The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Dismantling of a
Traditional Chapel

September 6th, 2009

Lest we forget ?

People always give me things to read on Sunday, sometimes a tape to listen to, a DVD to watch etc. however, I always procrastinate in doing so because I have so much other things going on.

An aside: One lady, for example, in Jacksonville, wrote to me when I was taking care of the sacramental needs of the Traditional chapel there for the five years I was their chaplain from 2000 - 2005 in addition to this church - it took me a year to respond. In her reply she stated that she hoped my reply wouldn't take so long this time - she never received a reply at all !

About 10 years ago I was given a dossier to read with the same title as this column by one of our senior "stateswomen". At the time she told me to read the dossier and to take care that its contents should never be replayed at this church. The dossier had a cover letter attached which was signed "Faith and Truth Committee". The letter said in part (the capitalization is in the original text - and is not my own):

Enclosed is the tragic story of the "Dismantling of a Traditional Chapel" - the true, detailed account of one "independent" Chapel's struggle to preserve their Chapel from the "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" - who were trying to destroy it from within.

This could happen to your Chapel, if it hasn't already. Please read their story, reflect on it, and act - in accordance with your conscience - to prevent what happened to these good people from happening to you !

Well, it took me 10 years to get around to reading this dossier, and by chance it was this lady's Son-in-law that prompted me to dig through my voluminous archives to locate this dossier again.

Last Sunday, Sister Mary Michaela was chatting with some straggler parishioners and for some reason the issue of lay-boards in modern Catholic churches came up. The Son-in-law referenced two priests of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, one deceased, the other still living but in semi-retirement, who had opined to him on separate occasions of the disastrous nature of the parish pastoral / financial councils. Since 1983, each parish has been required to have a council for fund-raising, they may also have another council: the Pastoral Council, whose job, in the estimation of these two priests was to liaise with the local bishop and effectively run the parish behind the pastor's back. According to these two priests - as the story was relayed to me by Sister - the pastor effectively became the sacramental adjunct of his own parish which was run by lay people according to the dictates of the local Ordinary.

For some reason this conversation reminded me of the dossier presented to me 10 years ago with the word of warning that I should be vigilant lest what the dossier contained should transpire in Spring Hill. I decided I ought to read it at long last and I am sure glad I did !

The dossier details a history of an independent chapel in Pequannock, New Jersey. The word "independent" means not aligned with any of the "mainstream" Trad groups like the Society of St. Pius X. What makes the subject of particular interest is that the chapel in question is under the same patronage as this church: Our Lady of Fatima ! Now you can read about the history of Our Lady of Fatima Pequannock, NJ here.

Like this church, the Pequannock Our Lady of Fatima was founded in the wake of the crazy stuff that happened in the early 1970s within the Church. Catholics looking for a haven amidst the chaos that was Catholicism after the introduction of the NOM and the many abuses that followed came together under an "old time" priest who resisted the changes. Like this church, the group in New Jersey experienced its fair share of turmoil under the guidance of the "old time" priest, law-suits etc. but the people muddled through and the Faith was preserved. Difficulties began, though, when the "old time" priest died. He, like many Trad priests of advanced aged, hadn't provided for the future. So what happened next ?

Another Franciscan priest came as a chaplain but before that happened a group of lay people with connections with the local diocese moved in. They began to ingratiate themselves with the old-timers who had founded the chapel. They engineered a kind of coup and wrested control of the parish from the old lay board by a vote, which, according to the dossier I was given was "rigged". The "vote" is referenced on that "history page" I pointed you to above but the precise nature of the vote-rigging is not even mentioned. Needless to say the parish ended up being handed over to the diocese and is now run under the auspices of the Fraternity of St. Peter. Evidently the cautionary tale was told from the perspective of one of those people who felt dispossessed and cheated. It also contains some factual errors which I personally know to be untrue. Other matters, are of greater interest, such as the secret meetings held by a business man, his attorney, and the attorney's father and unsuspecting parishioners in the business man's home without the knowledge of the Pastor and the church board. There was some implication that some people received funding from the diocese itself - actually on the diocesan pay roll ! After all, the dossier suggests that this could be inferred from the fact that they were living a lifestyle far beyond any perceived visible means of income, or that preferment for jobs within the bestowal of the Ordinary were also received.

In any case the intention behind this report was to warn other unsuspecting chapels of the potential dangers of negotiating with the "authorities" especially when the "authorities" have repeatedly demonstrated their ill-will over the years. I think Bishop Williamson's latest column says it all.

+TF