The Bishop of Aberdeen has declared that the founder of a traditional religious community in the far north of Scotland is in schism and has been excommunicated, a penalty announced separate to, but on the same day that, the priest was illicitly consecrated a bishop by fellow sede-vacantist clergy.
On Saturday 25 July, Father Michael Mary FSSR was consecrated a bishop on the island of Papa Stronsay by three sede-vacantist bishops. Bishop Pierre Roy was the consecrating bishop, with Bishops Rodrigo Ribeiro da Silva and Fernando Altamira being the co-consecrators.
News of the ceremony had been announced in mid-June, when the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSSR) stated that their co-founder and superior Father Michael Mary would be consecrated a bishop “for the good of the Catholic Church and the Catholic faithful in general and of the Transalpine Redemptorist Congregation in particular.”
The community had issued a strident and detailed statement on 2 May, in which they argued against the validity of recent popes since Vatican II, declaring themselves to be sede-vacantist.
Given the community’s explicit rejection of Leo’s pontificate, they did not receive any papal mandate for the ceremony. Nor was it the FSSR’s own initiative, but rather that of sede-vacantist bishop Pierre Roy, who contacted Michael Mary encouraging him to receive episcopal orders from Roy.
Papa Stronsay, the island home of the FSSR since the turn of the century, is located in the Diocese of Aberdeen, and at every new development the diocesan ordinary Bishop Hugh Gilbert has been swift to issue his condemnation both of the May statement and the July episcopal consecration.
A formal canonical process into Fr. Michael Mary concluded recently, and on Saturday, Bp. Gilbert announced the penalties stemming from the priest’s rejection of the validity of Leo’s papacy and the bishops in communion with Leo.
Announcing the priest as “guilty” of schism, Bp. Gilbert declared him “to be excommunicated, dismissed from ecclesiastical office, and prohibited from the celebration of Mass or the other sacraments.” The Holy See has been informed, in line with the “relevant canonical norms”, added Gilbert, who urged Catholics to have “no dealings” with the FSSR.
The bishop also outlined that Michael Mary could have the penalties lifted “in the event of a sincere change of heart on his part and the making of reparation”. The Church, he said, “will welcome them warmly.”
Notably, the bishop’s declaration of schism and excommunication is not predicated on Michael Mary’s illicit episcopal consecration, but the prior canonical investigation, hence why he refers to Michael Mary as “father” in the statement. Noting the consecration ceremony, Gilbert wrote that it only “compounds the situation and exposes Fr Michael Mary and those who take part to a further range of canonical penalties. This is a clear break with the Church.”
The Church’s Code of Canon Law 1387 outlines that anyone who seeks episcopal consecration without the papal mandate is automatically excommunicated, as are those who perform the ceremony.
In the verdict of the Holy See and the Diocese of Aberdeen, that penalty has now fallen on all four bishops involved, but for the latter they do not recognise the validity of any such penalties due to rejecting the validity of the popes since Vatican II.
As part of their May statement of sedevacantism, the FSSR called for an “Imperfect General Council” which would be for “all Catholic bishops of the world who have kept the true faith, to pronounce on the status of the present papal pretender, Leo XIV, and on the status of his Conciliar Church predecessors.” Until that time, the community stated it would reject the “current pretenders to the papacy from the time of the Second Vatican Council.”
The FSSR was originally born out of the Society of Saint Pius X, but was accepted into full communion with the Holy See in 2008. However recent years have seen the community and its superiors grow increasingly concerned and disillusioned at the state of the Church, with the COVID-19 lockdown and accompanying measures exacerbating that considerably. Last October, the FSSR retracted their 2008 statement, saying that “the Traditional Catholic Faith, the Faith of all times and of the saints, is incompatible with the new, modern Church, the fruit of the Second Vatican Council.”
The FSSR’s sedevacantist direction has caused three members of the community to leave, and a rural church near Aberdeen which the FSSR had served monthly is now served by these three monks on a weekly basis after Bp. Gilbert just expanded the traditional Mass provision.
Michael Mary decried this move by the diocesan bishop as “wicked” and an attempt to “wipe out those who are coming to our chapel”. Gilbert’s expansion of the Mass from monthly to weekly is “political” and “nothing to do with true, sincere love of the sheep”, argued Michael Mary.
Given the FSSR’s geographical position on the remote island of Papa Stronsay, the immediate practical effect on numbers of the faithful will be somewhat limited.
However it remains to be seen if the FSSR – now they are sedevacantist and rejecting the local bishop’s authority – will attempt to re-establish a house in New Zealand, after they had to leave the Diocese of Christchurch in 2024. An intimation was give of this in Bishop Roy’s announcement of Michael Mary’s consecration, though concrete plans have not been publicly revealed.
Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.
