For thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (Ps. 43:22)
The Psalm verse atop this Ad Rem came to mind as I was considering the situation. Psalm 43 is categorized as one of the eight Psalms of “national lament” since the nineteenth century. According to Saint Augustine, it is a prayer of the Church Herself, that is, a prayer of Jesus Christ, the Head, praying for and with us, His Body. It applies especially to the martyrs, but it was used by Saint Paul in Romans 8 actually to encourage the Romans to hope and confidence in God.
“The situation” that put me in mind of this Psalm is the grim reality that our community is under direct assault not from the ADL or the SPLC (which would be expected) and not from dyed-in-the-wool Modernists (again, par for the course), but from ostensibly orthodox and traditional clergy. The nature of the attack is to discourage the faithful from participating in or supporting our apostolate in any way.
It all goes back to the fact that an official of the Manchester, New Hampshire Diocese manufactured a demonstrably false narrative against us — a fabulous version of events based upon one letter from a Roman official who misunderstood something I wrote back in 2016. From that there is a straight line to the January 7, 2019 “decree of precept” that began all these troubles for us.
With the blessing of our canon lawyers, we published an exposé of this false narrative on Catholicism.org, dated the Feast of Corpus Christi (June 4) of this year: “‘Unacceptable’: Did the CDF Censure Saint Benedict Center’s Beliefs in 2016?” This is an almost 9,000-word study that goes into detail, citing supporting documentation, in exposing the deception that underlies that decree from Manchester. (Yes, it actually took that many words to uncover the true version of events!) Please read the exposé; its contents are simply too complicated even to summarize here. If you are not online and would like to read it, I can send you a copy; just call or write requesting one.
Here is one indication of just how false the narrative is: Based as it is upon the notion “Rome has spoken, the case is finished,” the backstory of the decree against us should also have ensnared the approved communities of Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the adjacent Worcester Diocese, but it did not. Why? Because the narrative is false.
If you have heard that you should distance yourself from us because of this decree, or if you are a priest wondering how to advise people in the matter, please consider the following.
First, we have initiated several “hierarchical recourses” against this unjust decree of precept. One is currently pending in the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court. In other words, we are and have long been seeking justice through the proper channels. This effort has taken a great deal of time, work, patience, and, yes, money.
Second, since 2019, we have been faithful to the 2011 Profession of Faith we made before Bishop John B. McCormack (we never doubted our faith before that, either!), and the author of the precept against us has offered no proof that we have reneged on it; rather, he has simply spun a tale. Further, we have faithfully observed the prohibitions and obligations expressed in the 2019 decree of precept that strictly bind. The most obvious effect of this is that we have not had Holy Mass or the Sacrament of Penance on our premises since we were commanded to stop them in early 2019 — at the cost of almost unbelievable anguish. The Brothers and Sisters have attended the Traditional Latin Mass at a parish in the next town, where we are regularly subjected to various indignities.
Third, the effort I mentioned in the first point above — our canonical case — is not the only matter we have had to hire professionals to assist us with. At the same time he published his unjust decree, Manchester’s Judicial Vicar launched a public smear campaign against us that hurt our reputation. He also sued a media organization that published favorable coverage of us (and defamed him in the process), and we were dragged into the civil litigation as a “non-party” to the case, being completely innocent of any defamation ourselves — as was revealed in the legal proceedings. But we still had to pay a civil attorney nonetheless because I was deposed as a witness. The expenses from canon lawyers, civil attorneys, and our media consultant have exceeded $100,000.00 over these almost eight years. We have had to pay these expenses while still paying the loan on our chapel — a beautiful building which has not had the Blessed Sacrament in it for close to eight years now, nor Holy Mass, nor confessions.
A fourth point follows from the third. Every priest who has in any way forbidden people to support us is no doubt aware that the faithful have a right to recourse in canon law when they have been wronged. Each one should also know that we have a natural-law right to guard our reputation when it has been savaged in the press and by “church gossip.” What many of the clergy likely do not know is just how very expensive all these things are when they necessarily involve multiple third-party professionals. If a priest acknowledges that we have a divine and canonical right to our defense but thinks that it is not right for Catholics to help us in pursuing that, then a clear contradiction follows: We may defend ourselves, but we must be financially ruined in the process, thus preventing us from defending ourselves and — eventually — snuffing us out as a community.
If all the clergy told all the faithful to pursue this course, and if the faithful considered themselves bound to follow this direction, then there is effectively no justice in the Church for us. But that is an absurdity; the Catholic Church is, like Our Lady, the “mirror of justice” — and she is obliged to give mankind a supreme example of justice. A reasonable priest, being possessed of common sense, logic, and the knowledge demanded by his office, can see that it would be manifestly incongruous for a cleric to advise members of his flock to give no financial support to a group of Christ’s faithful who have been and are still seeking justice through all the proper channels in the Church. (If we had set up our own parallel ecclesiastical structure, which is what schismatics do, the matter would be different; but, that is not at all the case.)
The astute reader of the unjust decree of precept will surmise that it was calculated to destroy us financially. (Read it if you like; it is on the website of the Diocese of Manchester.) While it has not succeeded in bringing about our financial ruin, its effects on our material support have been significant.
Thankfully, there are priests in canonical good standing and well aware of our situation who do not advise the faithful to cut off their support for us. Indeed, we have solid priest benefactors! Needless to say, we are very grateful to them just as we are grateful to all of our benefactors.
We are fully aware of that supporting the work of Saint Benedict Center and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a work of “supererogation”; in other words, it is not strictly binding on anyone. If you are reading this, and you have discontinued your support of us, I am not asking you for anything other than to prayerfully consider the facts I have presented here and act in accord with your informed Catholic conscience.
At the beginning of this letter, I noted that, in Romans 8, Saint Paul used the dreadful lamentation of Ps. 43:22 as an encouragement to the Romans. Here is how the Apostle ends that chapter: “But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That promise comes to all of us who love Our Lord and His Church unreservedly, no matter what.
God bless and Mary keep you.
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You are cordially invited to attend our annual conference. This is one way you can continue to support our work and involve yourself in our apostolate, regardless of the fantastic stories they tell about us.
