The dissident Bishop Pat Buckley will ordain a woman priest in Co Louth today in the latest of a series of controversial actions which have broken with traditional Catholic Church practice.
According to Mr Jim Cantwell of the Catholic Press and Information Office, Bishop Buckley has "no mandate or authority from the church to ordain anybody and any ordinations that he carries out will not be recognised by the church.
"The very clear and consistent teaching is that the church has no authority whatever to confer priestly ordination on women," he said yesterday.
However, Bishop Buckley, who was consecrated by Bishop Michael Cox last May, claims he is a valid bishop and is entitled to perform today's controversial ordination despite the fact that 67year-old hermit Sister Frances Meigh is a woman.
"It is not the body that is being ordained but the soul. Gender is irrelevant" said Bishop Buckley. "Over 50 per cent of the church are women and over 50 per cent of the world's parishes have no priests.".
London-born Sister Frances Meigh has three children from a marriage which broke down due to her desire to take up religious life.
She began corresponding with Bishop Buckley after his consecration and has been taking instruction in his oratory in Larne, Co Antrim, for the past few weeks.
Sister Frances, who is currently writing a book, One Mass Before I Die, said she did not believe the Catholic Church's views on the ordination of women were valid.
"The biblical commission set up by Pope Paul VI found no evidence to support the exclusion of women from the priesthood. He was much more open than the current papacy to moving towards the ordination of women," she said.
Both Bishop Buckley and Sister Frances have received threatening phone calls and letters since the public learned of her plans for ordination. One letter passed on to the RUC by Bishop Buckley threatened to burn his house in Larne, Co Antrim, and the church in Omeath, Co Louth. Sister Francis has also been called a heathen priestess.
About 300 lay people and clergy have been invited to the ordination ceremony at 3 p.m. today at St Andrew's Church, Omeath.