A London NHS Trust has settled a discrimination case with a Catholic chaplain who was ousted for answering questions from a patient on a psychiatric ward about the Church’s teaching on marriage.
In response to a complaint made against Rev. Dr Patrick Pullicino, Vanessa Ford, the acting chief executive of South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, Vanessa Ford, asserted that the trust’s policy on equality and diversity “takes precedence over religious belief”.
She has now accepted that “on reflection” her letter should have been “phrased differently” as “religion and belief is afforded exactly the same rights as the other eight protected characteristics”.
She also assured Fr Pullicino that “there was no suggestion that the Trust felt you had told the patient that he would go to hell”, as the complainant had alleged.
Fr Pullicino, 73, who had a distinguished career in the NHS as a consultant neurologist before he was ordained a priest in 2019, claimed he was subsequently bullied out of the chaplaincy role and told “he had no rights”.
With the support of the Christian Legal Centre, he sued the trust for harassment, religious discrimination, and victimisation.
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