Bishop who ran off with housekeeper heading for NZ

The Catholic Bishop who shocked Britain by running off with his housekeeper is set to start a new life in New Zealand, the (Christchurch) Press newspaper reported today.

Reports in Britain have said Roddy Wright, the former Bishop of Argyll and the Islands, stunned church leaders when he disappeared for a month in 1996.

He emerged to announce that he was in love with his housekeeper, Kathleen MacPhee, and intended to marry her.

He sold his story to a tabloid newspaper and the scandal was fuelled by the revelation the Bishop had fathered an illegitimate son to another parishioner in 1981

Mr Wright wrote a book about his experiences, Feet of Clay, which detailed his anguish at betraying his vocation by falling in love with the mother of three.

Now, according to the Mail on Sunday and the Express newspapers, the 61-year-old former bishop and his wife are on their way down under this month in an attempt to put the past behind them.

"I think there are too many things here which remind them of what they have done," a friend of the couple was quoted as saying.

"By moving to New Zealand, they hope for a fresh start and he has plans to write another book."

The Catholic Church in Scotland said it had not been in contact with the former bishop for some time.

A spokesman said: "The period surrounding Bishop Wright's resignation was certainly a traumatic one, not only for those intimately concerned, but for the whole Catholic Church in Scotland.

"If Roddy Wright is planning a new start we would wish him peace and hope he finds contentment."

But a source in the Catholic community said Feet of Clay has not been the bodice ripper its publishers had hoped. "It went into the bargain bin pretty quickly," the source said.

Catholic Church communications director Lyndsay Freer said bishops in New Zealand were in the dark about Mr Wright's plans.

"We don't know anything about it. Of course as a private citizen he is free to come here. It is none of our concern. It is up to him if he feels he wants to contact us," she said.

- NZPA