A move that surprised many — and angered more than a few — has been greeted warmly by at least one Catholic cleric.

Catholic News Service has details:

A Scottish priest who served at Lockerbie, Scotland, at the time an airliner was blown from the sky by terrorists has welcomed the release from jail of the only person convicted of the attack.

Father Patrick Keegans said he was “delighted” by the Aug. 20 release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer.

Al-Megrahi was jailed in 2002 for a minimum of 27 years for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town. It was the worst terrorist attack in British history and killed 270 people, including 189 Americans and 11 people on the ground.

But al-Megrahi was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after physicians confirmed his prostate cancer was at an advanced stage and he had only months to live. He returned to Libya Aug. 20.

The decision, authorized by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, has angered relatives of the victims and was described as a “mistake” by U.S. President Barack Obama.

But Father Keegans, a priest of the Diocese of Galloway, told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 20 telephone interview that he had visited al-Megrahi in prison and now believed an “innocent man has gone home from Scotland.”

There’s more at the CNS link.