Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen has increased the frequency with which the Traditional Latin Mass can be celebrated by two former priests of the Papa Stronsay-based Transalpine Redemptorists. The two priests, Fr Yousef Marie, F.SS.R., and Fr Peter Mary, F.SS.R., who have disassociated themselves from the order, will now celebrate Mass in the old rite at the Church of Our Lady of the Garioch and St. John the Evangelist in Fetternear every Sunday.

The decision comes ahead of the planned illicit consecration of the founder of the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (Transalpine Redemptorists) on July 25 on the island monastery on Papa Stronsay, Orkney. Bishop Pierre Roy, who is a sedevacantist, will consecrate Fr Michael Mary Sim, who founded the community in 1988 with the blessing of Archbishop Lefebvre. Bishop Rodrigo Ribeiro da Silva and Bishop Fernando Altamira will co-consecrate.

Bishop Roy announced the consecration on June 18, stating that he had asked Fr Michael Mary to accept consecration “without any solicitation from the Redemptorists and despite some initial reluctance”.

He said: “Father Michael Mary will not be a mere dispenser of sacraments, as some today seek to reduce the Catholic episcopate to. He will be consecrated in the absence of an apostolic mandate, since the See of Rome is clearly occupied by the enemies of God.”

Bishop Roy announced that Fr Michael Mary, who is in his early 70s, will live primarily in New Zealand following his consecration, stating that this was because there was no “traditional bishop” in the country.

Ahead of the illicit consecrations, Bishop Gilbert published a pastoral letter on July 18, stating there was a need to reaffirm “the principles by which we want to live”.

Bishop Gilbert compared the forthcoming consecration to those performed by the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) on July 1, in which four priests were elevated to the episcopate at Écône, Switzerland. The day after the consecrations, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) declared that the four newly consecrated bishops as well as the two consecrating bishops had incurred automatic excommunication.

Bishop Gilbert said of the consecration of Fr Michael Mary: “This likewise constitutes an act of schism and will place those engaged in it outside the Catholic Church. Both of these actions, and especially the latter, touch our own diocese of Aberdeen, and not in a good way. Objectively, we are dealing with a break from the unity of the Church.”

The bishop emphasised that while “we do not believe that Popes are always wise or holy, though happily they may be”, the papal ministry “serves the unity of the Church; the unity of the Church enables her mission; and her mission serves the incorporation of all into the Body of Christ which is our salvation.”

He continued: “The Papacy saves us from a Christianity in our own image, a Christianity merely reflecting our own pet ideas or the current cultural ‘take’ on things. The Papacy connects our ‘here’ to everywhere the Gospel has taken root and will, and our ‘now’ with the lasting will of Christ for his Church.

“The Papacy keeps all of us – laity, Religious, deacons, priests and bishops – from turning in on ourselves. It preserves us from thinking that we define faith and ‘own’ the Holy Spirit, and that the Church is simply ours to shape rather than first of all a saving “space” opened for us by the living Christ. With the Papacy we are spared the fate of becoming a merely national Church or a sect, or followers of some self-appointed authority. We are kept open to the fulness of the faith and the full breadth of the call to charity. With Peter the mission flourishes, without him it withers. And to refuse communion with him is spiritual suicide."