BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY

People often ask me what my “legacy” will be.

Some even suggest or worry that this blog will be my legacy – and that it will not be a good legacy

But even the most famous of people are eventually forgotten or not talked about very much.

And, as Christians, should we not be more worried about our Judgement than our legacy?

At the same time I do understand that we do leave our mark on the world.

In the old days when it was normal to leave your empty milk bottles on the doorstep at night I always marvelled at the little silver trails left behind by the garden slugs.

And I’ve often thought and said:

“If the humble slug leaves its mark on the world then so should we”.

I have always loved Wordsworth’s lovely words:

“The greatest part of a good man’s life are his little, unremembered acts of kindness and of love”.

This comforts me because no matter what faults I have, and I have very many, I have always being very careful to do little acts of kindness and love.

And sometimes people remind me of something I did for them 30 years ago – something I have completely forgotten about – and say a little prayer that when God is finished totting up all my sins – he may go on to take note of the good I did.

Legacy – I think there are probably two aspects – what others think of you after you have gone – and what you think you have achieved with your life yourself.

OTHERS

I think we make a great mistake if we live our lives to please others.

People are so fickle. One day they will love you and the next they will hate you

So I think the best way to live your life is to think, speak and act as you would if Jesus Himself was there and watching you intently

The simple but also profound catch cry- WWJD – What Would Jesus do – is a very good guide for us Christians.

But I suppose people could make that very subjective.

Some people believe that Jesus always sends gay people to hell.

Others, like me, believe Jesus loves gay people as much as he loves all others.

I regard myself as having an enlightened and educated conscience.

And so I try and act in accordance with that.

When I’m gone some will pop a bottle of champagne 🍾.

Others will remember me kindly.

And maybe Lin-Manuel Miranda is right?

WHAT I THINK

There are very few Nelson Mandela’s or Martin Luther King”s in the world.

Most of us leave a small mark in a small place, of any mark at all.

I count my blessings:

I have lived till three score and ten when three of my younger siblings have perished.

I have kept my Christian faith – by God’s grace.

I’ve stayed loyal to the priesthood for 46 years.

I’ve stood by my principles and convictions in the face of often fierce opposition.

I have tried to do all the good I could have done.

I sincerely regret all the mistakes I’ve made and all the sins I have committed.

I am unbelievably grateful to be still alive, still relatively healthy and still enjoying my vocation to love God and serve people.

Enemies will always see your legacy differently from your friends.

The Oratory – and I – already have a grave with a headstone on it.

There is already a quote on it which says:

Conscience is the aboriginal vicar of Christ”.

You could have a worse epitaph and legacy than:

“He followed his enlightened and educated conscience”.

MALACHY THOMPSON NO LONGER SUPERIOR OF ROSCREA CISTERCIANS.

COMMENT ON YESTERDAY’S BLOG

Has anyone told Malachy? He is still behaving like an Abbot! I have been told by a housemaster in the college that he has sent a 4 page letter to the school management about his expectations for the next academic year. The principal has been complaining about him to teachers and how he interfered in the timetabling of classes. He is still directing the board of governors about finances and fees. Malachy likes to be in charge, he will not surrender easily. The ‘resignation’ is a joke. Do not fool yourself.

In spite of the above it is good news to hear that Malachy Thompson has resigned as superior of Roscrea.

He was a close ally of Richard Purcell.

It looks to me as if the new Abbot General and his council have finally decided to clean out the disgraced Irish Cistercian stable.

We will watch the progress carefully.

As a seminarian and young priest I was in total awe of the Irish Cistercians.

I regarded them as living saints.

I never thought of becoming a Cistercian for two reasons:

1. I believed I was good enough and holy enough to be a Cistercian.

2. My priestly vocation was always focused on diocesan ministry and daily pastoral service of the People.

Mellifont was my favourite Cistercian monastery and I did many retreats there as a seminarian and young priest.

I was very disturbed when the abbot of Mellifont told me a out his long sexual history with men and women.

I was also disturbed by his roaming hands.

Yesterday I learned that Enda used to feel the bottoms of young novices and press his grain area against them.

At the beginning, I put that down to the fact that the more holy you are the more the Devil attacks you.

And maybe there is still some truth in that.

But then, like everyone else I heard of child abuse at the hands of Cistercian monks in acrs like Portglenone in Antrim and Caldey in Wales.

I also became conscious that monasteries like Portglenone were also hiding terrorists who had murdered and bombed.

And I also became aware that bishops in Ireland and elsewhere were secretly housing paedophile priests alcoholic priests and other offending priests in monasteries.

This was because bishops and monks saw sexual abuse as a SIN and not as a CRIME

THE PURCELL REVELATIONS

And then we discovered that the Lord Abbot of Mount Melleray – Dick Purcell was buggering Father Niall Dargan of Killaloe in Rocrea’s monastic kitchen.

And that he was a patron of the Boilerhouse sauna in Dublin

ROSCREA

We heard stories of financial problems, alcoholism and sexual activity at Roscrea.

EPISCOPAL SUPPORTERS

We discovered that Purcell had staunch episcopal supporters such as Lugs Monahan and The Fonz.

MELLIFONT

And then we hear of a woman made pregnant by a monk murdered by monastic supporters etc.

Not to mention Enda Ducey of the roaming hands, 18 bi sexual affairs and feeling up and pressing a groin against novices.

CONCLUSION

It is abuntly clear that the Irish Cistercians are in meltdown.

There are no vocations.

There are monasteries of dying old men.

There are financial issues.

There are homosexual monks and abbots ussues.

The Abbot General and his council in Rome need to immediately the 4 monasteries at Portglenone , Mellifont, Moone and Roscrea and create one new community at the mother house on Mount Mellerary.

They need to show the door to all BONKING MONKS, whether of the straight, homo or bi variety.

They need to seriously get back to their prayers and rule of life.

And they need to make all monks faithfully observe their four vows of

POVERTY

CHASTITY (CONVERSION OF LIFE)

POVERTY

STABILITY.

Otherwise, they should cash in all their property and investments, share the money with all members and clear off to Las Vagas, Monaco and Thailand.

A former Abbot of Mount Mellifont told me personally in the mid 1970s that up until that date he had had 18 sexual liasons / affairs in his time in Mellifont.

He said that he was bisexual and his sexual exploits had been with both men and women.

When in his presence his hands roamed as he attempted to feel the backside and groin areas of his penitents.

His conversation both inside and outside Confession was very sexually charged and he liked to hear the minute details of people’s sins and failures.

He said that he only stopped having sex with people when an unrelated illness prevented him from getting erections.

As a seminarian and young priest I was keenly aware that I was being sexually pursued.

I had no attraction to the man whatsoever and anyway at the time I was deeply repressed and also regarded all such sexual activity as immoral and gravely sinful.

At the time I thought his behaviour was a one off – restricted to him as a “weak” or sinful monk.

At the time we all idolised the Cistercians and regarded them as living saints.

But clearly we see that my monk was not a one off.

The case of Richard Purcell proves that.

And I know of other Cistercian monks who have been sexually active inside and outside The monastery walls.

Purcell is ot the only Irish Cistercian monk to have been homosexually active and visited the Boilerhouse.

I do not know if “my monk” was involved in the impregnation of the woman found in the well.

I have mentioned his name to the priest who told me about the well death.

He has neither denied or affirmed whether he was the one.

In the Middle Ages monasteries were places of utter debauchery.

It looks as if things have not changed that much since.

Except now we have GRINDR and the Boilerhouse.

I also think that monks and their friends had a way in the past of making victims an accusers disappear for ever!

Could that happen now?

I think it could!

ANOTHER IRISH CISTERCIAN SCANDAL?

This week we heard that a murder had taken place in the past connected to New Mellifont Abbey in Collon in County Louth.

A dead woman’s body was buried in a well.

She was a local woman, not from Collon but a neighbouring parish.

The well was outside the monastery walls.

It was portrayed as a suicide.

It is reported that she was pregnant.

The suspect was a monk who had an affair with her and made her pregnant. He had help with disappearing the woman.

Nobody was ever charged with the murder.

The monks had a habit of exchanging land for silence.

Not all transfer of land by the monks were connected to this case.

Some land transfers were perfectly legitimate.

The priest who tells this story knows all the details and the names of the people involved.

He is not naming names as some of the deceased woman’s relatives still live on the area

I do not know the year of these happenings.

As we know from recent revelations many babies and orphans died in religious houses and were buried in secret graves.

It’s perfectly plausible that a number of women and men perished in monasteries etc and their fates were never made known

Mellifont is in the Archdiocese of Armagh.

Is the account of the Mellifont killing held in Armagh’s secret archives.

AND if there are still people alive who knew about this killing do they not have a moral obligation to report it to the Gardai?

Is the woman and her baby not crying out for justice from the grave?

JOE MC GUIGAN WHO LEFT THE PRIESTHOOD IN BELFAST IN 2003 AND AFTER A GAY SCANDAL AND RUMOURS OF THE HURT OR DEATH OF A YOUNG HOMELESS MAN AFTER THE PRIEST DEMANDED SEX FROM HIM – WAS SPOTTED YESTERDAY MORNING IN CLERICAL DRESS IN BELFAST!

FROM SATURDAY 6 th September 2014

DID A YOUNG MAN IN BELFAST LOSE HIS LIFE TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

DID A YOUNG MAN IN BELFAST LOSE HIS LIFE TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

——————-

IF THE STORY BELOW IS INACCURATE I INVITE ANYONE WHO KNOWS THAT – OR ANYONE INVOLVED OR MENTIONED IN THE STORY TO LET ME KNOW IMMEDIATELY.

I WILL CORRECT ANY INACCURCIES AND APOLOGISE.

IF ANYONE HAS ANY OTHER EVIDENCE I WOULD BE HAPPY TO RECEIVE IT.

——————–
Father Joe McGuigan

The story is this and many people in the Lower Falls and beyond KNOW this story! McGuigan had left the priesthood at the time having, as Bishop Pat says, successfully portrayed himself as a ‘victim’ – quite an incredible feat in itself (Don’t Go Fr Joe, candlelight vigils and all, with good people like Loney Granny having been sucked in by the whole charade of Joe McGuigan as the ‘Mother Teresa’ of the Lower Falls).
Monsignor Tom Toner

A young homeless man went to the now ex-priest McGuigan desperate for accommodation. McGuigan, now being employed in charge of the St Peters homeless centre, told the lad ‘if you don’t have sex with me, I will see to it that you never get a flat anywhere in Belfast. 

The young man agreed to sleep with him. Later, feeling bad, he went to the police who advised if he pursued it would go public. The young man didn’t want his parents and girlfriend to find out. He took his own life. He left a suicide note. 

FATHER HUGH KENNEDY

That note was shown to Hugh Kennedy who turned on his heel and walked away after reading it. 

McGuigan, an unscrupulous sex pest + a vulnerable, desperate young man = tragedy!

There is also the question of finances and McGuigan blaming it all on a local woman.

McGuigan was ‘quietly let go. He is now a ‘Pizza boy’ somewhere up the Road. The whole episode of his ‘coming out’ was paid for by the bishop to a very expensive PR company here in the North – a fortune was paid to ‘manage’ Joe’s shock-horror ‘I’m gay!’ announcement as if we didn’t already know all about his fun and games”.

PAT SAYS:

I kinda laughed recently when someone mentioned that the diocese of D&C was going rehabilitate JOE MC GUIGAN.

He is 19 years out of ministry and is now 54.

He disappeared after he published a photo of himself and others at A LEATHER AND LUBE NIGHT in Dublin by a NI gay group called MEN OF THE NORTH.

As a curate in St Peter’s Cathedral he had specialised in being the cathedral’s flower arranger and in cooking Duck a la Orange for famished clergymen.

He had adopted two senior altar boys and was treating them to tailored kilts in Glasgow and designer clothing in the very expensive Browne Thomas store on Dublin’s Grafton Street.

The above story of the young man began to circulate.

Another story was that he got a job in the homeless centre after he left the cathedral and was found In flagrante delicto with a young man by the homeless centre supervisor.

SUITABLE FOR MINISTRY?

Joe left in 2003 – 19 years ago. He was a regular on the GRINDR up until at least 4 years ago and a regular on the gay scene.

He left over being involved at the extreme end of gay activity.

He misbehaved with at least one young homeless man.

There were financial questions.

WHY, AFTER ALL THIS TIME CAN HE BE REGARDED AS SUITABLE FOR MINISTRY?

What is going on in Down and Connor?

What is Noel Treanor thinking?

Will we soon see FATHER BRENDAN SMYTH dug up from the grave and being placed in an alcove in a cathedral dressed in a golden cope and being pronounced patron saint of irish Catholic Primary Schools?

Can the RCC get any more outrageous or perversely absurd than it is already?

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2022/08/07/catholic-church-were-net-winners-from-irelands-great-famine-leading-academic-says/

The Catholic Church was a “net winner” from the Great Famine as the urban Catholics who survived it were more likely to be regular Mass-goers than the largely rural poor who died, enabling the church to increase its influence on the population at large, a prominent academic has claimed.

Prof Breandán Mac Suibhne of National University of Ireland, Galway told the West Cork History Festival in Skibbereen that it was perhaps “vaguely perverse” to suggest the Great Famine assisted Irish Catholicism to become a dominant force in the lives of Irish people, but it did influence how religion impacted on people’s lives.

“As late as the 1970s the figure was like 92 per cent or 93 per cent, but back in the 1830s, the figure for the country, as a whole, was something like 30 per cent so high Mass attendance by Irish Catholics is very much a modern phenomenon and, certainly back in the 1830s, it was nothing like it was in the 1970s.

“For people in these areas, religion was not chapel-oriented and clerically directed devotion like Sunday Mass was not important to them… their religion was one of holy wells, and season festivals, and prayers and priests were important for only a couple of things – Baptism, marriage and death.

“What you get in the 1850s is serious hard-core proselytisers hitting the country in the form of the Redemptorists – these are the storm troopers of Roman Catholicism, ‘Do you reject Satan and his works?’ and they made Confession, Communion and Confirmation rites of passage in Catholicism.”

PAT SAYS

I also heard that many of the country’s Catholic church buildings were built during the famine.

And – how many Catholic bishops and priests died of hunger in the famine?

Then Cardinal Cullen came along and started tge devotional revolution- medals, rosaries relics, novenas etc.

Mass attendance grew from 30% to 90+ %.

While the poor Irish starved to death, their new IRISH GENTRY (clergy) prospered.

And collections and revenues increased.

Talk about making a mint on human misery.

The RCC has always had the knack to turn blood into gold 😢

BAD BISHOPS AND HOW TO STOP THEM!

Surprisingly, good priests often become corrupt when they become bishops, and they seem to always get away with it.

Here are some reasons why bishops are able to exploit religious people and others to their advantage, and what to do about it.

1. They play dirty and the public lets them get away with it.
2. Because they are bishops, many people expect them to be good and holy and deal with us honestly. However, they don’t play by the rules. They promise truth and justice but lie and cover up abuse. That’s why so many are duped by them. They are like unscrupulous salespeople using Jesus’s values.
3. 
   WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? Develop a healthy scepticism. Speak up and ask questions. Make sure you are being dealt with honestly.
4. They understand power dynamics.
   Because they are in authority, they understand that authority can give them a free ride. Because they are bishops, the public is often reluctant to question their authority. That’s why they move about with an air of authority and get away with criminal activity.
   WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? Question them! See through these bad guys hiding behind a thin veil of self-righteous holy authority.
5. We are prone to the bystander effect.
   Part of the problem is public tolerance for bad behaviour. Too often, we simply stand by when others have been abused, not wanting to get involved, expecting those in charge to act appropriately.
   WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? Challenge those in charge! Stand up to those who cover up abuse.
6. We give them money and that enables them.
   A major part of the problem is giving bishops money. They ask for money under the pretext of doing their charity work. But your money to the church is going to bishops to pay their lawyers to fight victims and survivors of clerical sexual abuse.
   WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? Stop giving them money.

These are just four ways to help stop bad bishops and make the world a better and safer place.

PAT SAYS

The New Zealander survivors give us good advice.

1 Question everything a n RCC bishop says.

2. Always challenge an RCC bishop.

3. Stand up to abusers and their cover uppers.

4. STOP giving them any money.

SCOTTISH PRIEST IN COURT FOR ABUSE

Bishop Pat,

You may recall in a previous email I mentioned the upcoming case against Fr Neil McGarritty of Glasgow.

He appeared today in court prior to his trail later this month.

He’s facing 6 charges against 4 separate girls including two 10 year olds.​

Checkout bbc news Scotland.

There is a long back story of allegations over decades and cover up by 3 archbishops if you want further info.

Bishop Buckley,

You may remember I mentioned in a previous email the impending trial of Fr Neil McGarritty. He had his pleading diet this week past and his trial will begin this coming Wednesday at Glasgow Sheriff Court. (Details of victims, 2 aged 10, and six charges on bbc news Scotland)

He’s best friends of Fr Peter McGarvey of Donegal and of Derry Public Toilets Voyeur case.

YESTERDAY

Day 1 of Trial of Fr Neil McGarritty today at Glasgow Sheriff Court; testimony by 10yr old of grooming behavior, language and touching.​

MARK MORIARITY was ordained a deacon in Killarney catgedral on Sunday.

A number if Kerry priests were surprised by the ordination

They had been led to believe that Ray Browne had told Mark that he would not be ordained and should prepare himself to return to Civvy Street.

In fact, the priests had been told that Ray had placed Mark in an empty presbytery to complete his studies in order to get a job in the real world.

Earlier, they had been told that Ray Browne had ordered Mark to lose some weight?

A bit like Nicholls did to Fr Tom Montgomery when he was a seminarian in Rome and had a “brush” with an Aussie seminarian with pecs and self defence talents.

WHY DID RAY DO A TURN ABOUT ON MARK?

Everyone is wondering why Ray had a change of heart on Mark.

Could it be that Mark knows a lot about Mayooth abd other clergy?

Was it a matter of keeping Mark in the tent, pissing out rather than the other way around?

Apparently, Mark will minister as a Deacon in Tralee.

AND, did Mark have to sign an affidavit for Ray?

A message from Waterford.

Recently a Waterford reader sent ne the following:

I checked out this message with a Waterford priest who replied:

“Quite incorrect.

His father Stanley Bowyer was mentioned at the start and at the end of Mass.
I didn’t once see him waving his arms.
He didn’t bless himself at all at the beginning of Mass.
He almost made the congregation feel that they didn’t need to pray at all.
The speech at the start was too long.
No long winded speech at the end.

D’arcy did not mention that Phonsie was gone to Medjugorje.

Fr John Harris conveyed Phonsie’s apologies to the family before Mass started.

Whoever Waterford Reporter is ….not very accurate”.

PAT SAYS

I am very much among those who cringe when D’Arcy (77) pushes himself forward, especially at the funerals of well known people.

And D’Arcy has a major habit of doing that.

I cannot understand why Irish bishops and parish priests allow D’Arcy to muscle in so often.

Unless a family has a priest in the family, the normal person celebrating the Funeral Mass is the parish priest or curate of the parish.

The priests of Clogher diocese, where D’Arcy lives, are always complaining about his habit of butting in on funerals.

Why don’t they just tell him to join the other mourners in the pews?

The PP in Castleblayney went out of his way to keep D’Arcy out of the limelight at the funeral of the legendry Country singer BIG TOM Mc Bride.

The PP got a lot of clerical pats on the back for that.

I played a small roll in keeping Brian in the pews at the funeral of the late, great GAY BYRNE.

People think that D’Arcy is a great liberal. Not at all. Brian is a “sixpence each way” man and keeps both side happy.

He certainly is no Tony Flannery.

No matter what you think of Tony, he has put his money where his mouth is and has suffered the consequences.

I never got to meet Brendan Bowyer.

But his dad, Stanley, below taught me in St John’s in Waterford.

SING SONG AT BIG TOM’S GRAVESIDE.

Given the difficult situations of the communities of Mount Melleray, Roscrea, and Mellifont, during a meeting of superiors of the Region of the Isles in Brownshill (Bernardines, England) in June, the Abbot General proposed a plan, including the naming of one Father Immediate for all three communities and the appointment of one Monastic Commissary for all three communities. Each community would continue to live where it is, but there would be one formation house for all three communities, and other structures of mutual help.

This proposal was studied in the communities and, after reflection, all three communities, by a vote of their conventual chapter, agreed in principle to accept it. Suggestions from the communities were incorporated into the plan.

The juridical status of the communities has been as follows –

Mount Melleray: Since the resignation of Dom Richard Purcell as abbot of Mount Melleray in November 2021, the abbatial office has been vacant. The Father Immediate of Mount Melleray since October 2020 has been Dom Michael Ryan, abbot of Bolton.

Roscrea: Dom Malachy Thompson has been superior ad nutum of Roscrea since 2018. Since the abbatial office at Mt Melleray (Father Immediate of Roscrea) is vacant, Dom Michael Ryan of Bolton has functioned as Father Immediate of Roscrea since November 2021.

Mellifont: Since the resignation of Dom Brendan Freeman as superior ad nutum of Mellifont in November 2021, the abbatial office has been vacant. Since the abbatial office at Mt Melleray (Father Immediate of Mellifont) is vacant, Dom Michael Ryan of Bolton has functioned as Father Immediate of Mellifont since November 2021.

After consultation with the communities, who expressed their consent by a vote of their respective conventual chapters,

(1) On July 16th, 2022, Dom Michael Ryan of Bolton delegated his responsibility as Father Immediate of Mount Melleray to Dom Brendan Freeman of New Melleray Abbey.

(2) On July 16th 2022, the Abbot General, with the consent of his Council, in the name of the General Chapter appointed Dom Brendan Freeman of New Melleray Abbey as Father Immediate of Roscrea and of Mellifont.

(3) On August 2nd 2022 Dom Malachy Thompson offered his resignation as superior ad nutum of Roscrea to the Father Immediate, Dom Brendan Freeman, who accepted it.

(4) On August 3rd 2022 the Abbot General, with the consent of his Council, in the name of the General Chapter, suspended the exercise of the autonomy of the communities of Mount Melleray, Roscrea, and Mellifont, and authorised Dom Brendan Freeman, Father Immediate, to name a Monastic Commissary for all three communities in accordance with the Statute on Fragile Communities.

(5) On August 3rd 2022 Dom Brendan Freeman appointed Fr Rufus Pound as Monastic Commissary of Mount Melleray, Roscrea, and Mellifont. Dom Rufus is a monk of Mt St Bernard Abbey who had been claustral prior at Mellifont since November 2021. He will carry out his responsibilities in accordance with the Statute on Fragile Communities and with the plan mentioned above.

Further details will be given at the General Chapter in September.

PAT SAYS

What we are seeing here is the Cistercians regrouping for two reasons:

1. The decline of vocations.

2. The Richard Purcell scandal.

Really, the 5 Cistercian monasteries should be amalgamated in one monastery- probably the mother house Mount Mellerary.

But monks can be just as difficult as others and the monks are not all cooperating with the required changes.

The two monasteries with abbots – Portglenone in Antrim and Moone in Kildare are refusing to be amalgated.

The other three, Mellifont, Roscrea and Mellerary are now being turned into a monastery with three campuses with one novitiate one Commissary and one Father Immediate.

The Cistercians were already in great decline in Ireland.

Dick Purcell was the last straw the broke the camel’s back.