CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (LifeSiteNews) — A traditional Mass community of priests is taking legal action against the local diocesan bishop who ordered their eviction from his diocese upon receipt of a Vatican investigation.
Local news media recently reported that the New Zealand members of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer are suing Bishop Michael Gielen of the Diocese of Christchurch over his sudden July decision to evict them from the diocese.
The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists, have been based in the diocese since 2017 after being invited by the now-deceased Bishop Barry Jones.
In a shocking development, Bishop Gielen ordered them on July 13 to cease their public ministry within 24 hours. Stating that the measures were “for the good of the church and the faithful,” Gielen ordered the community to leave his diocese reportedly within 90 days.
Gielen announced that a Vatican investigation had been performed by Bishop Robert McGuckin on behalf of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL).
The Vatican investigation had presented Gielen with a “series of recommendations” that he said he had accepted. Gielen did not outline what prompted the investigation or what the recommendations were specifically.
Since then, the traditional-Mass offering community has been able to offer only private Masses. Should they be forced to leave the diocese, they would have to abandon the community along with property and land valued at around $4.5 million.
The Sons have instigated canonical action against Gielen’s eviction notice, according to The Press, and are apparently prepared to appeal their case to CICLSAL and to the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura if necessary.
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Gielen has yet to respond to the community’s canonical legal action.
In the meantime, he continued his warning against attending any of the community’s Mass – amid reports of members of their congregation appearing for private Masses – attesting that any “public Masses are illicit.”
“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,” a note on the diocesan website reads. “The decrees remain in effect regardless of any challenge.”
In place of the traditional Mass offered by the community, Gielen has established a weekly Sunday Mass to which he has invited devotees of the Latin Mass to attend.
Asked by LifeSiteNews for more information and comment, Gielen’s press office simply pointed back to their public statement of July 13. The statement contains all the diocese has to say,” the bishop’s office replied. “The process of the establishment of the investigation, the appointment of the visitator and receipt of a report from the Dicastery is outlined in the letter.”
It is not clear if the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer have initiated canonical and civil proceedings or just canonical proceedings at this juncture. LifeSite has contacted the community for comment and will update this report accordingly.
Sons of the Redeemer reject bishop’s claim
In a public statement issued shortly after Gielen ordered them to leave the diocese, the Sons argued they had “been targeted by a deliberate and coordinated misinformation campaign.”
“This campaign along with the outrageous, false, and fanciful allegations have not resulted in any discernible findings and have lacked any of the components of rigour or natural justice,” they added.
Furthermore, the community attested that:
The bishop of Christchurch only managed to turn up minor administrative issues which are being used to suppress and shut down the Holy Latin Mass and issue proxy deportation orders to several New Zealand citizens … The Bishop of Christchurch has repeatedly and continues to refuse to meet or open any dialogue with members of our congregation and community.
They deemed the measures as “a direct attack on a strong and vibrant multicultural Roman Catholic community that provides much fruit for Holy Church in the way of vocations,” and also expressed their doubts about the longevity of the alternate traditional Mass that Gielen has established.
The bishop has patronisingly offered ONE Latin Mass at a different location in place of the 9+ masses, catechism, and confessions, said and heard weekly for 300+ souls.
This is grossly inadequate for a congregation of our size and given the bishop’s hostility toward the Holy Traditional Latin Mass, we have grave concerns for the longevity of this alternative arrangement.
“We the faithful have engaged with lawyers and will pursue these cases in lengthy civil and canonical court cases until we are satisfied with the resolution,” the community noted.
Accusations of exorcisms
For over a year, local media reports have publicly attested that members of the traditional community have engaged in unauthorized exorcisms.
In July 2023, a member of the community delivered a lengthy homily responding to what he called the “vice of calumny and the spirit of destruction that is targeting the chaplaincy and our religious community.”
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“For at least six years now, there’s been a rising canker of destructive criticism detraction, and calumny, born out of malice and ignorance which echoes even as far as Hamilton and Auckland,” he stated.
He rejected the allegations of performing unauthorized exorcisms, and also rejected a series of other allegations made about members of the community.
Such media attacks on the community were exemplified, the community stated, by a journalist who had approached them last summer “with a number of speculative questions of a sexual nature concerning a priest who lived in our midst for 26 months between April 2015 and July 2017, leaving Christchurch almost exactly six years ago.”
The community stated that the journalist’s questions were “exactly the type and style that at least one individual has been fomenting against us for years. The tactic this time appears to be to snipe at us anonymously from behind the cover of an investigative journalist, who wishes to sell a story to destroy our reputations in the easily swayed court of public opinion.
Appearing to refer to the same ex-member of the community, Father Michael Mary of the Sons denied last November any knowledge that the former community member carried out illegal exorcisms.
“We peacefully live in communion with the local bishop of Christchurch, where we have a canonical house,” he stated in July 2023.