THE rebel priest Father Dara Molloy, whose authority to minister as a priest has been withdrawn by the Archbishop of Tuam, will continue to say Mass on Aran's Inis Mor island.
He said he will not say Mass in the island's Catholic church but he will continue to celebrate Mass each day in a spiritual centre that was built on the island during the past year.
He will also celebrate Mass in the open at a number of holy places and places of pilgrimage on Inis Mor.
"I am saying Mass every day," he told The Irish Times yesterday.
The local community was told at Masses last Sunday, in a statement from the Archbishop, Bishop Michael Neary, that Father Molloy's authority to minister as a priest had been withdrawn.
The statement also explained that "at no time" had Father Molloy held an appointment in the Archdiocese of Tuam.
Parishioners were reminded, however, that Father Molloy had generously helped Father Mannion land his predecessors with the celebration of Masses and the administration of the Sacraments in Aran.
"I am very grateful to him for that," the Archbishop said in the statement.
Father Molloy intends to establish a church which follows the beliefs of Celtic Spirituality. There are 10 people currently attending - the spirituality centre on the island, including three who are staying with him in the recently built modern style monastery or "mainistir nua aimseartha".
"I'm stepping outside the Catholic bounds," he said. "It's an absolutely huge step for me. I also think it's a growth for me.
"I don't feel alone. There's a whole movement towards Celtic Spirituality in the world. I feel I'm just part of something that is moving."
Father Molloy said that other priests in the Catholic church were also "on his wave length" and finding that staying within the church is "becoming unbearable". He believes that current church rules, in particular those to do with celibacy and the role of women in the church, have made it so.
Father Molloy says that he wants to set up a church that will have its own decentralised structure similar to a "traditional" kind that operated in Ireland long ago, in which the people had power and in which there was a strong connection with nature.
He says Celtic Spirituality believes that God is both male and female, and he is critical of a church that would exclude women from becoming priests and impose celibacy on its priests.