One of the north’s most high-profile and controversial clerics, Pat Buckley has died, aged 72.
The outspoken former Catholic priest passed away on Friday following a short illness.
News of his death was posted on his online blog from his Larne-based ministry.
“The Oratory Society regrets to inform you that Bishop Pat Buckley died peacefully this morning after a short illness,” it said.
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon him, may he rest in peace, Amen.”
Originally from Tullamore in Co Offaly, he was ordained a priest in 1976 and became a curate at St Peter’s Cathedral in west Belfast two years later.
He clashed with the late Cardinal Cathal Daly in the early 1980s and was moved to Kilkeel, Co Down, in 1983.
The following year, he was moved to Larne in Co Antrim.
In 1986 he was suspended from the priesthood, but continued to live in the Larne presbytery.
In 1998 Buckley was consecrated as a ‘bishop’ by controversial cleric Martin Cox at a private ceremony.
Cox, who also ordained the later singer Sinead O’Connor in 1999, said he was ordained a priest by a Vietnamese tridentine bishop in 1978.
These consecrations are regarded as “valid but unlawful” by the Catholic Church.
Both bishops were also considered excommunicated from the Church.
In October 1999 Bishop Buckley publicly confirmed he is gay and in February 2010 married his boyfriend of three years, Eduardo Yanga from the Philippines, in a ceremony in Larne.
A larger than life figure, Buckley gave numerous interviews and made frequent media appearances, including in 2000 when he told RTÉ radio host Marian Finucane that he illegally obtained methadone for a Dublin heroin addict he was trying to help.
In 2009 he asked the Land Registry for squatters’ rights to the Larne presbytery, where members of his Oratory congregation gather to worship.
A settlement over the presbytery was later reached, which allowed him to remain in the property.
Buckley was actively involved in the lesbian and gay community and conducted same-sex blessings and spiritual seminars.
In 2011, The Irish News reported that Bishop Buckley was to face prosecution in connection with alleged sham marriages between 2004 and 2009.
The allegations - which Bishop Buckley’s solicitor said at the time that he denied “unreservedly” - involved more than a dozen marriages in which foreign nationals sought to obtain EU citizenship.
In December 2013, Buckley pleaded guilty and was convicted for officiating at 14 sham marriages.
He received a three-and-a-half-year sentence, which was suspended for three years because he was being treated for HIV.
An out-spoken critic of the Catholic Church, he regularly used his online blog to criticise the church and priests.
