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Priest Told to Drop Civil Suit
or be
Excommunicated
Unprecedented Threat Used
to Force End to Libel Action
 AUGUST 4, 2000 -
FORT ERIE, ONTARIO: In an unprecedented move, the Vatican is forcing a Canadian
Catholic priest to drop his libel suit against another cleric by illicitly
threatening him with the rare and extraordinary punishment of excommunication.
Father
Nicholas Gruner, who heads the Fort Erie-based Fatima Center, has offered to
withdraw his libel action against Monsignor Alan McCormack, now based in
Cardinal Ratzinger’s Congregation in Rome, provided the unwarranted threat
of excommunication is withdrawn together with certain guarantees.
Coralie Graham,
a Director of the apostolate headed by Father Gruner was incredulous: “I
am speechless at this abuse of authority. Excommunication is for heretics and
abortionists. This is a clear-cut abuse of Church authority in order to engage
in a coverup. But what is a person to do when politicians so close to the Pope
are the ones pulling the puppet strings?”
Father
Gruner’s civil suit seeks a retraction of public statements made in 1990
by Msgr. McCormack, then an official of the Archdiocese of Toronto, challenging
Father Gruner’s status as a Catholic priest.
Excommunication,
which formally severs all connections between an individual and the Catholic
Church, is a punishment normally applied only to persons guilty of grave moral
or theological offenses, such as the persistent preaching of heresy.
Since this
penalty effectively terminates a priest’s career, it is very rarely used.
Hundreds of priests convicted in civil courts of serious sexual and financial
crimes in recent decades have been spared this punishment, as have prominent
theologians, such as Hans Kung, whose published views are notoriously contrary
to Catholic teaching.
Father Gruner
has never been officially accused of any such offenses. In fact, Father Gruner
has never been canonically accused of any offense whatsoever against the
Catholic Faith, Catholic morals, or Canon Law.
The
excommunication threat was made in a letter (dated June 5, 2000, and delivered
by two messengers to Fort Erie on June 21) from Dario Cardinal Hoyos, who heads
the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy in Rome. Catholic moral theology
and Canon Law allows Father Gruner to sue in civil court for libel if other
avenues of defending his good name are exhausted.
In any case,
Canon Law does not provide for the penalty of excommunication for such a civil
suit. Nevertheless, according to a Vatican official, the letter bluntly warned
Father Gruner that failure to withdraw his libel suit “would provoke
additional canonical procedures against him, up to and including the penalty of
excommunication.” Since Father Gruner was attacked in print a decade ago
by Monsignor McCormack, Father Gruner has made several unsuccessful attempts to
reach an out-of-court settlement. The Toronto Archdiocese’s only response
was an attempt to have the suit dismissed, claiming that the Church’s
internal court was a more appropriate forum for resolving the matter.
In view of the
excommunication threat, Father Gruner has now requested a meeting and direct
negotiations with Vatican officials, including Hoyos. At the same time, Father
Gruner requested an adjournment of the libel trial in order to accommodate the
requested meetings at the Vatican, which may take many weeks to arrange.
Earlier
this year, Justice Gloria Epstein of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that the
case “can and should be resolved in this court,” since the
Church’s internal dispute resolution process does not provide for the
awarding of damages, and lacks a mechanism for enforcing such awards.
Father
Gruner’s organization publishes a quarterly magazine, “The Fatima
Crusader”, with over one million readers in Canada and the United States.
It promotes traditional Catholic teachings and devotions, and has attracted
strong opposition from Fatima skeptics in the Vatican bureaucracy.
Notably, the
same Cardinal Ratzinger (whose Vatican office employs McCormack) mentioned
Father Gruner by name in his press conference of June 26 regarding the Third
Secret, and suggested that Father Gruner was in a state of anxiety. “It
must be because Cardinal Ratzinger knew of Cardinal Hoyos’ threat of
excommunication. I am not now suffering, nor was I suffering on June 26, from
any state of anxiety. The excommunication threat has no basis in Church law and
my mind is at peace. I don’t know what else Cardinal Ratzinger could be
referring to. His choice of the word ‘anxiety’ is surely no
coincidence,” said Father Gruner.
Since both
European and North American press have sought the benefit of Father
Gruner’s and the “Fatima Center’s” extensive research on
the Third Secret, it may be that there is more to this excommunication threat
than meets the eye.
It appears that
this is an attempt to silence the “Fatima Center” from revealing to
the world all it knows about the Third Secret independent of the Vatican and,
in particular, the news that clearly contradicts the Vatican “spin”
on the Third Secret.
The suit is
currently scheduled for trial on August 28, 2000 in Toronto, Canada.
Contact Father Paul Kramer
The Fatima Center, 452 Kraft
Road, Fort Erie, Ontario L2A 4M7
(905) 871-7607.
The Fatima Center, home of "The Fatima Crusader", is the world's largest Fatima
apostolate campaigning for the promotion of the full Message of Fatima, for the
release of the Third Secret and for the Consecration of Russia to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. Its outreach includes the print media, Internet,
Radio and Television. For more information on the Third Secret, click here.
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