contraceptives, remove "anti-Catholic" books from their libraries and prevent the presentation of ideas contrary to the Catholic Church's official teaching. Some secularist critics, such as Barry Sheerman, a Labour MP and Steve Sinnott of the National Union of Teachers attacked him for his views on education in Catholic schools. Catholic Caring Services In October 2008 he came into direct conflict with trustees of the local Catholic-founded adoption agency, Catholic Caring Services (CCS), which was attempting to enact homosexual adoption contrary to Church teachings, following the UK government's Sexual Orientation Regulations. In a letter to the agency he threatened them with eviction from church property, warned that he would sue the CCS for money left in wills by Catholics to the agency if they did not change their stance within one week, threatened to inform the Charities Commission that the organisation was no longer Catholic, and would break its link with the Lancaster diocese: I find it unthinkable, indeed heart-breaking, that Catholic Caring Services, so linked to the Catholic Church since its inception, would abandon its position and capitulate to recent same-sex adoption legislation. Retirement and death O'Donoghue retired on 1 May 2009, with a special Mass at St Peter's Cathedral, Lancaster, and assumed the title Bishop Emeritus of Lancaster. He left the Diocese of Lancaster on 29 May 2009 and retired as an assistant priest to the parish of Bantry on the west coast of County Cork, Ireland. He died on 24 January 2021 at the Nazareth House care home at Dromahane, where he had been resident after becoming infirm. References 1934 births 2021 deaths People from County Cork Roman Catholic bishops of Lancaster Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Bantry 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in England