Pat Buckley: Controversial independent Catholic bishop dies

Pat Buckley died on Friday morning following a short illness

Pat Buckley, a controversial and outspoken independent Catholic bishop who was convicted of conducting sham marriages, has died at the age of 72.

The Oratory Society said he died following a short illness.

Since 1986, Bishop Buckley, who was based in Larne, County Antrim, acted as an independent cleric outside mainstream Catholicism.

His official status within the Catholic Church was that of a suspended priest.

The church said he had excommunicated himself after he was consecrated as a bishop in 1998 by Dr Michael Cox, a similarly controversial figure who famously ordained the singer Sinead O'Connor into the priesthood.

It described his consecration as "valid but unlawful".

In 2013, Bishop Buckley admitted involvement in sham marriages, which were being used to help non-EU nationals gain UK residency.

He was given a three-and-a half-year jail sentence, suspended for three years, as he was being treated for medical issues including HIV.

Who was Pat Buckley?

The eldest of 17 children, he was born in Tullamore, County Offaly, on 2 May 1952.

He moved several times, attending schools in Carlow and Dublin, before entering the seminary for the Archdiocese of Dublin at the age of 18.

Ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church in 1976, Pat Buckley joined the Diocese of Down and Connor in 1978. He was appointed curate at St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast, where he stayed for five years.

He was later moved to Larne and, in 1986, following an argument with then Bishop Cahal Daly, he left the Catholic Church and founded The Oratory Society that same year.

Pat Buckley was suspended as a Catholic priest in 1986

He described himself as the "unofficial chaplain" to disaffected and alienated Catholics and Christians, and others, from across Ireland and further afield.

Outside of religion, Bishop Buckley was elected as an independent councillor to the former Larne Borough Council in 1989, but lost his seat at the following election.

In the same year, he graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a masters degree in social science.

Sham marriages

In later years, he faced numerous controversies, regularly appearing in Irish media.

In 2012, Bishop Buckley settled a legal bid for "squatters rights" to a home he had been in since being suspended as a priest.

The following year he admitted his involvement in sham marriages, pleading guilty to 14 charges of conspiracy to defraud.

According to the Oratory, Bishop Buckley "has had a decades long ministry to the LGBT+ community and made his sexual orientation public in 1999".