pick a fight” did not do much to advance his cause.

That year, there were also complaints of excessively lavish expenditure when he demolished the bishop’s residence and proposed the construction of a new house at an estimated cost of £650,000 – though Devine hotly denied the suggestion that he had been planning to install a swimming pool and jacuzzi. There were similar complaints, after his retirement, of the £2,000-a-month cost of his rented house in Bothwell.

Away from his clerical duties, Devine’s chief recreations were reading and music and, above all, football, about which he was passionate. After his death on May 23, his successor as Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal, said he suspected that, despite the severity of his final illness, Devine would have liked to hang on for a couple of days more, in order to find out the result of the Scottish Cup Final.

ANDREW MCKIE