IS BISHOP GIELEN A DOG IN THE MANGER?

 

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Anglican St Alban's - SOLD to the FSSR 

The day you see, in two Hawke's Bay Novus Ordo churches, something called a 'gifting tree' instead of a Christmas tree is not improved by reading gutter journalism from a publication claiming to be Marist. In a beat-up worthy of its origin - "Paddy Gower has Issues" - Cathnews aka Cathspews continues its vendetta against the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSSR or Transalpine Redemptorists ) in Christchurch. 

The Marist knickers being well and truly in a twist, they're calling FSSR's purchase of the historic St Alban's chapel in Ohoka, North Canterbury, "dirty pool". In other words,  in following standard business practice for such transactions, the Sons are dishonest and unfair. Surely a Catholic publication cannot mean to say such a horrid thing? Or to paint the unhappy Bishop Michael Gielen as a dog in the manger, as Cathnews does? Cathnews will only have itself to blame if the Sons take it to court, as they did Bishop Gielen. 

The thing is, Christchurch Catholic Diocese can't afford to buy an historic church and hasn't got a congregation to put in it anyway, but it obviously does not want the FSSR to have St Alban's either. 

What's more, Cathnews would have us believe that if the Anglicans had only known that the would-be purchasers of St Alban's were those dastardly villainous Sons, they wouldn't have taken their money. Because, you know, there are 'concerns' about the sale. Whose concerns? Cathnews doesn't say. Cathnews hastens to remind us that the FSSR "has drawn controversy over reported illicit exorcism practices and over unlicensed priests presiding over the Mass". Drawn controversy from whom? Paddy Gower? 

Nothing so juicy as 'illicit exorcisms' and 'sexual grooming' has come Cathnews' way in aeons, and they are determined to milk this for all its worth. Normally all they have to rely on is the latest heresy from Antipope Francis or his mouthpieces like Bishop Peter Cullinane and Fr Joe Grayland - whose little spat over last Sunday's lamentable 'Litany of Lament' enlivens their current issue. 

Oh, and their suggestion that laity should have "a greater voice in choosing bishops" - a bad idea promoted by Monsignor Brendan Daly, canon lawyer for Christchurch Diocese. (But surely there could be no bishop more to the liking of the post-conciliar, Novus Ordo Synodal Bergoglian sect than Bishop Michael Gielen?)

Mons Daly wants us to believe that the FSSR priests are 'unlicensed' (whatever that might mean) and their Masses are "illicit". Fact is, the Sons' priestly faculties have been suspended but they continue to celebrate Holy Mass as all priests must, daily - and if the faithful turn up as they do and should, does Monsignor Daly think the Sons should turn them away?

"Reports raised questions", says Cathnews,"about whether the vendors knowingly transferred the property to the group." Whose reports? And why should the Anglican Diocese not transfer their property to 'the group'? What business is it of Cathnews whether they knew to whom they were selling, or not? 

A business-savvy reader of this blog comments that "no church wants to sell premises to another church who will use the premises to compete for parishioners. So it's common practice (for churches and businesses) to hide the purchaser behind a trust or other legal entity.  Dirty pool, no!  Standard practice, yes!"

 

The Anglicans, of course, are gentlemen. Although as heretics they don't have valid Holy Orders, they're The Establishment. They play cricket. They would never knowingly let any of their churches (let alone an historic one) be used by 'a group' which had been ousted from their territory (and then un-ousted) for breaking the rules - as they assume, because they don't know any more than anyone else does, why +Gielen expelled the FSSR - be used for poaching congregants from another Establishment. 

We should be under no illusions about this unedifying (actually scandalous) persecution of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer. The Vatican is in this instance pursuing its hellbent policy of exterminating the Traditional Latin Mass, simply because in the Traditional Latin Mass lies the truth Who is Jesus Christ, Rex Christus, Summus Sacerdos. As the Thomist theologian and liturgical scholar Dr Peter Kwasniewski asserts: 

"We need to admit a colossal fact. The single greatest work of at in the entire Western tradition is the traditional solemn Latin Mass. This is also the peak of Catholic theology, the pinnacle of Western devotion to Christ, the summit of man's religious quest for transcendent beauty and order, the confluence of all that is noble and great in the cultural heritage of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome" (The Latin Mass, Fall 2023).   

If they are to succeed in supplanting the ancient, authentic Roman rite of the TLM with a counterfeit church to suit the diktats of the Davos globalists, Antipope Francis and his woke N O, synodal hierarchy - including Bishop Michael Gielen and his canting chorus at Cathnews - must first eliminate traditional religious orders like the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.

And that's what this brouhaha in Christchurch is all about.

Rt Rev’d Dr Peter R Carrell, BSc (Hons), BD, PhD, Anglican 'Bishop' of Christchurch

Christchurch’s Anglican Diocese has reaffirmed its good relationship with the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch amid concerns about the sale of St Albans Church to the Transalpine Redemptorists.

 

The Anglican diocese recently sold St Albans via a trust. The church is now being used by the Sons of the Redeemer, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists.

 

The group has drawn controversy over reported illicit exorcism practices and over unlicensed priests presiding over the Mass.

 

Reports raised questions about whether the vendors knowingly transferred the property to the group.

Not "the FSSR" or "the Redemptorists' but 'the group'.  

 

However, the Anglican Diocese clarified that the trust’s stated purpose did not reveal any links to the Alpine Redemptorists.

'Reveal' as in show something that had been hidden. 

They maintain a strong relationship with Bishop Michael Gielen and have kept him informed throughout the sale process.

 

“Bishop Michael and I have been in communication in the course of the past week” the Anglican bishop of Christchurch Dr Peter Carroll told CathNews.

 

                                        Rt Rev’d Dr Peter R Carrell, BSc (Hons), BD, PhD.

“He understands that we sold the church in good faith to a potential ownership trust whose stated purposes betrayed no connection with the Alpine Redemptorists.

 

“We sold the church via a lawyer for a trust to be formed” Carroll explained.

 

“The name of the trust concerned a group styled ‘friends of St Albans’. 

'Styled', as in, made to look attractive. 

 

“At no point in our dealings with the lawyer was there information provided that identified that the effective owner would turn out be the Transalpine Redemptorists.”

 

Earlier this month CathNews reported that the “booted” Transalpine Redemptorists acquired a historic chapel.

Catholic Bishop Michael Gielen earlier this year ordered the Transalpine Redemptorists to leave the Christchurch Catholic Diocese.

 

He also ordered four of its priests to cease celebrating Mass and not to conduct other “priestly ministry” for anyone outside the religious community.

 

“It is important to underline that the removal of faculties remains in force, so any Masses the priests celebrate with members of the public are illicit – outside the law of the Church”, said Monsignor Brendan Daly, the canon lawyer acting for the Diocese of Christchurch.

From "Father Michael Mary wipes the floor with +Gielen", October 19 2024;

Father Michael Mary FSSR states unequivocally that "the claim made by Christchurch Diocese that the ‘Vatican upholds removal of priests' faculties’, and ‘a petition to have the removal of priestly faculties overturned was denied’ , is simply and inexcusably false. 

+Daly confuses the decrees of Bishop Gielen with the law of the Catholic Church. His statement is a misrepresentation of canon law, not an explanation of it.

In the first place, Mons Daly seems to believe that the Dicastery has refused the appeal and upheld Bishop Gielen’s decree removing faculties. If this is the basis for his statement, then +Daly is clearly mistaken.

The law of the Church when it comes to the public celebration of Mass is not so simple as, “if the bishop forbids it then it is against canon law”. A bishop is given power under canon law and can only act according to canon law. The sole reason given by Bishop Gielen to the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer for removing their faculty to celebrate Mass is that the Sons no longer have a role in the Latin Mass Chaplaincy, and so their priestly ministry is no longer needed. 

None of the decrees, indeed none of his communications with them or their canon lawyer, provides any other reason. The public celebration of Mass is so important to the priesthood that the law of the Church only permits this faculty to be removed as an extreme measure, and for certain defined reasons.

 

Canon 900 §2 states, ‘Any priest who is not debarred by canon law may lawfully celebrate the Eucharist…’ Being ‘debarred by canon law’ is much more serious than no longer being the chaplain of a group of Catholics, in general it means that a priest has been found guilty of a serious canonical crime and his faculty to celebrate Mass in public was removed as a penalty. This is simply not the case here.

A bishop may suspend or revoke the faculty to celebrate the Eucharist for a limited time if it is not a matter of a canonical crime; but such an administrative measure must be in due proportion to the alleged conduct. Bishop Gielen’s decrees allege nothing, but only state that the priests are no longer needed to minister in the Diocese.

 

His administrative act (removing faculties) is a grossly disproportionate response to a situation he himself created (taking the Latin Mass chaplaincy away from the Sons).https://juliadufresne.blogspot.com/2024/10/canon-lawyer-wipes-floor-with-gielen.html 

 

 

Monsignor Brendan Daly

Gielen’s decision followed a Vatican investigation into serious allegations against the Order, including sexual grooming and unauthorised exorcisms.

 

In early November, the Transalpine Redemptorists announced on its “Latin Mass Chaplaincy Christchurch” Facebook page that it had acquired St Albans Church in Ohoka, North Canterbury.Expelled Transapline Redemptorists play ‘dirty pool’

 Solemn High Mass at the Altar of the Chair in the Basilica of St Peter, Oct. 30, 2021.