Michael Cox (independent bishop)

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

Michael Patrick Cox was ordained to the priesthood on the 1st May 1978 by Bishop Maurice Revaz, DD, MA, OMD; Bishop Superior at the time; Bishop John Daly, DD, MA, OMD; Bishop Richard Corr, DD, MA, OMD; Bishop James Boyle, DD, MA, OMD and Bishop Ciarain Broadbery, DD, MA, OMD.[1] Fr Michael Patrick Cox, MA, OMD, was then validly consecrated Bishop in Dublin, Ireland by Most Rev Dr Ciarain Broadbery, DD, MA, OMD on the 27th April 1982 and subsequently appeared on the Late Late Show shortly afterwards and explained all concerning his Holy Order (OMD).[1][5][6][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2] Bishop Ciarain Broadbery in turn was consecrated in 1977 by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez of the independent Palmarian Catholic Church.[5][6] Domínguez was consecrated in January 1976 by Catholic Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục.[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][lower-alpha 3]

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 from 21st - 23rd 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]

• Seventh Lineage (Thuc Consecrations) - Outline of Episcopi Vagantes (self published and does not name sources – shows consecration of Cox and consecrations by Cox)
• Bishop Pat's episcopal lineage at the Wayback Machine (archived 3 October 2011) (self published and does not name sources – shows both the first 1998 consecration of Buckley by Cox and the second 1999 conditional consecration by Brennan)