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Author Topic: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?  (Read 4458 times)

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Online Ladislaus

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CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
« on: December 26, 2022, 12:11:12 PM »
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  • So I was talking with my mother yesterday, Christmas Day, and at one point she was lamenting the fact that the SSPV chapel in the Cleveland (St. Therese) area is dying out.  She says that the numbers are dwindling, and that there are very few young people there, but mostly old-timers.

    I attribute this to the fact that St. Therese does not have a resident priest, but just a priest who flies in on the weekends.  I mentioned the concern about what all these older people would do in the likely event that they need Last Rites.  Do they send someone down to Akron to drive 88-year-old Father Leo Carley up there to anoint people who haven't even been his parishioners?  SSPX is also a fly-in-fly-out group in the Cleveland area.

    But what's most disturbing is that SSPV/CSPV have going on a dozen priests floating around at Round Top.  To me, it's a mortal sin that these priests aren't dispatched to the various SSPV chapels out there to provide the faithful with the Sacraments on a regular basis.  Evidently they initially had this psychological problem with going through the TSA "naked" scanners ... as if Our Lord hadn't been stripped to near-naked on the Cross.  And, even if one were to pass over that, they couldn't pack up a couple of these priests in a car or buy them Greyhound bus tickets so they could establish themselves at St. Therese.  It's very nice little chapel with ample rectory space for 2-3 priests.

    And another question is why Father William Jenkins (hands down the best mind they have in SSPV) wasn't consecrated a bishop 5 minutes after +Mendez consecrated Bishop Kelly.  Instead you have a couple bishops over there whom I know to have barely been able to pass Latin I class ... although I do not question their personal virtue and piety, etc.

    They also have nearly 120 female religious up there.  Couldn't they too be dispersed a little bit to help set up schools, etc. in different parts of the country?

    I'm getting the impression more and more that they're setting up some weird End Times Doomsday cult up at Round Top.

    It's well known that there was some big rift between the Cincinnati group and Round Top some years ago, but even my Mom who knows people who know things can't get a good answer about what's going on and why.  Evidently there were a group of nuns from Round Top who taught for a while at their school in Cincinnati but then left abruptly due to some dispute.

    We also have a similar phenomenon with SSPX ... where you have priories that have 6, 7, 8 priests, while some decent-sized chapels with many families have to put up with the fly-in-fly-out weekend priest.

    To me, whether it's SSPX or SSPV, it's a grave sin to neglect these families who might otherwise be able to receive the Sacraments more regularly, receive spiritual direction, etc.  Not to mention that these chapels would undoubtedly grow due to the presence of a regular priests.

    I think these priests have to realize that the priesthood isn't given to them (i.e. they are't called to the priesthood) for their own sanctification or edification, etc. ... everyone is called to that in any state, and no one is worthy of the priesthood ... but entirely so that they can provide the Sacraments to the faithful.  I consider it a serious sin of negligence to allow these faithful to go without the Sacraments and other spiritual care while living in large groups of 6-10 or more priests.  There are a great number of these priests who'd be flipping burgers or bagging groceries if it weren't for their having been ordained priests, and some seek the priesthood so they can have respect, and feel important, as the lay faithful bow their heads to them while saying "Father".  I get that Archbishop Lefebvre wanted priests not to live along, but even if they split into groups of 2, a great deal of good cold be done for the faithful.  Father Leo Carley has been out there alone for going on 50 years now.  In the Old West, priests often set out by themselves on horseback into the wilderness to go take care of souls.

    But does anyone have any information on what gives with the SSPV and this bizarre rift between Round Top and Cincinnati?

    So the SSPV spun off this new "Congregation of St. Pius V" (CSPV), and we read this on their website about "Why a Congregation?"



    So, have they become Salza-ized here and decided that if a priest isn't under a Diocesan Bishop that he must live in some "society of common life" because of pre-Crisis Canon Law?  So, between the fact that they've decided they must live in some (entirely fictional) Religious Institute and the fact that they've decided that it's immoral for them to go through airport scanners, all these priests are hunkered down in the Round Top compound while refusing to care for the faithful.

    Are they one step away from Home-Aloneism ... in this case having all their priests live in a "Congregation" while having the faithful neglected?

    If so, what absurd legalism.  Of course, if one wanted to be legalistic -- this little "Congregation" of theirs does not "count".  Simply living in common doesn't meet the requirements of Canon Law, as the Religious Institute can't be something that was made up by someone without any jurisdiction to establish such an Institute in the first place.  If they want to get all legalistic, then their women religious are not nuns either.  We should start calling "Sister Mary Joseph" by her given name of Beth (just like people do to the Dimonds).

    What part of the fact that we live in an unprecedented Crisis in the Church does some of these Trad types do not understand ... between Salza and now this Congregation of St. Pius V?

    Get these priests out there to take care of the faithful, whom they are abandoning to the world and to the wolves as they live comfortably within the Round Top Cult Compound, likely sipping $100 bottles of wine at Christmas.

    Shame on them!

    Online Ladislaus

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #1 on: December 26, 2022, 12:31:07 PM »
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  • Evidently, some of these SSPV chapels will have a bishop come by for confirmation once every few years, as a bishop makes a round-the-country road trip ... since they refuse to fly due to the scanners.  They have 3 bishops up there at Round Top, and can only manage a sad little confirmation tour like that?

    But then why not consecrated Father Jenkins, who has no qualms about the airport scanners, nor do the other priests who work with him (Greenwell, Baumberger, etc.)?  Father Jenkins then could easily fly around to the various SSPV chapels even once a year for confirmations.  Or, since he's getting older, perhaps also consecrate a Baumberger or Greenwell ... instead of their multiple bishops at Round Top?

    So the best I can make it out, after the whole airport scanner thing, some genius Canonist was contemplating or meditating on Canon Law and decided that they had to form a Congregation where all their priests lived together.  That latter, combined with the fact that they refuse to fly, means that they have a ton of priests up there while the faithful get neglected.  I'm guessing they might fly out on weekends (even while living in common) if it weren't for the scanner stupidity.  But between these two, the faithful get neglected.

    And that still doesn't answer the question about why they don't consecrate Father Jenkins.  Could it be they won't consecrate him because he doesn't buy into their whole "common life" schtick from Canon Law?  Could that be why the nuns were recalled from Cincinnati, after some genius decided that they must all live together at Round Top?

    So where in this Canon Law does it say that a group had to be of any given size?  Since Bishop Kelly could make up CSPV, why would't he just invent a few more congregations to split the priests up more?

    Something isn't right.  On top of that, the reports are that Bishop Kelly has been practically on his death bed for the past 15-20 years now ... which was the prior explanation for why he didn't travel.


    Offline de Lugo

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #2 on: December 26, 2022, 01:12:11 PM »
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  • What part of the fact that we live in an unprecedented Crisis in the Church does some of these Trad types do not understand ... between Salza and now this Congregation of St. Pius V?

    Get these priests out there to take care of the faithful, whom they are abandoning to the world and to the wolves as they live comfortably within the Round Top Cult Compound, likely sipping $100 bottles of wine at Christmas.


    Noblesse oblige.

    Offline Yeti

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #3 on: December 26, 2022, 03:57:06 PM »
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  • Evidently, some of these SSPV chapels will have a bishop come by for confirmation once every few years, as a bishop makes a round-the-country road trip ... since they refuse to fly due to the scanners.
    .

    Are you sure about this? Why would this be a reason for a priest not to fly to administer to the needs of the faithful? I remember the outrage when those things were introduced, and rightly so, but no one ever claimed it was a sin to go through one of those machines, and as a matter of fact traditional Catholics fly on planes all the time without the slightest hesitation of conscience. Are you really sure this is why they don't fly?


    Quote
    Something isn't right.  On top of that, the reports are that Bishop Kelly has been practically on his death bed for the past 15-20 years now ... which was the prior explanation for why he didn't travel.


    I've been hearing that too. Does anyone know what exactly he has? I've been starting to wonder the same thing, how can someone be so sick for multiple decades and still be alive. :confused:

    Offline Mr G

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #4 on: December 26, 2022, 04:35:30 PM »
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  • If the Priests gets TSA Pe Check clearance, then they do not need to go through the body scanner and can go through the old metal detector. I have TSA Pre Check and when I get up to the body scanner, the TSA agents tell me to wait and then they unchain the metal detector and I get to go through that. 


    Offline Yeti

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #5 on: December 26, 2022, 05:20:43 PM »
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  • If the Priests gets TSA Pe Check clearance, then they do not need to go through the body scanner and can go through the old metal detector. I have TSA Pre Check and when I get up to the body scanner, the TSA agents tell me to wait and then they unchain the metal detector and I get to go through that.
    .

    Yeah, I don't know about this. It's a little hard to imagine anyone saying he refuses to get on a plane because he doesn't want to go through the body scanner, least of all a trad priest. I looked at their website and it lists 27 Mass centers spread all across the United States, most of which have Mass nearly every Sunday. It's a little hard to see how something like that could exist if all the priests live in one place in New York and none of them fly.


    Then I looked at the website of the CSPV and they have a list of their Mass centers, and for each one it says how the priest travels to that destination. Quite a few of them list the Travel Method as "Airplane".

    Offline tdrev123

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #6 on: December 26, 2022, 05:22:03 PM »
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  • The CSPV priests do fly on airplanes.  Maybe this was the case a few years ago but not anymore, I have never heard that.  
    The SSPV have their own missions and they will not let the CSPV take them over yet, why I am not sure, but I do know from one of the bishops that they have tried to have Fr Jenkins and Greenwell to stay in Cincinnati and let them do their missions.  

    Yes I believe it is quite strange and possibly bordering on neglect as to why they have about a dozen priests and 2 bishops and 120 sisters and they almost all stay at round top.  

    I have heard from the cspv that they will only establish a priory with 3 priests minimum at the one priory.  Why this hasn’t happened yet with a dozen priests makes no sense.  They could set one up in the Midwest and then go to all their missions every Sunday and not every other Sunday like they do when they fly.  
    At the mission I went to the church would be 4X bigger if they had a permanent priest and a small church.  Most families (mine included but for other reasons too) leave either to go to the Sspx or they move to someplace with a church and permanent priest (always being a SSPV location like Montana or Cincinnati).  
    I heard from one sister that about 30-40 nuns are away from round for most  of the year (some in Minnesota and maybe Montana).  So about 80-90 stay at round top for the whole year.   

    The vast majority of priests and nuns are from about 10 interrelated families.  I am not sure if that causes this weirdness or is a simple byproduct of their Thuc stance. 

    Offline DigitalLogos

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #7 on: December 26, 2022, 06:44:57 PM »
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  • Sounds like a result of yet another trad group falling on some "theologically-certain" article they came up with with dogmatic certainty. :facepalm:
    "Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." [Matt. 6:34]

    "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin." [Ecclus. 7:40]

    "A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun: but a fool is changed as the moon." [Ecclus. 27:12]


    Offline 2Vermont

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #8 on: December 26, 2022, 07:50:48 PM »
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  • Ladislaus...where are you getting your information from? I'm no fan of the SSPV due to their schismatic Thuc position but I'm having hard time believing all of this.

    Offline cath4ever

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #9 on: December 26, 2022, 09:07:22 PM »
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  • 1) The Priests of both the SSPV and CSPV have always flown on airplanes, and never stopped flying when the intrusive TSA procedures came out. 

    The NUNS stopped flying at that time, and for that reason, but the Priests never did. And within the last couple years the nuns have begun flying again too.

    2) The CSPV does have one priory outside of Round Top, and that's at Oyster Bay. 2 Priests and one brother live there currently. They will likely open one in Minnesota at some point.

    3) One of the CSPV Priests has been suffering from health issues the last few years, issues that cause him to be unable to travel long distances on his own. As a result he is assigned to mostly take care of Round Top on a permanent basis, which works out well given he shouldn't travel a lot.

    4) Almost all the CSPV Priests travel on most weekends, and Bishop Santay ofen does too.

    5) As they have gotten more Priests they have also opened more missions. Consequently, although their supply of Priests has gone up, the number of places they serve has too, so they aren't able to always give more Masses/attention to their existing chapels.

    6) Although all but two of the CSPV Priests LIVE in Round Top technically, often Priests are out at one or another chapel at times other than weekends, for funerals, sick calls, summer Catechism, etc.

    7) The rift between Round Top and Cincinnati has largely healed, and Fr. Jenkins has been in Round Top to attend the last few ordinations, and the bishops have been in Cincinnati to do confer Confirmation recently.

    8) The issue with setting up priories wherever you think is required, is that normally when a priory is set up I think it's expected that the chapel with the priory largely, or maybe even entirely, support the Priests who are resident there. Some of the CSPV missions can barely afford to fly the Priests in, and definitely couldn't provide them with full time financial support, health insurance, housing, house maintenance costs, etc.

    9) Black Eagle MT, White Bear Lake MN, and Cincinnati OH are the three churches with resident Priests of the SSPV. The CSPV help them when needed. It's important to note that when there are sick calls in Mission chapels, sometimes those missions aren't very close to one of the three resident SSPV Priests' chapels, meaning that these Priests might have to fly to get there too. 

    10) Bishop Kelly is indeed sick, and has been for a long time. I was told by a Priest that Bishop Kelly comes from a kind-of "sickly" family, and for much of his Priesthood has been ill with one thing or another. 

    He has some type of cancer I think, along with various other things. In all the years I have attended the SSPV/CSPV he has been sick and I've never known a time where he has travelling on a Mass circuit at least in the years I have attended their Masses. It does seem odd that Bishop Dolan, Father Cekada, and Father Collins are all gone but Bishop Kelly with his years of sickness is still with us.

    11) I too have heard that St. Teresa in Cleveland is dying out, as the parish is mostly made up of older people. I'm not sure why that is, but I could hazard a guess that maybe younger people with young families who start out at Cleveland eventually would want to move to Cincinnati since Father Greenwell and Father Jenkins have a K-12 school there. 

    Offline cath4ever

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #10 on: December 26, 2022, 09:17:01 PM »
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  • Since a VERY large part of the OP was lamenting the CSPV Priests not flying because of the TSA scanners, I just want to highlight this:

    The Priests of the CSPV NEVER stopped flying to their chapels when that came out. I'm not sure where Ladislaus got that information, but it is not accurate. 

    I mentioned that in my previous post, but Ladislaus devoted so much time to talking about this particular issue I wanted to highlight my response to that in a specific post. They never stopped flying.


    Offline cath4ever

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #11 on: December 26, 2022, 09:36:52 PM »
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  • A couple more things:

    1) The nuns have a school at St. Anne is White Bear Lake, MN (Fr. Mroczka's church) and a handful of nuns are stationed there. They also have a school on Long Island (I think in the town of Melville?) and a sizable group of nuns are stationed at the convent there.

    2) As far as the whole SSPV vs. CSPV thing: establishing a sort of "religious order" of traditional Priest's isn't uncommon, especially now, and that's across the ideological spectrum.

    There is the CSPV of course, but then Bishop Sanborn has the Roman Catholic Institute, Saint Gertrude in Cincinnati has the Salesian Sacerdotal Society, there's the CMRI, the Benedictines in Brazil, the Dominicans in Avrillé, Bishop Faure has the SAJM, and then of course there is the SSPX, so I really don't know what you're complaining about with the CSPV thinking of themselves as some sort of religious order.

    Offline Matthew

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #12 on: December 26, 2022, 09:45:13 PM »
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  • 2) As far as the whole SSPV vs. CSPV thing: establishing a sort of "religious order" of traditional Priest's isn't uncommon, especially now, and that's across the ideological spectrum.

    There is the CSPV of course, but then Bishop Sanborn has the Roman Catholic Institute, Saint Gertrude in Cincinnati has the Salesian Sacerdotal Society, there's the CMRI, the Benedictines in Brazil, the Dominicans in Avrillé, Bishop Faure has the SAJM, and then of course there is the SSPX, so I really don't know what you're complaining about with the CSPV thinking of themselves as some sort of religious order.


    I understood Ladislaus perfectly, and he's right about this. Re-read what he said:


    Quote
    So, have they become Salza-ized here and decided that if a priest isn't under a Diocesan Bishop that he must live in some "society of common life" because of pre-Crisis Canon Law?  So, between the fact that they've decided they must live in some (entirely fictional) Religious Institute and the fact that they've decided that it's immoral for them to go through airport scanners, all these priests are hunkered down in the Round Top compound while refusing to care for the faithful.

    Are they one step away from Home-Aloneism ... in this case having all their priests live in a "Congregation" while having the faithful neglected?

    If so, what absurd legalism.  Of course, if one wanted to be legalistic -- this little "Congregation" of theirs does not "count".  Simply living in common doesn't meet the requirements of Canon Law, as the Religious Institute can't be something that was made up by someone without any jurisdiction to establish such an Institute in the first place.  If they want to get all legalistic, then their women religious are not nuns either. 

    What part of the fact that we live in an unprecedented Crisis in the Church does some of these Trad types do not understand

    He's talking about canonical regularity and "legality" -- not de-facto creating various non-canonical pious unions during the Crisis in the Church.

    It's the difference between going to Mass at a given chapel on Sunday, and telling everyone if they DON'T go to this exact chapel they're going to Hell. Big difference.

    For the groups you listed, I don't think any of them believe it is "canonically required" for priests to be in some kind of official religious order structure or group. The groups you listed were set up for many other reasons.
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    Offline cath4ever

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #13 on: December 26, 2022, 10:02:37 PM »
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  • I understood Ladislaus perfectly, and he's right about this. Re-read what he said:


    He's talking about canonical regularity and "legality" -- not de-facto creating various non-canonical pious unions during the Crisis in the Church.

    It's the difference between going to Mass at a given chapel on Sunday, and telling everyone if they DON'T go to this exact chapel they're going to Hell. Big difference.

    For the groups you listed, I don't think any of them believe it is "canonically required" for priests to be in some kind of official religious order structure or group. The groups you listed were set up for many other reasons.

    I have attended the Masses of every Priest of the CSPV at one time or another, and never once has any one of them ever publically or to me in private said you must attend this chapel and none of the others in the area or you're going to hell.

    They are well known for having problems with attending chapels of Priests who are part of the Thuc line, but it's for that reason they tell the faithful not to attend those...not because the Priest there is not part of some canonically-formed group.

    With the exception of the CMRI and SGG, I think you can find many
    Priests in ALL the other groups I mentioned who would discourage their faithful from attending the chapels of other groups, whether an other group at all or one specific one, for one reason or another.

    In addition, the whole point that Ladislaus was trying to prove with that is that the faithful of CSPV chapels are somehow being neglected because the CSPV Priests insist on being in a more structured group. But the faithful are not neglected, and almost all the CSPV Priests travel to missions every weekend.

    Offline Yeti

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    Re: CSPV -- what gives? PriestAloneist Doomsday Cult at Round Top?
    « Reply #14 on: December 26, 2022, 10:40:18 PM »
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  • Saint Gertrude in Cincinnati has the Salesian Sacerdotal Society
    .

    What is this? I have never heard of this before. :confused: