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Fatima Center Reacts to Vatican Announcement
Concerning Father Nicholas Gruner
 September
12, 2001 (Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada ) - A spokesman for the Fatima Center, an
international organization of laity and clergy devoted to promoting the Message
of Fatima, expressed shock and outrage at the Vatican Press Office's
publication today of a "Declaration" concerning Father Nicholas Gruner, S.T.L.
and a Conference on Peace in the World being sponsored by the Fatima Center in
Rome on October 7-13, 2001.
The "Declaration," signed by officials with the
Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, asserts that Father Gruner is under
"suspension a divinis" by the Bishop of Avellino and that the Fatima Center's
upcoming Rome conference "does not enjoy the approval of legitimate
ecclesiastical authority."
Christopher A. Ferrara, United States spokesman for the
Fatima Center, stated that "First of all, it is absolutely outrageous that only
one day after an unprecedented terrorist attack on America which claimed
thousands of lives, the Vatican press office's top priority was to inform the
world that no one should attend a perfectly permissible conference on world
peace merely because the sponsoring organization has Father Gruner as its
president. What has Father Gruner done to earn this denunciation? In his 25
years as a priest he has kept his vow of chastity and committed no offense
against faith or morals. The same cannot be said of the innumerable clerical
predators and heretics who are running all over the Church with impunity, while
the same Vatican Congregation---which has a duty to stop these
malefactors---seems to have nothing better to do than to issue false and
misleading notices about Father Gruner, a faithful priest.
"Besides, the
invitations to the conference were signed by two bishops, one monsignor and
four priests, not Father Gruner. The Fatima Center has more than a hundred
employees and more than a million lay and clerical supporters worldwide. By
what right do some Vatican officials with no jurisdiction over the Fatima
Center seek to sabotage its activities? These same officials would never dream
of issuing declarations against groups of feminist nuns and other ecclesial
malcontents, who can have all the conferences they like on women's ordination
and other heretical themes while the Vatican does nothing. What is the Vatican
afraid of? The Message of Fatima? World peace? The Blessed Virgin said that
Russia's Consecration to Her Immaculate Heart was Heaven's chosen way to
achieve world peace in our age. Why would Vatican officials put to the top of
their ‘to do' list the business of interfering with a conference devoted
to world peace and the Message of Fatima---at the very moment the world is
exploding all around them? It's lunacy."
Ferrara noted that "the ‘Declaration'
states it was issued by mandate of ‘higher authority.' That's Vatican code
for the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, not the Pope.
Sodano has been after Father Gruner for years because his organization
continues to promote the Consecration of Russia, which the Vatican apparatus
evidently considers diplomatically unacceptable, as revealed by a high-ranking
Cardinal in a recent issue of Inside the Vatican magazine. Father Gruner has
also been critical, and rightly so, of Sodano's cozy relations with
pro-abortion ‘world leaders' like Mikhail Gorbachev, whose foundations
promote abortion and contraception to eliminate four billion people from the
world's population. Sodano has twice honored this blood-drenched character at
the Vatican."
Concerning the Declaration's reference to a suspension, Ferrara
noted that "It is completely unfounded. The entire canonical case against
Father Gruner, which has nothing to do with faith or morals, is based on the
trumped-up accusation that he ‘failed' to find another bishop to
incardinate him and so must return to Avellino, where he was ordained back in
1976, or be ‘suspended' from the priesthood. What the ‘Declaration'
fails to mention is that the same Vatican officials who make this accusation
have deliberately blocked offers of incardination by a whole series of friendly
bishops. The bureaucrats have even disregarded Father Gruner's actual
incardination in an Indian archdiocese, claiming that it is
‘non-existent.'"
Ferrara added that Italian immigration law makes it impossible for
Father Gruner to reside in Avellino: "He would be arrested at the border and
deported if he attempted to enter Italy to reside permanently in Avellino. The
Bishop of Avellino has done nothing since 1978 to support Father Gruner or to
take steps for his immigration because the Bishop has no need for Father
Gruner, who cannot speak the local dialect. The Bishop would be only too happy
to let him transfer to another diocese, but the Vatican Secretary of State is
illegitimately interfering with the transfer."
In effect, said
Ferrara, "these Vatican officials accuse Father Gruner of failing to obey an
order they themselves prevented him from obeying." Ferrara believes that the
only reason Father Gruner is being singled out for such treatment is the
effectiveness of his Fatima apostolate in keeping alive the politically
embarrassing question of Russia's consecration. "What else could explain how
Father Gruner, a morally upright priest, is made the subject of such a
preposterous Vatican ‘declaration' at such a supremely inappropriate
moment in world history? It's just absurd."
Ferrara added that
"Father Gruner seems to be the only priest in the entire Catholic Church who is
not allowed to transfer from one diocese to another. Meanwhile, child molesting
priests are routinely transferred from place to place for years with no Vatican
interference or ‘Declarations' from the Vatican press office. Even
infamous heretical clergymen like Hans Küng have never been suspended, but the
Vatican announces to the world Father Gruner's bogus ‘suspension' on a
flimsy charge they manufactured out of nothing. And they make their shameless
announcement only one day after the bloodiest terrorist attack in world
history. Their obsession with Father Gruner boggles the mind."
Ferrara
noted that the Fatima Center's upcoming Rome conference "is completely in
accord with Church law, and no approval of ‘ecclesiastical authority is
necessary.' These Vatican officials know very well that Church law (canons 212,
215, 278 and 299 among others) makes it clear that Catholic bishops, priests
and laity have a natural right to form groups and attend meetings with each
other, and that absolutely no permission is needed for the Fatima Center's
conference. The ‘Declaration's' statement that ecclesiastical approval
being lacking is about as honest as saying that the conference was not approved
by the American Medical Association. So what? It's a classic example of the
literally truthful lie. Besides, the Church has approved conferences like the
one in Rome and all other gatherings of clergy and laity as a matter of the
natural right of freedom of association. As I have just mentioned, this is
recognized in the Code of Canon Law, which was issued by Pope John Paul II
himself."
Ferrara observed that "Yesterday's unprecedented terrorist attack
in America is just another proof that we are not witnessing the Triumph of the
Immaculate Heart and the period of peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima if
Russia were consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart, because Russia has never been
consecrated to the Immaculate Heart by name."
Ferrara immediately
added: "And those who, like Vatican official Archbishop Bertone, claim that the
Pope has declared the consecration was accomplished on March 25, 1984 (or at
any other time) are promoting a Big Lie. There is not a single papal statement
to that effect. Not one! On the contrary, hours after the 1984 consecration of
the world, the Pope spontaneously remarked before 10,000 witnesses in Saint
Peter's Basilica that certain ‘peoples'--meaning Russia---are still
awaiting his act of consecration, which, as I just mentioned, the Pope's
advisors have told him not to perform, lest the Russians be offended.
"Surely no
one in his right mind could think that the 1984 ceremony consecrating the world
has produced the promised conversion of Russia. In Russia today there are two
abortions for every live birth, and Russia has become a world center for the
distribution of child pornography. Under Russia's 1997 law on ‘freedom of
conscience' the Catholic Church is barely allowed to exist, and is legally
forbidden to make converts among the Orthodox and other religious groups. It is
nothing short of blasphemy to attribute the current state of Russia to the
miraculous intervention of the Mother of God."
Ferrara concluded by
asking: "Why don't these Vatican officials just leave Father Gruner alone and
devote their vast resources to fighting the real enemies of the Church, about
which they do next to nothing? Why do they treat the Message of Fatima as if it
were the greatest threat to the Church today?
"Their behavior is as
mysterious as it is scandalous. The only possible explanation I can see is that
they do not believe in the words of Our Lady of Fatima and want to be done with
them, but haven't the candor to say so openly. For the good of America and the
whole world, let us pray that this opposition to the Message of Fatima soon
ends. Meanwhile, in light of recent tragic events, the Fatima Center remains
committed to holding its Peace Conference to address the dire need for the
Collegial Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
See Cardinal Must be
Deposed for more details on
Father Gruner's case.
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