Father Buckley's mother refused funeral assurance

Mrs Josephine Buckley (69), mother of the dissident priest Father Pat Buckley, has been refused an assurance by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, that her son will be allowed officiate at her funeral. Mrs Buckley, who will undergo a triple bypass operation in November, had sought the assurance some time ago but, according to a spokesman for Dr Connell, the Archbishop "could not in conscience accede to her request".

Father Buckley said last night his mother was "obviously concerned" about the matter. He said Dr Connell had offered to meet her, but then refused to do so when she requested that her son accompany her to the meeting. Father Buckley said he was prepared to meet Dr Connell to discuss the situation, as he had never been in dispute with the Dublin archdiocese.

He was, he said, "always willing to talk about reconciliation" provided it was on "a level playing pitch and people were genuine". But it would not, he said, be a case of "kneeling in the snow at Canossa" (an Italian city where Emperor Henry IV begged the forgiveness of Pope Gregory VII in 1077).

A spokesman for Dr Connell said Father Buckley's agreement to a meeting was being conveyed to the Archbishop last night, and a response would be available presently.

Earlier this week Dr Connell refused Father Buckley permission to officiate at a funeral Mass for his nephew Mr Christopher Geoghegan (23), who was found dead on Tuesday morning. Father Buckley, who is originally from Dublin, was removed from parochial work at Larne, Co Antrim, in 1986 by the then bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Cahal Daly, where he continues to remarry divorced Catholics.

Dr Connell said yesterday he was in "a no-win situation" where Father Buckley was concerned, and that no matter what he did in the circumstances he would be criticised.

He said the priest "is offering a ministry to people that in my view involves a profanation of the sacrament of marriage".

He asked: "how can I reconcile admitting him to celebrate the sacraments in one of the churches of the diocese when that is his settled way of life? That is my difficulty," he said.

Father Buckley said last night that he had met the chancellor of the Down and Connor diocese, the late Canon Fitzpatrick, six times following an attempt at reconciliation by the current Bishop there, Dr Patrick Walsh, "three to four years ago," but that nothing further had happened after he submitted "an entirely generous" 15-page document.

Meanwhile, a prayer service for Mr Geogehgan, conducted by Father Buckley and another dissident priest, Father Michael Keane, will take place at the Unitarian Church on St Stephen's Green in Dublin at 9.30 a.m. today. "It will be the sort of service Christopher would have wanted," Father Buckley said last night.

Mr Geoghegan was the eldest of four children, and was close to Father Buckley, who stayed with the family when in Dublin. There had been no indication that Mr Geoghegan was likely to die. He had had a drugs problem some years ago, Father Buckley said, but had recovered from that. He had a job as a printer and was living in his own place.