Irish Bishop Ordains Woman

Well, not that kind of Irish bishop. Tridentine Rite Bishop Pat Buckley last fall ordained Mother Frances Meigh, a 67-year-old mother of three, as a priest in the conservative Tridentine Rite—which broke off from Roman Catholicism—five months after his consecration as bishop. In ordaining Meigh, Buckley cited the precedent of a woman who was ordained in 1940s Czechoslovakia when "the church ran out of priests." Meigh told those assembled for her ordination service, "I will never be able to describe the joy I feel.... It is forever written in my heart." She will serve a former Anglican church in the village of Omeath.