Dear Readers,
I apologise for the shortage of posts on this blogsite over the past months, however today, I wish to publish details of an apparent miscarriage of justice occurring at this very moment in the Roman Catholic diocese of Christchurch, New Zealand, involving the Bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Michael Gielen, and the Transalpine Redemptorists, otherwise known as the ‘Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FssR)’.
The Transalpine Redemptorists have enjoyed a presence in Christchurch since 2007, and in 2012 were asked by the then Bishop, Barry Jones, to overseer the Latin Mass chaplaincy. In addition to their Christchurch base, they established an outlying mission based at the remote Mt Saint Joseph’s, Kakahu. The community’s austere daily lifestyle was featured in 2021 by the NZTV network.
We live on Stronsay in Orkney and have been here for the past 21 years. We have a small but delightful chapel on Stronsay, ‘Our Lady’s Chapel’, which is served by the priests and brothers from Golgotha Monastery, Papa Stronsay, the mother-house of the Transalpine Redemptorists. We consider ourselves honoured and fortunate to know the priests and many of the brothers. I have only a general knowledge of events leading up to the present situation in Christchurch, New Zealand, but I reproduce below copies of Bishop Gielen’s brief letters to Fr Michael Mary which speak for themselves. Due to the unexpectedness and considered injustice, of Bishop Gielen’s declaration, Fr Michael has challenged it on factual, legal, Canon and Civil Law grounds, and the matter is now being re-considered by the Vatican. With the permission of Fr Michael Mary, I reproduce details of documents written over past years, which with factual evidence, fully justifies his dignified but strong response to Bishop Gielen’s actions.
I have done my limited best to present the facts as I understand them, in as clear a manner as possible. The individual paragraphs below are reproduced from Fr Michael’s personal blog-site. I regret that they may not necessarily be in chronological order, sorry about this. Hardly a day goes by without further confirmation that this whole sorry saga represents a grave injustice to the ‘Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer’, an injustice imposed in almost ‘indecent’ haste by a Bishop who was only appointed in May 2022.
Some may think that the fact that the Sons are obligated by their religious rule to the traditional Latin Mass, which we know is currently out of favour by our spiritual leaders who are doing everything possible to banish it, may, just may, have some bearing on the real cause of this injustice.
“Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
has o Father Michael the office of the Bishop of Christchurch. The
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Exile for us, who have not a lasting city, and seek one that is to come [St Paul to Hebrews 13:14], is a journey begun by the very act of our births. Only the King of Heaven gave Himself up to it even at His Incarnation. Every person is born, is weaned, goes out from a home, and dies: a basic list to which a vast plethora of different variants are added in the experience of different souls.
I count myself fortunate that my list has imbued my soul with a sort of affection for exile – so much so that I have pasted in my glasses case the text: “How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?” [Psalm 136, 4] Since my boyhood I loved to read about exiles of various types; Solzhenitsyn’s purposely endless opening description of the variety of arrests; songs which spoke of the shackles as “bells” ringing out the progress of the advancing convoys; of Dostoevsky’s beautiful Gospel, which he received on the road to hard labour, and which he read almost constantly during that time; of St Rafał Kalinowski’s description of leaving Vilnius in convoy, when “the train departed, people moving along the heights that dominated the railway threw flowers on it as they do on graves of the dead at cemeteries”. Perhaps this seems strange reading for a boy, perhaps it was.
On 10 July 2024, when I, a lowly worker in our Christchurch Monastery, received a personal ukase (decree) of exile from Bishop Michael Gielen, it felt like nothing new. It echoed the above. It echoed the immigration apparatchiks (men of the system) I heard once at Heathrow as they went off duty: “Oh, what did you do with your Romanian?” “Ho, ho, I deported him.” It echoed the story related to us by a priest who as a boy was himself exiled to Siberia with his family, leaving his unburied sister in the living room laid out for her funeral. I feel as a number tattooed on an arm, a factor to be dealt with, a problem needing a final solution. It is a pity.
But the solidarity of the oppressed is a solidarity that - as love - is as strong as death.
The background is important.
In 1966 there were 486 nuns in the diocese of Christchurch. How many are left today? How many do we see? The presence of Jesus and Mary alive in the consecrated sisters or nuns has been eradicated from our streets and from our schools. The loss of the religious sisters, their prayers, services and visibility is lamentable.
Soon after we were established in Christchurch, a young woman asked us to begin a branch for women who wanted to live a life of devotion similar to our own monastic-missionary life. We could not make them publicly professed nuns, we did not have the authority. But since what they desired was to live a life of devotion consecrated to Our Lord, I agreed to recognise them as our sister branch, they would be the Daughter of the Most Holy Redeemer as we are the Sons. They could not be publicly professed nuns, but since they did not seek that degree of recognition there was no problem. They would be a Private Association of devout women living a monastic life and given to works of charity. After all, the first monks and nuns were ordinary people who offered their lives in chastity to Our Lord.
That is a background to the Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer. They are not the 486 nuns of 1966. They are the eight very fine people who, in this desert of worldliness, chose to live a life of devotion, prayer and service in the spirit of St Alphonsus.
On 13/14th July 2024 the Bishop of Christchurch publicly announced through a letter read in all the churches of the diocese that he had immediately suppressed the little community: "I am suppressing the Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer, a private association established without approval from the local Ordinary."
In the Apostolic Visitator's report from Rome it was stated that the association was formed "without the knowledge or consent of the local Ordinary..."
This announcement placed these eight fine women under an atmosphere of suspicion. Perhaps it led a lot of people to consider them as frauds! Tht is how the media framed them. They were harrassed by The Press, photographed and publicly mocked. A drone took photos from above their residence. It was such that for some weeks the Daughters did not want to appear in public and went for their food in the early morning or late at night.
That was not the way to treat women. No father would tolerate that treatment of his daughters.
The public announcement of their "suppression" an act of public shaming and of ostracization. In this they suffered social and mental abuse. We hope this grave injury is soon healed because these valiant women live for Christ and with Christ. Any father would be proud to have them as his daughters and they deserve well of all the Catholics who see them or meet them.
Here I demonstrate that the Bishops of Christchurch positively did have knowledge of the Daughters. In varying degrees there was consent to their presence in the diocese.
First: On 24 September 2014 Bishop Jones, Bishop of Christchurch, wrote to the Daughters to tell them that he really enjoyed reading about their holy life. Therefore he knew about them. As bishop of Christchurch on his official paper he wrote to them. He did not dismiss them. He did not consider them fraudsters. In saying that he "really enjoyed reading about (their) holy life" he gave his initial consent to the early days of their fledgling community. He said that he would take it to his consultors and be in contact with them afterwards. They were later positively visited by the Vicar General of the diocese.
The Diocesan Administrator assists at the Solemn High Mass.
The Faithful file through to salute Our Lord in the Daughters' chapel.
Second: On 4 June 2018 The Administrator of the diocese, Msgr. R. Loughlan, assisted at High Mass in our Oratory. The purpose of his presence at the Mass was a further degree of consent to the presence of the Daughters in the diocese. He was present officially. He came to witness the Blessed Sacrament being placed in the tabernacle of the Daughters' chapel. Surely that is a degree of positive official consent?
The Administrator of the diocese was accompanied by a large number of the Faithful. They publicly processed behind the Blessed Sacrament from the Oratory to the Daughters' House. The Blessed Sacrament was publicly placed in the Daughters' house precisely so that they could live with the sacramental presence of Jesus. The Faithful, waiting outside, came in turn to the Daughters' chapel and worshipped our Lord Who had taken up His residence there. It should be noted that when the Administrator of the Diocese gave his permission for the Daughters to keep the Blessed Sacrament, it was the Administrator himself who said that he would like to be present for the ceremony.
We must conclude, against what the report from Rome stated, that the Bishops of the diocese both knew and to some degree did show their consent to the presence of the Daughters.
Third: On 19 May 2019 Bishop Paul Martin wrote to me to acknowledge reception of the Statutes of the Association of the Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer. Because the Statutes were still in their formation draft he asked for a copy to be sent to him when they were finalised.
Therefore he knew of the Daughters and he had received their draft Statutes. He never expressed any reserve either at the fact of the Association nor that I, as Rector Major, had erected their Association.
The official magazine of the diocese said of them: “The decrees Bishop Gielen issued also saw the suppression of the Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer, an association established without Church approval within which a group of women presented themselves as nuns.” This is a statement about devout women living what Bishop Barry Jones called a "holy life", that he was "really happy to read about". It is a statement about devout women entrusted by the diocese of Christchurch with the Blessed Sacrament, living according to a draft Rule of Catholic spirituality that Bishop Paul Martin had received and accepted for what it was. To say that they "...presented themselves as nuns" does not do justice to the esteem in which Bishop Barry held their holy life nor does it do justice to the truth.
I hope that very soon the eight Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer will be well received by all. The Holy See has suspended the Bishop's Decree of Suppression of the Daughters until it is more thoroughly evaluated. The measure also permitted the Daughters to remain in the Diocese after 8 October 2024, which was the date on which they were to be expelled from the territory.
Devotedly
Father Michael Mary, F.SS.R.
The Oratory where is given a "rich, full and complete life of faith"
As one of the members of the Faithful associated with the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, I would like to record some of my experiences surrounding the media reports and Apostolic Visitation.
We have watched in stunned awe as our Priests and our community have been attacked in a truly brutal and merciless way - and we still have not been informed of what the accusations are, nor have we received any confirmations of guilt.
Throughout the entire ordeal, beginning with the m
Letter from one of the Faithful - On the Threat of Losing Our Church. As one of the members of the Faithful associated with the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, I would like to record some of my experiences surrounding the media reports and Apostolic Visitation.
we have watched in stunned awe as our Priests and our community have been attacked in a truly brutal and merciless way - and we still have not been informed of what the accusations are, nor have we received any confirmations of guilt.
Throughout the entire ordeal, beginning with the myriad of media reports which were littered with incorrect details and unproven accusations, right through the troubling and agonising Apostolic Visitation, we have listened to our priests speak from the depths of their pain, of forgiveness for our enemies and prayer for our persecutors.
- The Retired Bishop of Toowoomba -
During the Apostolic Visitation involving the retired Bishop of Toowoomba, many of us attempted to put forth our stories and holy experiences of the Oratory, to completely uninterested ears. There was a feeling that we were only being allowed to have meetings with the Bishop as some sort of formality, his mind already having been made up before even meeting with us.
Something is very wrong here. Completely innocent and uninvolved people, like the Brothers of the Oratory and the Daughters of the Most Holy Redeemer, have been audaciously asked to leave their homes FOR NO REASON! The innocent are being punished right along with those who are thought (but unproven) to be guilty. This is injustice after injustice.
"We do not simply go to the Latin Mass -
The Latin Mass is who we are."
Our hearts have been broken with the threat that we might lose our church. We do not simply go to the Latin Mass - the Latin Mass is WHO WE ARE. It is so dear to us because it is deeply entrenched in our hearts and souls. The threat of it being taken away from us has caused so much pain and stress that it is indescribable.
One might ask, why is the Kaiapoi Latin Mass not an acceptable alternative? How can one single Mass replace all we have at the Oratory? The nine weekly Masses, the catechesis of children, the traditional pre-marriage preparation, the like minded community... The Oratory has not simply provided for us one Mass per week. It has given us a rich, full and complete life of faith, generously available to us at all times during the week and has even spilt over to times outside of Mass, where priests have ministered to us through the blessing of homes and land.
How very blessed our children have been to be able to receive the correct formation and example at the Oratory, to have the privilege of sitting in a quiet and holy environment for Mass, to learn that receiving Our Lord on the tongue is the only acceptable way, to be part of the richness of Tradition and teachings of the Saints.
And how blessed we have been as adults to be able to assist at Holy Mass without the fear of watching Our Lord being assaulted and abused in a myriad of ways, the worst being to be touched by the unconsecrated hands of the laity and possibly being stepped on as particles of the Sacred Host fall carelessly to the ground. How joyful it has been to feel the sacred silence in our church, instead of noisy chatter of adults and busy clattering and clambering of children who are not taught to sit in quiet reverence during Mass.
What a joy it has been to have priests who are gently and confidently in charge of the spiritual formation of their Faithful, ready to direct them and minister to them the correct way, instead of priests (however dear they are) who have been fooled into thinking that catering to the whims of their people is the way to keep them happy.
"... to sit inside that sacred church..."
How edifying it has been to sit inside that sacred church and soak in the presence of God, to watch young teenagers enter the church after Mass of their own accord in order to venerate holy images, to see little children come in with permission from their parents to kneel down before statues of Our Lady and the Saints and whisper their pure and innocent little prayers and requests to heaven. I have adored Our Lord in front of the Blessed Sacrament in many Catholic churches but I have never seen behaviour like this in any of them.
At the Oratory, we are all people who have been to other Catholic churches in the past and we are acutely aware of the stark difference between them and the Oratory. Why is this Diocese and others around the world, closing down and selling churches? Why are the churches emptying? Why are the youth not interested in going to Mass? And why is the Oratory and other authentic Latin Mass churches, overflowing with eager people - especially youth - who are falling in love with their God, their faith and with Tradition, Truth and Beauty? It truly does speak for itself. But all of this begs the question - why would anyone want to eclipse that beauty and shut it down?
How can one Kaiapoi Mass replace this beautiful world of the Oratory which we have been privileged to be a part of? It doesn't come remotely close to being able to replace it. And why should it? This is still the question on all of our minds. Why should our priests and entire religious community be asked to leave Christchurch? What on earth is this gargantuan crime they have committed which would warrant such an extreme punishment or banishment? Why should we not be allowed to be part of our beautiful church any longer? Why should our children not be able to grow up in this environment of purity, beauty, tradition and serenity with complete lack of scandal or interference in their innocence? Why?
It is no secret that there is an attempt to suppress the Latin Mass world wide. What a tragedy and a travesty and a complete attack on what is true, good and beautiful. Those who are a part of it are embroiled in one of the greatest lies to ever have been propagated within humanity.
Let it be said publicly and openly - our hearts have been broken. I have watched my adult children cry tears of grief so pained, and I have joined them in their grief. I really can't think of many things that would be worse than losing our church. The levels of stress caused to many families has been severe. We have been shamed in public along with our priests. But that humiliation is nothing compared to the threat of losing our church.
Why are we still here?
We are still here because we want to stay here as long as we can. We are peacefully resisting eviction from our monastery. Our monastery is our home and it connects us with the families and people who have need of the Traditional Latin Mass. We are here especially for them. It is a good thing that we own our monastery and oratory; it is a help to remaining here. And we will try our best not to be evicted because we are committed to being here for the good of souls.
Expulsion of the Carthusians by the Government in 1903
Eviction is a pretty horrible experience for anybody. In our time it does not happen very often that priests and monks are evicted from their homes. It happened in April 1903 when the French Government closed monasteries. Today the religious authorities want our eviction.
Eviction - Invasion - 'Booting Out' the Jesuits in 1880
As candidates for eviction we soon learn that we were to be avoided by decent people, and that we had been separated by authority. We felt that we were now to be viewed as bad Catholics and held in contempt. Those who plotted our eviction would now be satisfied and could say: "Good riddance!" "Can't wait for them to go!" "Get out of town." "We don't want to know you."
Our ostracization was public: "Bishop Michael would like to remind the faithful that any public Masses those priests celebrate are illicit – that is, outside the rules of the Church."
Now we were no longer counted as brethren and respected clergy. We were separated off as "... those priests...". We are separated-out to be ostracized, not by the NZ Government, but by the leading religious men who, for others, would protest that all men should be held as innocent until proven guilty of some crime.
But priests and monks who worship God in the Latin Mass are separated into a different class of people. We exist only in the lower of a two tier system. Before the Holy See has decided matters our presence has been taken from the Christchurch diocese website; our names have been deleted from the official list of clergy and wiped from the list of priests present as recorded in the New Zealand Clergy Directory.
May ostracization and public separation cease. May sincere respect find its rightful place so that the Peace of Christ may rejoice in our hearts, in His kingdom of truth and justice.
Thursday, 21 November 2024
Corpus delicti (Latin for "body of the crime"), in Western law, is the principle that a crime must be proved to have occurred before a person can be convicted of committing that crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for theft unless it can be proven that property has been stolen.
We have not been accused of breaking any law. But the local experts in canon law sentence priests and monks who have not broken the law.
Canon 1321§1 was violated. It states: "No one can be punished for an external violation of a law or precept unless it is gravely imputable by reason of malice or culpability".
Before a punishment a warning is required by Canon 1339§3: "The fact that there has been a warning or correction must always be proven...". There were no canonical warnings, just sudden sentences.
General Precept requiring our departure for no crime committed.
Since there was no corpus delicti, no external violation of the law there should be no punishment. Of course there was no warning because there were no violations to be given warning about.
Therefore let us respectfully agree that to suddenly punish a whole group of priests and monks with suspension of priestly faculties and to exile them from their homeland is wrong. It might even be an abuse of power. Catholic Faith and Discipline does not punish people who have been deemed "surplus to requirements", or because they are faithful to the old Mass.
We must hope that the bishop was simply badly advised by his canon lawyers and that soon matters will be favourably resolved so that the peace of Christ may rejoice in the hearts of all.
Wilderness of Mt St Joseph's Kakahu.
No monk or priest is surplus to requirements.
There should be no forced exile from whanau and New Zealand.
Wednesday, 20 November 2024
" It is a sin against the Holy Spirit, who, through the sacrament of Holy Orders, has appointed bishops and priests as pastors of the Church of God (Acts 20:28), to depose them, or even secularize them, purely at personal discretion, without a canonical process. Objective criteria for disciplinary measures against bishops and priests are apostasy, schism, heresy, moral misconduct, a grossly unspiritual lifestyle, and obvious incapacity for office. This is especially true for the selection of future bishops when the candidate, appointed without careful examination, does not “have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching (sana doctrina)” (Titus 1:9)."
-Gerhard Cardinal Muller,
22 November 2024 Here
CathNews published an article on Monday 25th November with the headline "Expelled Transalpine Redemptorists Play 'Dirty Pool'. (Here)
Why did they not ask us what happened? This is what happened:
The building was indeed going to be bought by a Trust to be called "The Friends of Old St Alban's".
However, for legal and canonical reasons the building was bought in the name of 'Transalpine Redemtorists'. The Deed of Purchase was signed: Transalpine Redemptorists. Presumably the authority who signed the deed for the Anglican group saw that Transalpine Redemptorists were the purchasers. That is the name of the purchasers written in ink on the Deed that they signed.
CathNews did not accurately report the Anglican statement which is: “At no point in our dealings with the lawyer was there information provided that identified that the effective owner would turn out to be the Alpine Redemptorists.” (Here) Quite correct. We are the Transalpine Redemptorists, not the Alpine Redemptorists.
Looking further:
The Anglican statement seems to affirm that they were ready to discriminate against our religious minority. It seems to imply that they would refuse to sell the building because of our identity and religious beliefs?
It sounds as though the Right Reverend Dr Peter Carrell would have been ready to interfere with New Zealanders rights.
The 1990 Bill of Rights Act is in place to help ensure all people in New Zealand are treated fairly and equally? It "affirms the right of minorities to be free from discrimination."
In NZ it is illegal to refuse a sale because of a buyer's personal characteristics, e.g.: age, employment status, ethical belief, religious belief, political opinion. The Human Rights Act 1993 prohibits discrimination based on religious and ethical belief in the provision of "land, housing and accommodation".
The Anglicans "deconsecrated" the church and it became a building to be sold on the open market. If it had been bought as a workshop, an AirBnB rental, a hall or left to fall apart by a developer, the Right Reverend Dr Peter Carrell would not have spoken out. ....... Except...... if he had known that the "Alpine (sic) Redemptorists" were buying the building! Really? Was it so bad?
Poor Jesus Christ when Anglicans and Catholics gang up against selling a building to people who want to pray! Who want to kneel quietly and say their rosary or assist at a private Mass! Poor Jesus Christ when authority would boycott people who buy land to plant roses in memory of their departed parents and friends!
Who were playing the 'Dirty Pool'?
Was it the Transalpine Redemptorists who using their own name bought a building?
Or was it the sellers who 'if they had known' were ready to discriminate against our minority because of our religious beliefs and devotions?
Poor CathNews, you spewer of calumny and detraction!
Poor Jesus Christ!
Poor Sweet Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
ost Holy Redeemer, I would like to record some of my experiences surrounding the media reports and Apostolic Visitation.
We have watched in stunned awe as our Priests and our community have been attacked in a truly brutal and merciless way - and we still have not been informed of what the accusations are, nor have we received any confirmations of guilt.
Throughout the entire ordeal, beginning with the myriad of media reports which were l
