The Mirror
April 26, 1999, Monday

I DON'T THINK SHE'S FIT TO BE A PRIEST, SAYS PAT BUCKLEY=20

Pat Flanagan


CONTROVERSIAL bishop Pat Buckley last night condemned Sinead O'Connor's
ordination into the priesthood branding it "a stunt".

He described it as an act of lunacy and revealed that he had even been
asked to ordain Sinead himself.

Bishop Michael Cox also came under fire for performing the ceremony in a
Lourdes Hotel last week and a holy war is now looming between the two
clerics.=20

Sinead, now called Mother Bernadette, is able to say mass, conduct baptisms
and Holy Communion and preside over marriages.

The 32-year-old can also hear confessions, anoint the sick and give the
last rites to the dying.

Last night, Bishop Buckley said the ordination was a travesty and
criticised Bishop Cox for ordaining the troubled singer.

"I have grave reservations about Sinead, I don't think she's a fit person
to be a priest.

"She certainly has no preparation for the priesthood.

"I know she expressed the wish to become a priest and I think women should
become priests if they have a vocation.

"But I still can't believe Bishop Cox could do this.

"I'm absolutely gobsmacked and I can't understand what motivated Bishop=
 Cox."

The bizarre ordination ceremony took place in the Hotel de La Grotte near
the shrine to the Blessed Virgin in Lourdes where millions of pilgrims
flock each year.

Mother-of-two Sinead even apologised for tearing up a picture of the Pope
on American television in the early 1990s following the ceremony.

Bishop Buckley revealed that he refused point blank when he was asked to
ordain the singer.

"I was asked a few weeks ago if I was prepared to ordain Sinead O'Connor,
but I said that was not possible.

"I replied that I would talk to any man or woman about their spiritual
journey and that if I found someone is called to the priesthood and are
properly prepared I would ordain them.

"Sinead is not trained already to be a priest. It's a stunt, she is using
the Church which is a tragedy.

"This is loony stuff really.

"Sinead is just using the priesthood for another one of her games.

"It takes three or four years to prepare for the priesthood. Sinead has
just walked in off the street and became a priest.

"I cannot associate with Bishop Cox any more after this."

Ironically, Bishop Cox consecrated the then Father Buckley and made him a
bishop last year.

Bishop Buckley said that Bishop Cox had promised he would not perform any
ordinations without consulting him and that when ordinations did take place
the would-be priests would be well prepared.