Almost a decade ago, dissident Bishop Pat Buckley (pictured here) decided to 'out' himself to the world and its mother through the News of the World newspaper, and in doing so, let it be known that the only reason he was doing so was because he was being blackmailed.However, what he failed to state in all of this, and to this day, until now at least, is that the blackmail threat was coming from within the RC hierarchy who had been doing a little Fr Dowling mystery of their own.
Pivotal in all of this was then Cardinal (now Emeritus) Cahal Daly who would certainly have more than a few axes to grind with Buckley from previous run-ins so there was good cause for payback.
The investigation into Buckley realised that the black sheep bishop had been making use of credit cards to avail of male prostitutes and their accompanying services (which was an allegation also cast in the BBC Northern Ireland investigative programme Spotlight) and indeed the authority to use such credit cards was not always authorised and certainly not for such service procurement...hence it would be legally deemed as fraud.
It seems the black sheep bishop was indeed as black as those he purported (and purports) to minister to, but in a more sinister way...and indeed has been known to operate a spy system that would have put that of John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, to shame.
In JCMcQ times, cleric spied upon cleric and reported back to JC himself but with Buckley, documentation was (and is) in his possession in ways which would be legally questionable but that is systematic of the modus operandi of Buckley.
Daly et al had as much information on Buckley as he felt he had on them, but they were now playing his game of blink and he was tipped off by his cronies in the News of the World that either he let it be known or they would have to get the information when released.
Buckley decided to do as most Irish bishops do when the shite is about to hit the fan...he ran out of the country to gather himself and within days was on the front page of the papers outing himself thereby denying Daly and Co the pleasure of so dong but on the other hand a bittersweet victory in that he had to do it by hook or by crook.
The sexual orientation of any person should never be reason to blackmail them, but as the saying goes...what goes around comes around...!!!
So now there you have the true reason why Buckley outed himself...either he do it or his arch nemesis in the person of Cardinal Emeritus Daly do it but one way or another it was going to happen...
...and who ever says Irish RC politics aint interesting aint reading this blogspot!!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce