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Michael Cox (independent bishop)

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This article is about the independent Catholic bishop. For the Anglican archbishop, see Michael Cox (archbishop of Cashel).

Most Rev Dr Michael Patrick Cox, MA, OMD (born 1945 or 1946) is an Irish independent bishop.[1][2] From Mitchelstown, County Cork,[3] he is a well-known member of the Independent Catholic movement in Ireland[2] and is also known for ordaining the singer Sinéad O'Connor.[3] He is the founder and bishop superior of the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church.[3]

Early life

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Cox was an Irish soldier and a Dún Laoghaire harbour policeman.[3][4]

Ministry

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Michael Patrick Cox was ordained to the priesthood in Switzerland on 1 May 1978 as part of Order Mater Dei by Bishops Maurice "Hermenegildo" Revaz (Bishop Superior at the time), William "Rufino" Daly, Richard "Sixto" Corr, James Boyle and Ciaran "Bernardo" Broadbery.[1] This Order was founded by a group of former Bishops of the Carmelites of the Holy Face who had left when this order under Clemente Domínguez y Gómez transformed into the Palmarian Catholic Church, with Clemente claiming he had been crowned Pope Gregory XVII of the Catholic Church by Jesus Christ. Their holy orders derive from Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục.

He was then validly consecrated Bishop in Dublin by Broadbery on 27 April 1982 and subsequently appeared on The Late Late Show shortly afterwards.[1][5][6][a][b]

Broadbery was consecrated in 1977 by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez of the Carmelites of the Holy Face (which would later become the Palmarian Catholic Church), who in turn was consecrated by Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục.[5][6][9] In September 1976, Thục, and those he had ordained, were excommunicated from the Catholic Church.[10][11]

Cox offered Tridentine Masses at Monkstown, County Dublin, in the mid-1980s.[3]

Cox's church is St Colman's, in the townland of Cree near Birr, County Offaly.[2][3][c]

In May 1998, Cox consecrated a Catholic priest, Patrick Buckley, as a bishop. In June 1998, Jim Cantwell, director of the Irish Catholic Press and Information Office, said that Cox's consecration of Buckley was valid but illicit.[13] However, the Catholic Media Office of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales later "said that it doubts that the bishop's episcopal consecration is valid".[14]

In April 1999, Cox ordained female rock singer Sinéad O'Connor as a priest. Her ordination ceremony, after six weeks of theological study, was held in a Lourdes hotel bedroom. O'Connor then assumed the religious name of "Mother Bernadette Mary".[15] This action is not considered valid within the Catholic church[16]

At The Sacred Council held at St Colman's Church in the townland of Cree near Birr, Co Offaly 21–23 April 2000, Bishop Cox was elected Archbishop-Patriarch of OMD for life and to hold a veto over the whole order of OMD.[1]

In 2001, Cox planned to convert his 75-foot (23 m) commercial fishing trawler, called The Little Bishop, into "a mobile floating church, offering on-board marriages and baptisms to people around the British Isles."[17] Cox planned to protest against the ship being sailed into Ireland by the pro-choice feminist group Women on Waves.[17] In 2004, Cox's 84-foot (26 m) trawler, called The Patriarch, caught fire while underway and sank.[4][18]

In 2011, Cox was a candidate in the general election for the Laois–Offaly constituency, coming last with 60 votes.[19][20] In 2013, a District Court judge requested that the Garda Síochána investigate a marriage conducted by Cox for a 17-year-old Traveller youth and his partner.[21] Civil marriages in Ireland require that the participants are over 18, or have a Court Exemption Order if this is not the case.[22] Cox states that such weddings conducted by him are religious, not civil, so there is no religious reason why somebody 16 years old should not get married.[23]

I recognise their [Traveller] customs and appreciate them. Anyone who asks why I do what I do- I tell them that I make it clear the wedding ceremony is purely religious. I do not register marriage with the state.

— Michael Cox[23]

Cox insists on parental consent and parents being present at the ceremony.[23]

Notes

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  1. ^ This 1978 date is contradicted by Joe Humphreys, on irishtimes.com, who wrote that Cox was consecrated a bishop in 1992.[3]
  2. ^ In 2004, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), replied to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop of Westminster, about a request by Broadbery for declaration on the nullity of his ordination. Ratzinger wrote that the CDF decreed in the 1983 notification on "the illicit ordinations of El Palmar de Troya" and does not address "the particulars of individual ordinations".[7] Ratzinger requested that Murphy-O'Connor communicate a prescript to Broadbery from the 1983 notification.[7] The CDF prescript "as regards those who have already received ordination in this illicit manner, or who will perhaps receive ordination from them, whatever about the validity of the orders, the Church does not nor shall it recognize their ordination, and as regards all juridical effects, it considers them in the state which each one had previously, and the above-mentioned penal sanctions remain in force until repentance."[7][8]
  3. ^ Cox's church is a former Church of Ireland church building at 53°03′46″N 7°51′39″W / 53.0627°N 7.8608°W / 53.0627; -7.8608.[12][2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Order Mater Dei, ordermaterdei.fortunecity.ws
  2. ^ a b c d Pogatchnik, Shawn (16 February 1997). "Rogue bishop offers pay-by-the-call phone confessions". seattletimes.nwsource.com. Seattle Times Company Network. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Humphreys, Joe (27 April 1999). "Ordination conducted by Tridentine bishop once of harbour police". irishtimes.com. Dublin: The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Irish floating church sinks in flames". smh.com.au. Sydney Morning Herald. Associated Press. 2 September 2004. Archived from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  5. ^ a b Buckley, Patrick (2005). A sexual life, a spiritual life: a painful journey to inner peace (autobiography). Dublin: Liffey Press. pp. 186–187. ISBN 9781904148685. Here Ciarán Broadbery is spelled "Kieran Broadberry".
  6. ^ a b Jones, Rob Angus (2012). Independent sacramental bishops: ordination, authority, lineage, and validity (Kindle ed.). Berkeley: Apocryphile Press. Kindle locations 1583–1588. ISBN 9781937002237.
  7. ^ a b c Ratzinger, Joseph (28 January 2004). "[Reply about request by Ciarán Broadbery for declaration on the nullity of his ordination]". Letter to Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. Vatican City. Prot. N. 83/82-18350. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016 – via ciaranbroadbery.ie. Here Ciarán Broadbery is spelled "Kieran Broadberry".
  8. ^ Catholic Church. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (12 March 1983). "Notification". L'Osservatore Romano (English ed.). Vatican City (published 18 April 1983). p. 12. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2016 – via vatican.va.
  9. ^ Howse, Christopher (18 February 2006). "Sacred mysteries". Personal view. telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  10. ^ Twomey, Vincent (27 April 1999). "Difficult theological questions raised by O'Connor 'ordination' ". irishtimes.com. Dublin: The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  11. ^ Catholic Church. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (17 September 1976). "Decree concerning certain unlawful priestly and episcopal ordinations". L'Osservatore Romano (English ed.). Vatican City (published 30 September 1976). p. 1. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2016 – via vatican.va.
  12. ^ Government of Ireland. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. "Saint Colman's Church of Ireland Church, County Offaly". buildingsofireland.ie (database record). Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  13. ^ O'Sullivan, Roddy (15 June 1998). "Excommunication follows after priest is made a bishop". irishtimes.com. Dublin: The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  14. ^ "Home news". The Tablet. London. 5 September 1998. p. 29. ISSN 0039-8837. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  15. ^ "O'Connor becomes a 'priest'", BBC, 4 May 1999.
  16. ^ John Paul II. "Ordinato Sacerdotalis". vatican.va.
  17. ^ a b "Bishop pledges to sail from Fenit to block 'abortion boat' ". tcm.ie. Cork, IE: Thomas Crosbie Media Archives. The Kingdom. 12 June 2001. Archived from the original on 1 January 2005.
  18. ^ "Sinking of 'holy ship' halts bishop's protest plan". irishtimes.com. Dublin. 2 September 2004. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  19. ^ Laois-Offaly - 2011 Candidates Archived 2011-02-28 at the Wayback Machine, RTÉ News, 25 February 2011.
  20. ^ "Rebel bishop runs in Laois–Offaly". Leinster Express. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  21. ^ Deegan, Gordon (19 December 2013). "Judge directs that 'renegade' bishop be investigated for marriage he allegedly performed involving a 17-year-old". Irish Independent. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  22. ^ "Legal prerequisites for marriage". Citizens Information Board. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  23. ^ a b c Doorley, Julienne; Lynch, David (10 November 2008). "The Happy Couple" (PDF). Voice of Travellers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
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