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Daughter turns down bishop's burial plot offer for her father

Added on January 5, 2005


Wednesday January 5th 2005
THE grieving daughter of a man whose Requiem Mass has been deferred due to a dispute with the Catholic Church last night rebuffed offers by the Bishop of Clogher to intervene.

The daughter of Vincent O'Connor (62) of Scarden, Mulleek, Co Fermanagh, has accused the church of trying to blackmail her family into accepting its terms for her father's funeral Mass following a dispute last week over the location of his burial plot.

Mr O'Connor's widow, Teresa O'Connor had selected a grave in a new cemetery near their home, but hours before the funeral she was served with a court injunction initiated by a local priest in an effort to prevent her doing so.

The church claims the graveyard, built by parishioners of St Michael's Church in the village, is unconsecrated ground and last week refused to say the Requiem Mass, prompting police to be called to the funeral.

But the Bishop of Clogher, Dr Joseph Duffy has since offered to say the Mass provided that Mr O'Connor, is interred in a "legitimate place of burial".

The Bishop said in a letter that "after prolonged negotiations with the family" it was explained that Mass would be rescheduled when a legitimate place of burial was agreed.

Responding to the Bishop's letter, Edel O'Connor said there had been no rescheduling of the Mass.

She said: "We were told by our curate, Fr Hughes that he would say the Mass for my father but he would not go into the graveyard. The chapel had been prepared for the funeral.

"There have been no prolonged negotiations as neither Bishop Duffy or his curate have contacted us since the funeral," she said.

"They are now putting a gun to our heads and suggesting that they will say Mass as long as we bury my father where they want him to be buried. Are they suggesting that we exhume our father's body from the place that he wished to be laid? We believe the Mass and the burial are two separate issues," she said.

"The Church are now trying to marry these two issues because they don't want to admit that they have erred. They know the Mass is very important to us, so are they now going to use the Mass as a stick to beat us with?

"We have buried our father where he wanted to be buried and paid our respects. The ground has already been consecrated but the Bishop and his priests can come down and consecrate it also," she said.

Both Bishop Duffy and the curate at the centre of the controversy, Father Ben Hughes have been unavailable for comment since Mr O'Connor's funeral last week.

Gerry McLaughlin

? Irish Independent
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/

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