Bishop Pat Buckley?

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | May 23, 2012

So I got this email through our Contact Form from someone calling himself “Bishop Pat Buckley”, directing us to his new blog. So I clicked the link. and I noticed in his profile that his “occupation” is indeed “Catholic Bishop”, and I also noticed that the blog is promisingly entitled “Thinking Catholicism”. So I thought it might be worth reading some of what “Bishop Buckley” had written.

So I made a big mistake.

According to Bishop Buckley, “most Catholic priests are sexually active”. His “thinking Catholicism” runs steeply downhill from there.

But I said to myself, “Self,” I said, “this is why you invented the Internet. Do a search.”

Patrick Buckley

• Born 1952
• Ordained 1976
• Suspended from the priesthood in 1986 by Bishop Cahal Daly
• Consecrated bishop in 1998 by an “Independent Catholic” bishop (not in communion with Rome)
• Automatically excommunicated as a result (latae sententiae)
• Active gay; publicly confirmed his homosexuality in 1999
• Entered a civil partnership with his Filipino boyfriend in 2010
• Blesses gay unions; marries those who are divorced
• Prosecuted this year for sham marriages and money-laundering to enable foreign nationals to remain in the United Kingdom
• Resides in a house which used to belong to the Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor, which he refused to vacate when he was suspended from the priesthood.

Oh, and in that online profile, he lists as his favorite books “anything by Hans Küng”. Perhaps I should have read from the bottom up.