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Concerning Father Nicholas Gruner and Fatima
Priest
Comments by Christopher A.
Ferrara, Esq.
 I am a civil
attorney who practices law in the federal tribunals of the United States,
exclusively in defense of the religious and civil rights of Roman Catholics.
Catholics are being persecuted throughout the United States because of their
faith, and in particular their strong opposition to abortion.
In my 22 years
as a lawyer I have seen a great many injustices perpetrated in the name of
justice. I have seen Catholics thrown into federal prison for simply standing
or sitting in the entrance of an abortion clinic or lying down on the public
sidewalk in front of the places where children are murdered in their own
mother’s womb. At this very moment I am awaiting the decision of an
appellate court on the West Coast of America about whether it will overturn a
$107 million verdict against some Catholics who have done nothing more than
circulate political posters that condemn abortionists by name.
In short, I have
seen the law broken in the name of the law. I have seen the letter of the civil
law exalted over the eternal law of God. And this is what happens in every
nation that turns it back on God.
But in my 22
years as a lawyer I have never seen a worse injustice than the injustice that
is being perpetrated against this priest, Father Nicholas Gruner, by the
tribunals of the Vatican apparatus. I think the best way to explain this
injustice is to tell you a story---a story about each of you. Suppose that you,
as a journalist, had written a series of sensational, but completely true, news
articles exposing corruption in high places in the Italian government. Suppose
that your superior suddenly came under pressure from on high to silence you so
that you would no longer be able to publish the truth. Now, you are an
exemplary journalist, and your work is beyond reproach. So the problem is: How
can such a good journalist be silenced when he has always spoken the truth,
when he has done nothing wrong? Clearly, your superior must find some false
pretext to get rid of you.
So, your
superior, acting under pressure from above, contrives a plan to make it appear
that you have failed in your duty as a journalist, and that you should be
stripped of your title and demoted to some lowly job, such as proof reader. And
here is the plan:
You are told to cover a very important story that will
require you to obtain interviews with several important people. You are told
that this story is so important that your career will depend upon your success
in obtaining these interviews. You are told that you must obtain this story
within 30 days if you wish to keep your job.
Following
orders, you proceed to contact the people who must be interviewed. Since you
are a very respected journalist, you are able to obtain the agreement of each
of these people to speak with you. But after you obtain their agreement to be
interviewed, your superior contacts these people behind your back, and he
tells them not to speak with you. Because your own superior has blocked the
interviews, you are unable to write the story by the deadline of 30 days. When
the deadline passes, your superior calls you into his office. He tells you that
since you have “failed” to complete the assignment, you can no longer
be a journalist and will now be demoted to the lowly title of proof reader.
Later on,
you find out that it was your superior who blocked the interviews and prevented
you from carrying out his own order. You present him with the evidence of his
misdeeds, and you object that he cannot take away your position as a journalist
because it was he himself who prevented you from writing the news story. How
can he blame you for a failure that he himself caused?
Your superior
responds that he has the right, as your superior, to tell people not to speak
to you, and he also has the right to demote you for not following his
orders---even if he himself prevented you from following his
orders!
Now if such a
thing really happened to you, would you not be outraged? Would this not be an
incomprehensible injustice?
Yet precisely
the same sort of thing has happened to Father Nicholas Gruner. Let me explain:
Father Gruner is from Canada, but he was ordained a priest in the Diocese of
Avellino in 1976. He was ordained in Italy because he intended to become a
member of an English-speaking community of Franciscans near Avellino. But this
particular Franciscan community never materialized, and so Father Gruner had to
make other plans. With the written permission of the Bishop of Avellino, Father
Gruner returned to Canada where he was allowed to live and work until such time
as he could find some other bishop to incardinate him.
In 1978, at the
suggestion of a Bishop of the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church, Father
Gruner was made a member of the Board of Directors of a Canadian apostolate
known as The National Committee for the National Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima. This
apostolate has custody of a statue of the Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima personally
blessed by Pope Paul VI.
Under Father
Gruner’s guidance this small apostolate of a few people grew to become the
largest Fatima apostolate in the world. Its publications are read by more than
a million people, and its radio and television broadcasts are heard throughout
North America. The apostolate has been singularly successful in promoting
throughout the world a greater awareness and appreciation of the authentic
Message of Fatima, which Our Lady conveyed to the three Fatima seers in 1917.
As you know, the Message of Fatima includes three Secrets.
The First Secret
contains a vision of hell, which Our Lady showed the three seers, telling them
that She had come to save souls from hell through devotion to Her Immaculate
Heart. The Second Secret accurately predicted the end of World War I, the rise
of world communism, and the Second World War. The Second Secret also calls for
the specific Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope
together with the Bishops, in a solemn public ceremony. If this is done, Our
Lady of Fatima promises that Russia will convert to the Catholic Faith, that
Her Immaculate Heart will triumph throughout the world, and that the world will
be granted a period of peace. If this is not done, Our Lady of Fatima warns
that there will be wars and persecutions of the Church, many people will be
martyred, the Holy Father will suffer and many nations will be annihilated.
As for the
Third Secret of Fatima, we know that after having kept it under lock and key at
the Vatican for nearly 60 years, on June 26, 2000 the Vatican finally published
a text that is said to be Sister Lucia’s description of a vision contained
in the Third Secret. In this vision the Pope and many bishops, priests and
religious are shot dead by soldiers as they kneel at the foot of a large wooden
cross, after the Pope has walked through a half ruined city.
Millions of
Catholics are convinced that despite the Vatican ceremonies performed by the
Pope in 1982 and 1984, the Consecration of Russia has yet to be done. These
ceremonies did not mention Russia specifically, and the world’s bishops
did not participate. After the 1984 ceremony, Sister Lucia herself declared in
the magazine Sol de Fatima that the ceremony was not sufficient because Russia
was not mentioned and the bishops failed to participate. Many Catholics have
also speculated, not without reason, that there must be more to the Third
Secret than what the Vatican disclosed on June 26 since the vision, standing
alone, is hardly something the Vatican would have concealed for more than half
a century. Contrary to what the Vatican claims in its official interpretation
of the Third Secret, many Catholics do not see how a vision of the Pope and
many other clerics being shot dead by soldiers could have anything to do with
the attempted assassination of John Paul II in 1981. Indeed, if the vision in
the Third Secret relates only to the 1981 assassination attempt, then why did
the Vatican continue to keep it a secret for another 19 years after the
attempt?
Father Gruner is, of course, one of the millions of Catholics who
believe that Russia has not yet been properly consecrated to the Immaculate
Heart, and that only this can explain the deteriorating moral and spiritual
condition of Russia and the whole world today. His apostolate has been very
successful in promoting awareness of the continuing need for the Consecration
of Russia. His apostolate has also joined with Catholics around the world who
are wondering about whether the Third Secret has been fully disclosed to
us.
Now, until about 1989 Father Gruner’s apostolate was able to grow and
prosper without any objection by the Bishop of Avellino, who had no objection
to Father Gruner’s work in Canada. But in that same year the Bishop told
Father Gruner that he was getting “worried signals” from the Vatican
Secretariat of State about Father Gruner’s apostolate. The Secretariat of
State was clearly concerned about Father Gruner’s success in promoting the
view that the Russia has not yet been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart and
that Russia must be converted if the world is to have true peace.
By continuing to
promote this view, Father Gruner’s apostolate was in effect opposing the
Vatican’s policy of Ostpolitik which began at Vatican II---that is,
the Vatican’s refusal to condemn communist regimes which oppress Catholics
and to seek accommodation with these regimes rather than confronting them. This
policy was enforced by Cardinal Casaroli and now Cardinal Sodano, as Vatican
Secretary of State. We see this policy at work even today in the Vatican’s
refusal to make any public condemnation of the persecution of Catholics by the
Red Chinese government. Instead of condemning the Communist Chinese persecution
of Catholics loyal to Rome, the Vatican sent Cardinal Etchegaray to celebrate
Mass in a Marian shrine now under the control of the Red Chinese government and
the schismatic Chinese Patriotic Association, which ordains bishops without the
Pope’s approval.
Closely allied
to this policy of Ostpolitik is a new vision of the world which does not see
the Church bringing the Faith to everyone and making disciples of all nations,
as Our Lord commanded, but rather sees the Church as just one part of what is
now called “the civilization of love.” In this “civilization of
love” the members of all religions, true and false, are supposed to put
aside all their differences and live in happy agreement with each other. This,
of course, is a utopia which coincides with the false idea of the world Masonic
order. Pope Saint Pius X and Blessed Pius IX condemned this false ideal.
You may
recall that only one day after the Vatican published the vision of the Third
Secret, it staged a press conference to celebrate publication of the memoirs of
Cardinal Cassaroli, and to praise his Ostpolitik. The guest of honor at
this press conference was none other than Mikhail Gorbachev, who was seated
between two Cardinals: Sodano and Silvestrini. Gorbachev’s foundations
promote abortion and contraception around the world in order to remove four
billion people from the world’s population. Gorbachev stands for
everything Our Lady of Fatima came to oppose in the name of Heaven.
In this
press conference we see in a highly visible way the new worldly orientation of
the Vatican---it is distinctly not the orientation of the Message of Fatima,
but rather one of accommodation with the powers of this world.
Father
Gruner’s apostolate presents a great obstacle to the Vatican Secretariat
of State, because the Secretariat of State considers the Virgin’s call for
the conversion of Russia a great embarrassment to its new orientation. By 1994
the Vatican Secretariat of State had put into motion a plan designed to silence
Father Gruner. This plan is the same in principle as the one in the story I
just told you about the journalist who is silenced.
Under pressure
from the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Bishop of Avellino told Father
Gruner that he must find another bishop to incardinate him or else return to
Avellino after an approved absence of more than 16 years. Well, Father Gruner
did find another bishop to incardinate him. In fact, he found three bishops who
were very glad to accept Father Gruner into their dioceses and to sponsor his
apostolate. But, each time Father Gruner found a benevolent bishop, the
Secretariat of State, acting through the apostolic nuncios and the Congregation
for the Clergy, pressured that bishop not to incardinate Father Gruner. One by
one these benevolent bishops were coerced into dishonoring their promises to
incardinate Father Gruner. At the same time, these members of the Vatican
apparatus ordered the Bishop of Avellino not to allow Father Gruner to transfer
to any other diocese.
However, one of
the three bishops threw off the coercion against him and affirmed his
incardination of Father Gruner. In his decree of incardination this bishop
declares that Father Gruner is doing “God’s work” and that
“evil forces have conspired to destroy your work of love.” This same
bishop also signed an Open Letter to the Pope protesting the unjust treatment
of Father Gruner, which was published in Il Messaggero on April 2, 1998.
Confronted
with this one bishop who would not bow to their illicit coercion, these members
of the Vatican apparatus simply declared the incardination non-existent.
Therefore, according to these Vatican bureaucrats, Father Gruner had failed to
find another bishop to incardinate him---a failure they themselves had
caused.
In short, these members of the Vatican apparatus gave an order that Father
Gruner find another bishop, and then prevented him from obeying the very order
they had given. Having prevented Father Gruner from obeying their own order,
they then accused him of “disobedience” and told the Bishop of
Avellino to demand that Father Gruner return to Avellino in 29 days or else be
suspended from the priesthood. They also accuse him of having an
“irregular condition”. What is this “irregular condition”?
Father Gruner lived in Canada with the written permission of his bishop, while
conducting an apostolate he had every right to conduct under the law of the
Church. Father Gruner’s “condition” is no different from that of
thousands of other priests in the Church who live and work outside the dioceses
of their incardination. In other words, the “irregular condition”
does not exist. It is a total fiction.
So, after an
approved absence of more than 16 years, Father Gruner is expected to abandon
his life’s work, close down his apostolate and its 150 employees, leave
behind his residence and personal affairs and return to Avellino to live in
exile until he dies. Father Gruner does not even have legal permission to
reside in Italy on a permanent basis. He would be violating Italian immigration
law if he were to obey this ridiculous order.
Naturally,
Father Gruner made a canonical appeal against the order to return to Avellino.
He first appealed to the Congregation for the Clergy. But there his appeal was
judged by the same Vatican bureaucrats who were working with the Secretary of
State to force Father Gruner to return to Avellino. At first they denied they
were trying to block Father Gruner’s excardination. But when the evidence
of their illicit interference became overwhelming, the finally admitted what
they were doing, but they claimed that they had the right to interfere in
Father Gruner’s incardination because they exercise the authority of the
Pope himself! In other words, these Vatican bureaucrats consider themselves to
be “little popes” who can run the entire Church without any explicit
permission from the “big pope.”
Father Gruner
also appealed to the Apostolic Signatura, which is the highest tribunal in the
Church. But when he first appealed to that tribunal it was headed by the very
same cardinal, Cardinal Agustoni, who had sent the Bishop of Avellino a secret
letter telling the Bishop to recall Father Gruner to Avellino and pretend that
this was the bishop’s own idea! Needless to say, Father Gruner did not
receive a fair hearing in the Signatura either, even after Cardinal Agustoni
was forced to step down from the case when his secret letter was uncovered.
The
canonical appeals in Father Gruner’s case are still continuing, and he has
now heard rumors that the Signatura has issued another decree which he has yet
to receive. Meanwhile, the current head of the Congregation for the Clergy,
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, sent Father Gruner a letter this past June in which
he threatens Father Gruner with excommunication.
Excommunication
for what? This is a priest who has kept his vow of chastity, who has never
preached or taught anything contrary to faith or good morals. Yet at the same
time this faithful priest is being threatened with excommunication, there is no
threat of excommunication for any of the priests around the world who molest
young boys, preach heresy or steal money from the faithful. In fact, if
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos’ threat were carried out, Father Gruner would be
the only priest in the entire post-conciliar Church to be excommunicated by a
direct sentence from the Vatican.
What is to
account for this outrageous double-standard of justice in the Church? There can
be only one answer: the Message of Fatima. It is this and this alone which
earns Father Gruner the enmity of these members of the Vatican apparatus, and
especially the Secretariat of State. Indeed, when Father Gruner objected to the
groundless threat of excommunication by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, Cardinal
Castrillon Hoyos replied that he had turned the matter over to “higher
authority.” The phrase “higher authority” is Vatican code for
the Secretary of State.
Father Gruner
has appealed to the Holy Father himself. He and his apostolate have filed three
separate recourses to the Pope setting forth all the details of the abuse of
power in Father Gruner’s case. The Holy Father has yet to act on these
petitions, and we fear that those who control the daily operation of the
Vatican will see to it that the petitions are never considered. Father
Gruner’s case is a vivid example of the corruption of a Vatican now
controlled by a group of prelates who pursue the agenda of the Masons, instead
of the agenda of Our Lady of Fatima. This sad truth was recently exposed in the
book Via Col Vento nel Vaticano, authored by Msgr. Luigi Marinelli and others.
The Monsignor, I note, died rather suddenly after the book was published. This
book has now been published in North America under the title Shroud of Secrecy.
The book was very favorably reviewed in one of the largest Catholic newspapers
in America---the Wanderer. Now even mainstream Catholic journalists are
coming to recognize what Father Gruner and others have been warning for years:
the Vatican is in the grip of forces which are undermining the Church and which
threaten to destroy her.
Father Gruner is
only one victim of this corruption in the highest places in the Church. The
forces that are attempting to silence him are the same forces that told us on
June 26 that Fatima is a thing of the past. They are the same forces who
invited Mikhail Gorbachev to the Vatican as a guest of honor, one day after Our
Lady of Fatima was pushed out the door.
It is the great
injustice done to this fine priest, and infinitely more important, to the Woman
whose cause he advocates, which has caused me to come 6,000 miles to this press
conference. It is that same injustice which compelled me, as an advocate, to
co-author Father Gruner’s biography: Fatima Priest. I wanted to
shine a light on a hidden scandal in the Church. Like the late Monsignor
Marinelli, I wanted to tell the world the truth about what is going on at the
Vatican.
As journalists you have dedicated your lives to making the truth
known to as many people as possible. I hope you will make known the truth about
the case of Father Nicholas Gruner---and above all the truth about the cause of
Our Lady of Fatima. I hope you will do this not only for the honor of your
profession, but for the good of the Church and the whole world.
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