One of Scotland's top lawyers has been cleared of bringing his profession into disrepute after he told a joke about the Pope.Donald Findlay QC appeared at a disciplinary tribunal of the Faculty of Advocates last month after complaints were made about the joke.
In a decision, the Faculty ruled that the complaint was being rejected because the jokes would not offend a "significant proportion" of Scotland's Roman Catholic community.
Mr Findlay was reported to have joked with an audience at a Rangers supporters' club dinner in Larne, Northern Ireland, about the Pope's death.
He also told a joke about a nun at the event, which took place in May 2005, about a month after the death of Pope John Paul II.
Two complaints were subsequently sent in to the Faculty following media reports about the dinner, claiming the jokes were offensive to a significant section of the community and that Mr Findlay had brought his professional body into disrepute.
The QC denied doing so, insisting that he was not acting as a member of his profession at the time, and that it was not his intention to cause offence.
The tribunal decision said: "It is clear that the two particular jokes complained of do not amount to conduct which either did or would reasonably be expected to give rise to offence to a significant proportion of the Roman Catholic community in Scotland."
The ruling added that the Faculty had taken into account opinion from one well-connected member of the Catholic community in Scotland that the joke had not been offensive and that "it would be wrong for the Catholic community to be seen to be unduly humourless and rigid in its reaction to such matters".
Similar sentiments had also been received from Catholic lawyers, it added.
The tribunal decision refused to comment on a "free speech" defence that Mr Findlay invoked as part of his defence, saying it did not wish to enter into a discussion about the limits of free speech.
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