Sinéad O'Connor, who famously tore up a picture of the Pope, was ordained in a niche Catholic Church sect and later converted to Islam
Sinéad O'Connor, best known for her cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U," died at 56, her family announced Wednesday.
O'Connor caused extreme controversy when she ripped a photo of then-Pope John Paul II on SNL.
Despite this protest, O'Connor never separated herself from spirituality.
Sinéad O'Connor, who once ripped up a photo of then-Pope John Paul II on "Saturday Night Live," had a complicated relationship with religious institutions but remained involved with various faiths her whole life.
O'Connor, whose death at 56 was announced Wednesday, was ordained in a niche sect of the Catholic Church and later converted to Islam. The singer was far from hating any god — she just hated abuse of them.
"One ought to be more concerned in obeying what the Holy Spirit inspires you to feel rather than what a bunch of men in fucking dresses are telling you to do or not do," O'Connor told The Guardian in 2010. "What I think is wrong is that the people running the show are misrepresenting what Catholicism actually is."
She caused widespread controversy after ripping a photo of Paul during an SNL performance in 1992, which she did to stunned silence. According to an interview with The Independent, O'Connor took the photo from the wall of her abusive and devoutly Catholic mother after she died, and wanted to use the moment to protest the sexual abuse of children in the church.
Nearly 30 years later, O'Connor stood by her actions while speaking to The New York Times.
"I'm not sorry I did it. It was brilliant," she said in 2021. "But it was very traumatizing. It was open season on treating me like a crazy bitch."
In 1999, RTÉ News reported, O'Connor was ordained in the Latin Tridentine sect of the Catholic Church and became Mother Bernadette Marie.
"A person shouldn't become a priest unless they take it dreadfully seriously," she said to RTÉ. "What I call my holy trinity is I am a mother, I am a singer, and I am a priest, these things are equally sacred to me."
At the time, she continued performing under her name, but wore a cassock, pledging to auction her other clothing and establish a charity to support Travellers, an indigenous ethno-cultural group in Ireland, the article adds.
Later, in 2018, she converted to Islam and adopted the name Shuhada' Davitt, again continuing to perform under the name O'Connor, reported The Guardian.
"What I like about Islam is that it is anti-religious," O'Connor later told The Guardian in 2021. "In the same way that Jesus was a militantly anti-religious figure, Allah is saying that people are not to worship anything but God. The worst thing that happened to God is religion."
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