It's a cult with a really nice building.

They say on their website that Fr. McKenna left under the influence of Satan to work with Bp. Dolan.

They will control you and your children. It's all a facade, their leader is deranged, aggressive, and obsessed with control. Dig deep, ask people who chose not to associate with them, you will find the same. They also shun other traditionalist who do not adhere to their cult.

There are plenty of other options in the area. SSPX in Woburn and CMRI in Stoneham.

http://willingshepherds.org/

see above link. Sacred Heart in Lawrence, MA
is the real deal.

I attend Sacred Heart. I know the religious work very hard to provide us with a normal parish life. I do not understand the comment about it just being a façade. It is not a cult. It is a traditional Catholic Church that follows all of the teachings and traditions of Holy Mother Church. Like a previous poster said, no one at Sacred Heart shuns other traditionalists or is involved in the drama of the Traditional Catholic world. I have never heard them in the last eight years from the pulpit speak against other chapels, with the exception of one recent sermon speaking out against groups who follow Francis so in that one case SSPX was mentioned. The Brothers and Sisters are simply living out their vocations and running a Church to provide the sacraments and save souls, there is no other motive than that.  Obviously the person who is attacking them is someone who has a personal vendetta or an ulterior motive to detract from them personally and in turn their mission. There are a lot of people in the Traditional World who spend their time maligning other groups in order to promote their own.  This post is a perfect example of that.

Sacred Heart is not a cult. There is no brainwashing going on or mind control. It is simply a Catholic Church where devout and humble souls are trying their hardest to get to heaven by following the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church before the great apostasy which followed Second Vatican Council and its aftermath.  

As far as the religious controlling people and their children, it is just not true.  I have several children who attend school at the Church.  Not once have the brothers or sisters attempted to control my children or my family or any family for that matter. My personal experience with the Superior and all the Brothers and Sisters has been truly a blessing for my family. To use such harsh words against a religious is a sin against the first commandment and quite frankly a blatant lie. The Superior is not deranged, aggressive and obsessed with power. My children are blessed to have such a loving and caring real life example of religious life and service to God.

The only instance I can recall in the past which would explain such an outrageous and aggressive attack on the Superior and the Brothers would be of one family that was not allowed to re-enroll in the school after a couple of years of the brother superior trying to get them to follow the rules set forth in the handbook. If following the rules of the school is too controlling for you or your children, then they should have never enrolled to begin with. There are rules at the school as with any Catholic school.  Parents are required by the handbook to follow the rules and each parent is asked to read the handbook before enrolling their children in order that they know what is expected of them, such as regular Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation Mass attendance and not attending the Novus Ordo.

As far as training of the priest, just call and ask the Brothers, they will tell you exactly what they told me. The brothers have been studying and training for the priesthood many years. Our current priest studied for over seven years.  He was already studying for the priesthood when Fr. McKenna abandoned Sacred Heart Church. After this, Sacred Heart Church was left without a resident priest, Bishop Morello oversaw the remaining two years of his training and found him a fit candidate for the priesthood. He has since been overseeing the training of the seminarians; the current seminarian has been studying since 2013 and has several years left. If there was a problem with the training of the priest, I am sure that Bishop Morello would not have ordained him since he has been running reputable seminaries for the SSPX and himself for decades and his reputation speaks for itself.

To remark on one of the other posts regarding a rumor that the priests at Sacred Heart do not have a rigorous training or formation. Our current priest has been a religious for twelve years and studied for the priesthood for seven, the last two years he studied full time with Fr. Rodriguez under the direction of Bishop Morello. Over the years, I have attended many different traditional Masses and interacted with different groups and I can honestly say that I have yet to see the quality of priests and religious that I have seen at Sacred Heart Church. One of the visiting Franciscan priests that used to come to Sacred Heart before he got too old to travel told my husband and I  that this chapel was the only one he had been to where seeing how the Dominican Brothers behaved and how they did things reminded him of the old Faith before the changes.

“They say on their website that Fr. McKenna left under the influence of Satan to work with Bp. Dolan.”

Actually the only one who mentioned actual names is you, the “guest unregistered” poster, who is hell bent on making sure you name drop to cause more traditional drama. I believe this is called the sin of detraction. The brothers have been gracious enough thus far to keep the matters between Fr. McKenna and themselves private. The website does not mention Fr. McKenna’s name anywhere. If the point of this post is to destroy the brother superior’s reputation, using Fr. McKenna against him doesn’t have much credibility in light of his scandalous behavior during his training and after his ordination that is becoming common knowledge. See following link:Pistrina Liturgica

The fact that you cut and paste a paragraph from the history of the Dominican Priests & Brothers of the Holy Face of Jesus website trying to back up your lie about what is said on the website, clearly shows that your motive is not to provide any sort of genuine spiritual assistance to the person asking about Sacred Heart Church. Your only motive is to tarnish people’s reputation while leading people away from a good Catholic Church with well trained religious and valid sacraments, a rarity in today’s world. Seems to me that jealousy has stirred this pot and I will not stand by and let people lie and detract from Sacred Heart Church and its religious who are just trying to help souls get to heaven.

Brilliant!  In your attempt to defend the Dominicans in Lawrence you stoop to the sin of detraction.  Why shoot yourself in the foot?  Why risk damnation over a thing which helps no one?  I too think well of the Dominicans in Lawrence.  But I also happen to go to the CMRI chapel because it is only 3 miles from my house.  The CMRI nuns are wonderful and I have never heard them say a bad thing about the Dominicans in the 1.5 years I have been going there.  I have never been told not to go to Masses in Lawrence.  I also know that the Dominicans themselves used to go to the CMRI Masses.  I also know that there were at least 9 people from the CMRI chapel at the Ascension Thursday Masses in Lawrence this year.  I guess they hadn't heard we were not supposed to go there either.  Don't be a fool!  Don't damn yourself over things that are none of your business.  Detraction and calumny are mortal sins.

Quote from: thomasmoore67

(We all know now what really was going on with Fr. Stephen McKenna-who should not be confused with Bishop Robert McKenna, O.P. as in previous post.)

elaborate ? does this have something to do with the purported
Dolan-Cekada scandal ?

I cannot say what it is, but I get a strange feeling from Dolan and Cekada.
am I wrong ?

Relax - there are no scandals. Neither Dolan-Cekada, nor the CMRI nor the Dominicans of Lawrence.
I exaggerate somewhat. The N-SSPX is a scandal.

After reading these posts and prayerful consideration I have decided to respond because it has been burdening my conscience.  I do not feel right not responding to a lot of the misinformation that is being put forth on the internet about my parish. The reason I am writing this is not for the purpose of detraction, but because after many years of allowing traditional groups to scandalize families, children and sincere traditional Catholic people, I feel it to be a duty to expose the lies and scandals that I at least know firsthand and am familiar with. Because Our Lord taught us that we have to expose evil when the good of souls is at stake. If you are serious about protecting your family and souls; If you live in the area and want to truly practice the Catholic Faith and not be involved with the scandals and craziness that comes from the traditional movement (which, we know the devil will attack these groups with more ferocity because the truth does exist there) then I can only recommend the parish I currently attend and have been for many years, which is Sacred Heart in Lawrence, MA.
 
In regards to "Fr." Steven McKenna,  I can remember him speaking from the pulpit, telling us how he was going to be our priest at Sacred Heart while at the same time he was asking for money for the seminary burse and did so up to his ordination and then... he was gone. Scandalizing everyone in the church and taking and spending all the money we had donated to the seminary burse which belonged to Sacred Heart Church for the support of the seminarians.
 
I also know that he had the CMRI Sisters recently sing the Mass for his grandmothers' requiem. Ironically, CMRI has done much to  try to stop the mission at Sacred Heart through the years and "Fr." Steven McKenna was very critical of the CMRI and their empire building behavior, but I guess he has taken on the  practice which "Bishop" Dolan is known for: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." And why are the Dominican Brothers his enemy now after ten years of being with them; because they caught him in all sorts of scandalous activities that have been exposed by others on the internet and have been verified through his own emails, receipts, etc. and by his rector in Washington. Which can also be confirmed by the fact that his own rector refused to attend his "ordination" due to his behavior and being "unfit for the priesthood." This clearly shows that Steven McKenna has no character or principles, and that is not even mentioning his improprieties that were exposed in his emails, etc in Washington state. When Steven McKenna realized that his rector attempted to stop his ordination; Steven McKenna began to make up several stories about him, calling him crazy, even though he had been with him for nearly five years, in an effort to hide his own scandalous behavior. The rector expelled him from the private seminary; and then ironically, "Bishop" Dolan came forth and took him from his "crazy" rector. "Bishop" Dolan also was the only one willing to ordain him. This was clearly a ruse to enact a pre-conceived arrangement by them, which seems to be one of Dolan's contrived plans to steal another chapel. The Brothers don't tell us much about what happened, but they did tell us that Dolan tried to get them to sign a contract, which Dolan said he would not "ordain" McKenna unless they signed this  contract; the first contract the superior refused to sign because it would hand Sacred Heart Church over to Dolan. The superior only signed an amended contract, that did not include that stipulation. The contract, altogether, became void when Steven McKenna abandoned our parish on October 31, 2012.
 
One should also know that Steven McKenna's explanation of his journey to the priesthood and traditional Catholicism that was on St. Gertrude's website and on Restoration Radio, was completely untrue, it was the Brothers, through the grace of God who converted him. I know this because "Fr." Steven McKenna told his conversion story many times at  Sacred Heart to me and other parishioners. It had nothing to do with a random family or random friend (in the two explanations that were given by him he gave two different stories), it seems to me he just didn't want to give credit to the Brothers at Sacred Heart or was told not to by Dolan.
 
In reference to the above blog concerning CMRI, it is difficult for me to understand why or how the followers of CMRI do not understand or see what this group is about. CMRI will be moving to Salem, New Hampshire according to this blog, the next town north from Sacred Heart- they have the same theological position and both have valid priests (though the training at CMRI is certainly questionable, as a matter of fact a man I know of, who is independently studying under one of the CMRI priest in Idaho, used to say that CMRI was the bottom of the barrel, and yet he went to them because he knew they would take him, seems disingenuous at best). If CMRI had a good Bishop, he certainly would not allow this scandalous relocation to take place. However, he did move Fr. Michael Oswalt from Mount St. Michael when the priest exposed the evil practices going on there, yet completely remains silent about the scandalous upcoming relocation of the CMRI Boston mission. I am also aware of many good independent priests who hold the same theological position as CMRI who have had CMRI set up chapels on their doorsteps rather than taking care of countless number of Catholics who have no Mass at all and this is why I do not attend CMRI. Trying to take parishioners from Sacred Heart has been a mainstay for them for a nearly a decade now, but amazingly their followers do not see this as a move that would be only pleasing to the devil. CMRI chooses not to set up a church in Maine (their larger mission), they don't go to a different part of the state (south of Boston or Rhode Island where many of their parishioners are from) or to a different state altogether like the Carolinas or Vermont where there is so many souls wanting and need a Mass site...instead they go to the next town over from Sacred Heart (which is farther north) so they can attempt to destroy what God has obviously started. How many times has one heard from the CMRI sister in the Boston mission speak of Sacred Heart Church, saying: "We cannot recommend them" yet they have no problem pushing their own priests who have run off with nuns (Mt. Saint Michael in Spokane Washington in front of children), or more recently the nefarious situation in Fiji, New Zealand & Australia with Fr. Julian Gilchrist. Not to mention their own priest admitting that their seminary is so bad that they had to train themselves. Or when a third of their sisters left to go to the Novus Ordo and the priests and Bishop knew of their defection and still had them teach and influence the children and run missions, including the Boston Mission that had a sister leave for the Novus Ordo in 2007.
 
What I can clearly tell everyone is that I cannot recommend Indult groups, SSPX, CMRI and certainly not Steven McKenna and the Dolanites out in Ohio- as a matter of fact Dolan's ordination is doubtful and therefore all priests "ordained" by him are also doubtful.
 
After decades of being a traditionalist, I agree with previous blogger. If you live in the area, I can only recommend the Dominican Priests and Brothers at Sacred Heart in Lawrence, Massachusetts (but that is only if you want to worship God, because they are not involved with the politics or foolish behavior of some traditionalists). It is the only place I have been where I don't feel like something is wrong. The priests are obviously well trained and strict but approachable. Bishop Andres Morello has an excellent reputation. I never hear of rumors or craziness; as a matter of fact, the person who started this conversation accusing the Brother Superior of being all these negative things, ought to think twice about the consequences of spreading such terrible and unsubstantiated lies about a religious. Clearly no thought or prayer went into this persons comments, because it is certainly no light matter to scandalize someone on the internet for the world to see and for no other reason than an apparent personal attack; unlike the information that I have put forth above which are well known docuмented facts and for the good and protection of souls. This person simply lied and put it out there for the whole world to judge and gossip about, or the possibility of hindering souls from receiving valid sacraments by referring to a religious community as a "cult." This person will need to answer to God for every soul that will be scandalized by their words; the behavior of this blogger is the only thing that seems to be "deranged and aggressive."
 
At Sacred Heart, the Priests and  Brothers are kind and humorous and very rarely have I seen any of them take a strong approach with anyone except a few times over the years with trouble makers (mostly people that adhere to the Fenneyism error) and thank the good Lord that they do that, otherwise our parish would be just as unstable as so many other traditional chapels.

I feel sorry for the poor Dominicans in Lawrence that they have been burdened with such a poor excuse for a Catholic.  Who were you praying to when it was confirmed in your mind that you should post gossip?  It could not have been any good spirit which inspired you to do this.

I find it quite strange that you are so concerned about "gossip" regarding the Dolanites or CMRI yet you have nothing to say about the "gossip" that attacked the Dominicans at the beginning of this blog...which simply means you are a CMRI parishioner or Dolanite.

Also, my intention was to make sure that people are not duped by these groups because they destroy and scandalize families, on the other hand it seems you have a devious agenda trying to belittle what I said. At the end of the day I spoke the truth for a good and wholesome reason. So what spirit is working through you that only seems to be concerned with "gossip" when it is about your parish. Obviously your intentions have ill will.