(LifeSiteNews) — A U.S. archbishop has removed the priestly faculties of a priest who proceeded to publish what he believes to be “heavenly messages” after being warned not to, asserting that he was urged by God to supersede his bishop’s authority because of the grave current condition of the Catholic Church.
Reverend Gustavo García-Siller; MSpS, Archbishop of San Antonio, took action against Father John Mary Foster of the “Mission of Divine Mercy” (MDM), after the priest made public what he felt were divine revelations to his religious community.
In documents bearing the seal of the archdiocese, García-Siller withdrew Foster’s faculties, banning him from public ministry, while also suppressing his religious community, the MDM.
Foster is no longer permitted to preach or hear confessions and has been removed from his position as parochial vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Canyon Lake, Texas.
García-Siller has also ordered the seizure by the archdiocese of the apostolate’s property.
According to the archbishop, his severe actions came after canonical warning and admonition one week earlier. “Foster has incorrectly asserted that he does not, during what he claims to be an unprecedented crisis in the Church, owe obedience to legitimate Church authority.”
To view LifeSiteNews’ coverage of the alleged prophecies, click the following links: message one; message two; and message three.
In a statement published on the Archdiocese of San Antonio website, Garcia-Siller said that Foster had outright admitted his disobedience to Pope Francis and his ordinary and cited the following reasons which he believes justifies his actions.
We know that many people are concerned that the Mission of Divine Mercy is being disobedient to our Archbishop in publishing these Messages. And that our ‘disobedience’ discredits these Messages. That is a very legitimate concern. The key question is: Are we obeying God? We should always obey God. And normally, we should obey legitimate human authorities but only in those cases where human authorities are acting in accord with God’s law. There are occasions, as the Church has clearly taught, when we are called to obey God even though it means disobeying human authorities. We see many examples in the life of Our Lord Himself as we will discuss below. Is our situation one of those occasions?
We are making three claims that may be shocking to many:
- That these Messages are coming from God. They are prophetic Messages.
- That the Church is facing an extreme crisis, beyond any she has faced before, because, as a Message we recently published says ‘the usurper [is sitting] on the chair of My Peter-he who is carrying out the Great Treason.’ This extreme crisis calls for extreme measures.
- Given this extreme crisis, we are obeying God in publishing these messages, even without our Archbishop’s permission (‘We Must Obey God,’ p. 1).
Here are some of the other statements cited by Archbishop García-Siller which triggered Foster’s move.
“In summary, we must always obey God. Normally, obeying God includes obeying the authorities of the Church. But we are living in an unprecedented crisis. God is telling us that the Throne of Peter is occupied by a usurper, and we should not submit to him nor those who are carrying out his unjust designs” (“We Must Obey God”, p. 11).
“Many commentators have pointed out that for centuries enemies of the Church have worked patiently to infiltrate her with the goal of subverting and destroying her faith, the Deposit of Faith given her by our Lord Jesus Christ. Their efforts have seen some bad men placed in powerful positions in the hierarchy, including bishops, cardinals, and members of the Curia. Such infiltrators have already done great damage. Now, however, they have ‘allowed the usurper to sit on the chair of My Peter’. An unprecedented attack on the Church’ (“We Must Obey God”, p. 6);
“Regarding the legitimacy of Bergoglio’s papacy, serious questions have been raised by individuals who are much more competent in this area than we are. We are not pretending to resolve here from a human standpoint all those difficult questions, but we are trying to transmit the crucial point made by the Lord in His messages to us. We do believe that whatever scholars and canonists may say is the official or technical status of the man occupying the papacy, that man is a usurper and leading the most dangerous attack the Church has ever faced” (“We Must Obey God”, p. 6-7);
“When superiors are actively committing or commanding grave evil, one is not obliged to obey them. We don’t believe our Archbishop intends to do evil. We believe he is good-hearted. But he is enthusiastically following Bergoglio, whom we do believe is trying to subvert the Church” (“We Must Obey God”, p. 10);
“To those who suggest we are leaving the Church or being schismatic, we can only reply with an emphatic NO. We are defending Christ’s Church and her Deposit of Faith. We love and defend the papacy, which is why Bergoglio’s usurpation is so painful. It is those who willfully sow confusion and disorder and subvert the Deposit of Faith that have worse than leaving the Church betrayed the Church” (“We Must Obey God”, p. 12).
