Ex-priest Julian Punch wants sculpture of Monsignor Phillip Green removed from St Mary’s Cathedral

A FORMER priest wants the Catholic church to remove a sculpture on the side of St Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart, that depicts a convicted sex offender.

Julian Punch signing copies of his book, Gay with God: The Life and Times of a Turbulent Priest. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

A FORMER priest wants the Catholic church to remove a sculpture on the side of St Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart, that depicts a convicted sex offender.

Julian Punch says the sculpture of the late Monsignor Phillip Green has to go. In 2004, Green pleaded guilty to groping a grieving 22-year-old man and received a suspended three-month jail term.

In his book Gay with God: The life and times of a turbulent priest, launched last night, Mr Punch said leaving the priesthood about 20 years after he entered the seminary was the hardest thing he had ever done.

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Living alone in a West Hobart flat and collecting unemployment benefits, Mr Punch said he was lonely and depressed.

He said his partner Brian Doran “saved my life”.

“There were three people who came and got me out of that situation and one of them was Brian and we’ve been together ever since that day that he came to my flat and comforted me in my distress and helped to recreate me,” Mr Punch said.

He has published his memoir, Gay with God : The life and times of a turbulent priest.

Mr Punch, of Longley, said he gave up religion but remains a deeply spiritual person. He said the Catholic Church hierarchy had “abandoned the simplicity of Jesus in its desire for power”.