The notorious paedophile priest Vincent Gerard Ryan will no longer be permitted to celebrate the sacraments or dress as a priest, after a decision to remove his priestly faculties.
The 82-year-old walked free on parole last month; he had served less than half of a three-year sentence relating to two altar boys.
Ryan had previously spent 14 years in prison for abusing more than 30 boys.
The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bill Wright, had been pressed to reveal what steps he had taken to ask Pope Francis to remove Ryan from the priesthood. Read more