Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => General Discussion => Topic started by: CathMomof7 on January 10, 2019, 01:32:13 PM
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Is anyone here familiar with Fr. Leo Carley? I am especially interested to know if it is true that he has a chapel near Wheeling, WV. I know Our Lady of Lourdes chapel is listed on the SSPX website, but I am not finding much about him other than he is in Akron. We might possibly be moving to this area and I would like to know if there is some place to go to Mass without having to drive a long distance. That wouldn't be any better than our current situation.
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Yes, we attend IHM in Akron, OH. Father Carley does indeed travel every Sunday to Wheeling for, I believe, a 12:30 PM Mass ... after offering one at 9:00 AM in Akron ... despite his advanced age. Father is in great shape for his age, mid-80s, but God only knows how long that will continue. He broke a hip a couple years ago, and +Tissier filled in for him on Christmas Day. He recovered very quickly, and he remains very active. He still insists on going out and mowing the grass on the church and rectory grounds ... to stay healthy. But I don't know if I would make any long-term plans in WV based on the possibility his health could decline suddenly. Father has arranged for the church property to transfer to the SSPX upon his death or disability, but the SSPX has been known to sell off properties (and his property has significant potential value being adjacent to a ritzy country club with very expensive homes by it). I had been on the board of trustees, but I stepped down rather than sign the docuмent that would hand over the property to SSPX. Father wanted to make provision for the people who helped build up the chapel. I initially advised him to put a clause in the docuмents forbidding the SSPX from selling it, and they refused to accept it under those conditions ... which I found to be very telling. So Father gave in, and I stepped down. In any case, even if the SSPX were to retain the property (rather than sell it to finance the new seminary and tell people to head up to the SSPX chapel in Cleveland), there's no guarantee that they would keep the WV chapel going. I do not believe that there is a very strong attendance down there.
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Father Carley was ordained in the 1950s for the Diocese of Scanton PA and is, as of last report, still officially listed as "on leave".
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I initially advised him to put a clause in the docuмents forbidding the SSPX from selling it, and they refused to accept it under those conditions ... which I found to be very telling.
Same story, different chapel. Sad.
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Yes, we attend IHM in Akron, OH. Father Carley does indeed travel every Sunday to Wheeling for, I believe, a 12:30 PM Mass ... after offering one at 9:00 AM in Akron ... despite his advanced age. Father is in great shape for his age, mid-80s, but God only knows how long that will continue. He broke a hip a couple years ago, and +Tissier filled in for him on Christmas Day. He recovered very quickly, and he remains very active. He still insists on going out and mowing the grass on the church and rectory grounds ... to stay healthy. But I don't know if I would make any long-term plans in WV based on the possibility his health could decline suddenly. Father has arranged for the church property to transfer to the SSPX upon his death or disability, but the SSPX has been known to sell off properties (and his property has significant potential value being adjacent to a ritzy country club with very expensive homes by it). I had been on the board of trustees, but I stepped down rather than sign the docuмent that would hand over the property to SSPX. Father wanted to make provision for the people who helped build up the chapel. I initially advised him to put a clause in the docuмents forbidding the SSPX from selling it, and they refused to accept it under those conditions ... which I found to be very telling. So Father gave in, and I stepped down. In any case, even if the SSPX were to retain the property (rather than sell it to finance the new seminary and tell people to head up to the SSPX chapel in Cleveland), there's no guarantee that they would keep the WV chapel going. I do not believe that there is a very strong attendance down there.
Thank you for this candid response. I think this is the answer then. My husband and I need to make a move for the safety and sanity of my family, but we are not going to uproot just to be left in the same circuмstances we are in now. The company for which he works could place him in West Virginia without hesitation, but without a Mass to go to we may as well just stay here. It doesn't make sense to move under these iffy circuмstances. Thanks so much.
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Not sure if it makes a difference, but Pittsburgh is about and hour and fifteen minutes away ... more or less, depending on which side of Wheeling you live on.
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Not sure if it makes a difference, but Pittsburgh is about and hour and fifteen minutes away ... more or less, depending on which side of Wheeling you live on.
An hour and a half in good weather, maybe. You'd have to speed a bit once you cross over to PA. In snow, ice, downpour with hail, don't count on it! I drove this route every summer from 2005 to 2012, no problems. But when I had to make an emergency trip in the winter of 2010...not for the timid driver!
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Just spoke with Fr. Carley about my brother whom I pray will return to the Church after many decades outside it. Father is still going to Wheeling on Sundays, but it doesn't sound likely that the Wheeling chapel, with its shrinking congregation, would be maintained by the Society once it passes to them.
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Just spoke with Fr. Carley about my brother whom I pray will return to the Church after many decades outside it. Father is still going to Wheeling on Sundays, but it doesn't sound likely that the Wheeling chapel, with its shrinking congregation, would be maintained by the Society once it passes to them.
I'd agree that Wheeling would not be maintained. Father mostly just goes down there (has a driver take him now) out of loyalty because the members of that group were his earliest supporters after he broke from the NO and made many contributions over the years.
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That’s a good priest.
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Thank you for this candid response. I think this is the answer then. My husband and I need to make a move for the safety and sanity of my family, but we are not going to uproot just to be left in the same circuмstances we are in now. The company for which he works could place him in West Virginia without hesitation, but without a Mass to go to we may as well just stay here. It doesn't make sense to move under these iffy circuмstances. Thanks so much.
Whereabouts in West Virginia? Wheeling is at the far northern end of the state, in a bizarre panhandle (an accident of history) that juts up between Ohio and Pennsylvania. The tip of the Eastern Panhandle, another accident of history, is basically a far exurb of DC. (People in the DC area sometimes go to heroic lengths, commuting back and forth hours each day, in search of affordable single-family real estate with a patch of land to go with it. I always preferred to live in more modest accommodations nearer to my work, but everybody's different.) The rest of the state is basically shaped like an egg. The nearest TLM to the Charleston-Huntington area is a twice-monthly CMRI Mass in Wheelersburg, Ohio, about an hour west of Huntington going towards Cincinnati, and about two hours from Charleston. The other options would be Cincinnati or Columbus, or Lexington KY for the FSSP. It's a desert in those parts.
Fr Carley used to go down to Cross Lanes WV, near Charleston, to celebrate Mass at a fire station on Sunday evenings (not sure if it was every Sunday or just some Sundays). That went away several years ago. I went to that Mass one time when traveling through the area.
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That’s a good priest.
Yes, he really is.
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Whereabouts in West Virginia? Wheeling is at the far northern end of the state, in a bizarre panhandle (an accident of history) that juts up between Ohio and Pennsylvania. The tip of the Eastern Panhandle, another accident of history, is basically a far exurb of DC. (People in the DC area sometimes go to heroic lengths, commuting back and forth hours each day, in search of affordable single-family real estate with a patch of land to go with it. I always preferred to live in more modest accommodations nearer to my work, but everybody's different.) The rest of the state is basically shaped like an egg. The nearest TLM to the Charleston-Huntington area is a twice-monthly CMRI Mass in Wheelersburg, Ohio, about an hour west of Huntington going towards Cincinnati, and about two hours from Charleston. The other options would be Cincinnati or Columbus, or Lexington KY for the FSSP. It's a desert in those parts.
Fr Carley used to go down to Cross Lanes WV, near Charleston, to celebrate Mass at a fire station on Sunday evenings (not sure if it was every Sunday or just some Sundays). That went away several years ago. I went to that Mass one time when traveling through the area.
Father is going to Wheeling still, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't venture farther out.
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Yes, we attend IHM in Akron, OH. Father Carley does indeed travel every Sunday to Wheeling for, I believe, a 12:30 PM Mass ... after offering one at 9:00 AM in Akron ... despite his advanced age. Father is in great shape for his age, mid-80s, but God only knows how long that will continue. He broke a hip a couple years ago, and +Tissier filled in for him on Christmas Day. He recovered very quickly, and he remains very active. He still insists on going out and mowing the grass on the church and rectory grounds ... to stay healthy. But I don't know if I would make any long-term plans in WV based on the possibility his health could decline suddenly. Father has arranged for the church property to transfer to the SSPX upon his death or disability, but the SSPX has been known to sell off properties (and his property has significant potential value being adjacent to a ritzy country club with very expensive homes by it). I had been on the board of trustees, but I stepped down rather than sign the docuмent that would hand over the property to SSPX. Father wanted to make provision for the people who helped build up the chapel. I initially advised him to put a clause in the docuмents forbidding the SSPX from selling it, and they refused to accept it under those conditions ... which I found to be very telling. So Father gave in, and I stepped down. In any case, even if the SSPX were to retain the property (rather than sell it to finance the new seminary and tell people to head up to the SSPX chapel in Cleveland), there's no guarantee that they would keep the WV chapel going. I do not believe that there is a very strong attendance down there.
So sad. You know, once the SSPX controls the chapel, it's gone. Fullerton is salivating over the prospects of selling it to developers.
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So sad. You know, once the SSPX controls the chapel, it's gone. Fullerton is salivating over the prospects of selling it to developers.
I have little doubt but that this is the case. They actually relocated the SSPX chapel (St. Peregrine) from a West suburb of Cleveland to a Southeast suburb that's actually closer to Akron than Cleveland ... so now it's in relatively close proximity to Father Carley's chapel (Immaculate Heart of Mary in Akron). So I can easily see them just telling people to go to St. Peregrine. Before it was that St. Peregrine was Cleveland, and IHM was in Akron. But now St. Peregrine is between Cleveland and Akron and closer to Akron.
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. . . They actually relocated the SSPX chapel (St. Peregrine) from a West suburb of Cleveland to a Southeast suburb that's actually closer to Akron than Cleveland . . .
If my understanding is correct, St. Peregrine is being upgraded to a priory. This would at least improve the Society's ability to serve Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
At present, for instance, the Pittsburgh chapel is served by priests from the Syracuse priory, more than 5 hours away by car. The new priory in Richfield, Ohio, would be only about 2 hours away.
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Father is going to Wheeling still, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't venture farther out.
Probably true, the Charleston/Cross Lanes TLM ended several years ago. IIRC there were fewer than twenty people in attendance, possibly as few as a dozen. Bishop Taylor's chapel in Beckley (one hour south of Charleston) is also gone, with his death. My son and I went in search of it when we stayed overnight in Beckley in the spring of 2019, and it had been shuttered.
West Virginia is not a good place to be a traditional Catholic. Hate to say it, but it's true.
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Probably true, the Charleston/Cross Lanes TLM ended several years ago. IIRC there were fewer than twenty people in attendance, possibly as few as a dozen. Bishop Taylor's chapel in Beckley (one hour south of Charleston) is also gone, with his death. My son and I went in search of it when we stayed overnight in Beckley in the spring of 2019, and it had been shuttered.
West Virginia is not a good place to be a traditional Catholic. Hate to say it, but it's true.
I think your best shot might be Pittsburgh (1 hour drive from Wheeling). Perhaps in the NW part of the state, Columbus, might be doable, and in the NE part, Washington, DC. But it looks like from the southern half of the state, you don't have a lot of options short of a 3-hour drive.
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There is some Eastern Rite presence (which surprised me) if for some reason a Catholic needs the Sacraments:
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Ukrainian in Wheeling ...
https://tinyurl.com/bdfybr7f
St. Mary's Byzantine in Morgantown ...
https://tinyurl.com/mtdat5b4
and another St. Mary's Byzantine in Weirton ...
https://tinyurl.com/2vatbadv
as well as Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite in Wheeling ... (I don't recommend Maronite since they've Novus Ordized their Liturgy in its externals, but IMO still valid, and their Holy Orders are valid ... in case you have an emergency).
https://tinyurl.com/2p8bd7tm
this one has a website -- https://www.ololwv.com
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I think your best shot might be Pittsburgh (1 hour drive from Wheeling). Perhaps in the NW part of the state, Columbus, might be doable, and in the NE part, Washington, DC. But it looks like from the southern half of the state, you don't have a lot of options short of a 3-hour drive.
That is true. Southern West Virginia is hilly and sparsely populated; the roads are winding and tricky in bad weather. (As an earlier poster noted, Pittsburgh can be tricky in winter too.)
The new Society chapel in Linden, Virginia, is about an hour from Charles Town and Martinsburg in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
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Concerning a comment on Mass in Wheelersburg, Ohio. Mass is offered there on every Sunday in the afternoon by Fr Tien Le, who was ordained by Bishop Davilla and works with the CMRI.
Occasional Monday morning Masses when he stays over.
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Concerning a comment on Mass in Wheelersburg, Ohio. Mass is offered there on every Sunday in the afternoon by Fr Tien Le, who was ordained by Bishop Davilla and works with the CMRI.
Occasional Monday morning Masses when he stays over.
That whole corridor, from Portsmouth (Wheelersburg is basically a suburb of Portsmouth, to the extent that such a small town can be said to have "suburbs") to Charleston along the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, about 100 miles from one end to the other, is pretty much a desert WRT traditional Catholicism, and the diocesan boundaries are quirky in that area, four dioceses come together --- Lexington, Wheeling-Charleston, and Steubenville are all fairly liberal, but Wheelersburg itself is in the Diocese of Columbus, which has recently gained a TLM-friendly bishop (Asian Indian). Got to wonder if he might begin an indult Mass in Portsmouth to try and siphon people away.
That's tough country to live in, all of the heavy industry has moved out, and pretty much all they have left is education and health care. No place I'd want to move to unless I had to. The whole area is plagued by drug trade (opioids, fentanyl, meth, etc.) and it's not a pleasant place. Good people, bad circuмstances.