IT WASN’T exactly a jilting, more a regretful postponement. Either way, renegade bishop Pat Buckley’s civil partnership ceremony with his Filipino boyfriend, Eduardo Yango, due to take place yesterday in Larne, Co Antrim, did not go ahead.
Disturbed by the global press coverage of the planned nuptials, and particularly the sensationalist headlines in his home country, Mr Yango had got cold feet.
Admittedly, the registry office at Larne Borough Council is not the most idyllic place to pledge a lifetime’s love. Larne itself is “a little lacking in the charm department” as the Lonely Planet guide delicately puts it, and the pebble-dashed council building (AD1993, as a plaque on a concrete pillar announces, above a motif of two swans rampant) stands on a busy road, with just a few straggly primroses to make the place look cheerful.
As 3.30pm, the announced time of the ceremony, came and went with no sign of any celebrants nor, indeed, of Max Clifford, the British PR guru who had reportedly been hired to handle publicity, it gradually became clear that there was to be no wedding. Had it gone ahead, Bishop Buckley (57) would have been the first Catholic cleric to enter a civil partnership while continuing to practise as a priest.
Bishop Buckley was at home nearby at The Oratory, the official residence that he refused to leave when he was suspended as a priest in 1986. There was no sign of his partner.
Bishop Buckley confirmed that there had been “a little postponement today”. He was speaking in the chapel where he celebrates Mass twice a week.
“We have had 10 days of intense media interest and, while I have been used to dealing with the media for 25 years, Eduardo has no experience of the media and has found the intrusion very stressful. He is also a very private person and comes from a culture in the Philippines where family and personal issues are handled very discreetly and privately.”
The last-minute decision to postpone, he said, was to allow Mr Yango to “de-stress and to resolve some family issues”.
It is believed Mr Yango’s family were not aware of the proposed ceremony, details of which were made public within 10 minutes of the notice being posted by Larne Borough Council. Soon the news spread to Chile, Costa Rica and, fatefully, Manila.
“Who would have thought that a little tinpot civil partnership would be reported worldwide?” asked Bishop Buckley ruefully, adding that, when it came to matters of sexuality, the Philippines “is extremely conservative and socially is where Ireland was 30 or 40 years ago”.
Although he admitted that he was “a little bit disappointed” at the setback, Bishop Buckley believed that a new date would soon be set “within a few days or a week”, once Eduardo had “got his equilibrium back”.