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Offline Matthew

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Fr Hoopes Mess
« on: Yesterday at 10:12:01 PM »


EXCLUSIVE: SSPX Resistance priest allegedly pressured Vietnam vet to give up church ownership

Fr. Timothy Scott Hoopes reportedly has described himself as a ‘magician’ and was confirmed to have ordered a book on astrology previously prohibited by the Catholic Church.
Featured Image Shutterstock



Emily
Mangiaracina


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Wed Aug 19, 2026 - 3:50 pm EDT


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21 min

(LifeSiteNews) — A priest ordained by a breakaway group from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) faces allegations that he instigated the removal of a 78-year-old veteran from the board of a church nonprofit, refused to offer Mass in the church when the veteran refused to transfer its ownership to him, and misled donors about how their contributions would be used.
In Cheboygan, Michigan, traditional Latin Masses (TLM) have been held at St. Charles Borromeo Church since 2024 by Timothy Scott Hoopes, a priest of the “SSPX Resistance” – a “loose association” of clergy founded by the late Bishop Richard Williamson after he was expelled from the SSPX.


Catholic Vietnam veteran Bill Price, 78, had purchased St. Charles as a rundown church in 2019 with an $89,000 mortgage and subsequently spent in total “over $300,000 in time and actual money … with most of the expenses coming from my retirement, veteran’s disability checks, and my wife’s small inheritance,” Price shared in a letter to SSPX Resistance Bishop Giacomo Ballini.
LifeSite readers may remember a LifeFunder that raised money to help Price restore the Catholic Church, which is over 100 years old.
At the time, he said, the official SSPX was interested in offering Mass at the building but required a quota of 50 people at Mass before providing a priest.
“This was unrealistic so I spent the next several years seeking out different ‘canceled’ clergy who would serve our small community,” Price wrote.
He eventually was connected with Hoopes, who served at Ballini’s seminary in Ireland at the time, and learned that Hoopes was looking for a church in the U.S. to serve in. Hoopes agreed to come to St. Charles.  
Price became chairman of the board of the Friends of St. Charles Borromeo, which was formed in July 2024 with the stated mission of supporting “the communities of Cheboygan and the surrounding areas while facilitating the growth and continued operation of St. Charles Borromeo Church.”
Since at least September 2025, board meeting materials and handwritten cash collection records indicate that Price began to request transparent accounting for Friends of St. Charles Borromeo for any cash donations, gifts, and stipends outside the non-profit’s formal bank records that Hoopes might have received. During the first quarter of 2026, Price began to push more directly for improved accounting procedures. Hoopes reportedly pushed back, claiming that the Church did not traditionally account for its donations.
Price also raised concerns regarding the administration and public ministry of St. Charles, including concerns about the absence of a church bulletin, public notice of Mass times, and clear identification of the priest serving the community.

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Reviewed text messages show that earlier this year, Hoopes began “pressuring” Price to sign over the church property to him. Price advised Hoopes on March 7 that he needed more time for consideration.
According to Price, Hoopes did not satisfy the administrative conditions he believed were necessary for a transfer of the property to the priest.
He told LifeSiteNews, “The reason I couldn’t transfer the church property was that Father refused to authorize the services of an accountant for docuмenting donations we accepted. I tried to explain that we could lose our 501(c)(3) status. He seemed to not be concerned.”
Additionally, Price said, “Fr. Hoopes refused to use the telephones I installed for taking calls and providing callers with an opportunity to leave a message. He used (aliases) like Brother Augustine instead of his legal name, Fr. Timothy Hoopes, on his private cell. He refused to provide even a monthly bulletin.”
“He is completely incompetent as an administrator and was very irritated by my reminders to do even these most simple things to keep our affairs as a parish in order.”
“He made it impossible for me to leave the church in the hands of such incompetence,” Price concluded.
In late April, the evening before Sunday Mass, Hoopes directed a member of the congregation to communicate in a group text: “Due to some late-developing difficulties with the church, Father will celebrate Mass at Lochmoor Farms Hall.” Since then, the congregation has been directed to attend Mass at a former fire station in Topinabee, Michigan.
According to Price, the message caused the congregation to believe the church was unsafe or unfit for worship. “In reality, there was no difficulty with the church building,” as Price wrote in a letter to a fellow attendee of St. Charles.
Hoopes’ explanation to his congregation for their transfer out of the church
In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, Hoopes explained to his congregation why he moved the Mass out of St. Charles. He stated in the message that it would be a “mortal sin” for him to offer Mass in a place where a layman intended to “dictate the terms of sacred things” to him, apparently referring to Price’s concerns about financial transparency, and his reluctance to hand the building’s ownership over to Hoopes:

Quote
The reason for moving Mass was that Bill has developed new theological opinions (he believes that traditionalist bishops have some sort of automatically granted jurisdiction or power to rule, and that they should proceed to elect a new “pope”) … This prompted him to say that my bishops and priestly confraternity are not up to snuff, because we do not believe in said jurisdiction or powers, making me to be an “independent priest” with none of the necessary authority or power to do anything, and so he would substantially dictate the terms of everything at St. Charles Borromeo until I could receive the proper power to do this from a bishop that met his criteria; he was explicit that he could put up with me “for a while,” but not in the long term, and mentioned bringing in a second priest. And of course, there were some points of criticism he made, which I accepted and upon which we even agreed.
If he believed the things he said about bishops and jurisdiction, it would be a mortal sin for him even to attend my Mass, let alone to host it. It would also be a mortal sin for me to offer Mass in a place where a layman announced his intention to dictate the terms of sacred things to me. Finally, it is not right to continue receiving contributions from the faithful, under one pretext, when there is an intent to divert the whole community and its benefactions in another direction that they had not been intending to support. I informed him three times in the course of our conversation, that there would be no Mass if things stood thus; having heard nothing from him by Saturday evening, there was nothing else to do but move the Mass elsewhere. My hope is that this is temporary and we will come to an understanding, and indeed I did not want to move the Mass elsewhere as this is very stressful to the whole community, myself and Bill included, I am sure.
Private investigator Graham Lapp is assisting Price in removing Hoopes from administration of the church.
According to Lapp, Hoopes elsewhere claimed that it is a mortal sin for a layman to own a church, but the investigator argued that, on the contrary, there are “many lay founders, patrons, and benefactors who built, restored, endowed, or held property for sacred use” in Catholic history.
Regarding Price’s supposed “new theological opinions,” he denies Hoopes’ allegations. Lapp suggested that even if his opinions had changed as described by Hoopes, “A disputed theological opinion attributed to a layman does not justify removing an entire congregation, abandoning a restored church, or selling its rectory.”
Hoopes’ private explanation for moving his congregation
Price told LifeSiteNews he offered a key to St. Charles to a parishioner, telling him he could use the church for Mass with Hoopes. However, Hoopes reportedly said that he won’t offer Mass in St. Charles unless Price transfers ownership of the church to him.
LifeSiteNews has obtained from Lapp an audio recording of a conversation between Lapp and Hoopes that appears to confirm that Hoopes’ reason for moving his congregation is that Price would not transfer ownership of the church building to him.  
During the conversation, Hoopes took issue with the fact that Price “is in charge of the building.”
Lapp asked Hoopes if Price ever “stopped you from doing something with the building.” 
“Yes,” Hoopes replied. “He broke his word and went back on the agreement we had, which was that ownership of the building would be transferred. And literally, the day that it was ready to be signed was the day that he crossed.”
Hoopes reiterated this point later in the conversation when he told Lapp regarding Price, “But then, from the moment that he made clear to me, ‘I actually own it. It’s mine. I’m taking it back, and I’m going to make it like (I want),’ from that moment, it’s not possible to keep the Blessed Sacrament under the roof. It’s not possible for me to be able to safely function there.”
He went on to allege that it is probably “a crime” for Price not to hand over ownership of the building: “And I don’t – if I thought that he would listen to it, I would explain to him: you can’t allocate money given to a non-profit for your private property. So if the church is your private property, and you own it, and you’re not going to hand it over, they said, you know, I mean, it’s probably technically a crime,” Hoopes said.
In another recorded conversation with Lapp obtained by LifeSiteNews, Hoopes said, “If Bill is willing to give the church away – and it’s the prerequisite – I will literally not go into the building again until it’s given away.”
Hoopes’ removal of Price from the board of Friends of St. Charles
Price was later to discover that a decision to remove him as chairman and board member of Friends of St. Charles Borromeo had been made during a meeting about which he claims to have received no advance notice whatsoever and no chance to attend. He stated that he did not have any meaningful opportunity to respond to the decision. On May 8, Friends of St. Charles Borromeo filed governance docuмents with the State of Michigan removing Price from the board.
Price said he did not learn about the decision until he attended a credit union to request a print-out of the past month’s financial activity of the non-profit. He was told he could not access the information because he was no longer on the account.


In a May 3 letter to Price obtained by LifeSiteNews, Hoopes explained his rationale for removing Price as chairman and board member:
Quote
Our Faith tells us that we owe restitution in some circuмstances. For example, many people gave many thousands towards the Rectory; one could not take all that money and then turn on a dime. The whole reason for the change in the Board of the FOSCB, was to be sure that the congregation felt they had a say in what would ultimately happen with their contributions, so that neither you nor I would have done any injustice to them, nor incurred any debt. Some may feel misled if they gave to the restoration of the church building, others may not, you can ask them if your conscience prompts you to do so; money taken to pay utilities is legitimate and can be kept.
Hoopes did not allege any wrongdoing on Price’s part.
Price questions the lawfulness of his removal, considering that Section 3.9 of the bylaws states that board members may be removed “for failure to act in the best interests of the organization or lack of sympathy with the stated purpose of the organization,” and that Section 4.5 states that the chairperson of the board “shall preside over all meetings.”
Friends of St. Charles is no longer funding St. Charles 
Despite its removal of Price from the board, Friends of St. Charles Borromeo has retained the non-profit’s stated charitable purpose of supporting the operations of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Cheboygan.
However, the non-profit appears to have halted provision of financial or operational support for St. Charles Borromeo Church since Price’s removal from the board, based on financial records reviewed to date. Price is now paying the utility and property-related expenses for the church while the congregation has allegedly been told that Friends of St. Charles continues to cover its utility payments.
Although financial support for the St. Charles property ended after the change in non-profit control, the organization’s donation page remained live and publicly discoverable through search engines. As of July 1, the online donation page remained active and continued to state that contributions would be used to “restore St. Charles.”
The website, originally used to support St. Charles Church, now directs the congregation away from St. Charles and to other locations for Mass, including Hoopes’ personal residence at 700 Division St. and a former fire station in Topinabee.
As Lapp has pointed out, there does not appear to be a clear public disclosure that the non-profit’s ministry operations no longer support the St. Charles church property and, as a result, he argues that donors could reasonably believe that their contributions continue to support the restoration and ongoing operation of St. Charles Borromeo Church.
Hoopes has informed his congregation that he is now renovating the rectory as preparation to sell it, ostensibly to use the money to buy another chapel or secure another place for worship. The rectory is owned by the nonprofit Friends of St. Charles.
Lapp told LifeSiteNews that donors to St. Charles Borromeo Church might have legal recourse if the rectory were sold to buy a competing church, because this would be contrary to the stated purpose of the non-profit Friends of St. Charles.
No recourse to ecclesiastical authority
Lapp has written to the bishops of the fragmented SSPX Resistance in an attempt to request the removal and replacement of Hoopes. Writing on Price’s behalf, Lapp has further asked that Hoopes be “recalled to Ireland” or elsewhere for “additional priestly formation, pastoral training, and evaluation before receiving another independent assignment.”
However, Bishop Ballini responded that Hoopes is not under his own ecclesiastical authority and that he is not aware of any bishop who “presently strictly speaking exercises ecclesiastical authority over him.” Ballini believes that his own responsibility for his supervision was transferred to Bishop Williamson – now deceased – once Hoopes left Ireland for America. Ballini stated this in an email shared with LifeSiteNews.
Hoopes reportedly practices ‘white magic,’ has astrology book delivered to rectory
A source who previously attended St. Charles told LifeSiteNews that Hoopes once told him during a private conversation that he practices “white magic” and that he is a “magician.” The source was concerned and asked Hoopes for an explanation because it “sounded un-Catholic.”
“Hoopes proceeded to give a long-winded explanation as to how the Church in past centuries permitted such ‘magic,’” according to the source.
The source also attested that Hoopes gave a “mixture of leaves or spices in a glass jar” to at least one family in St. Charles’ congregation, and “allegedly advised them to burn it in their home to ward off evil spirits.” This “somewhat concerned” the family, but Hoopes said that the Catholic Church carried out practices along these lines in the Middle Ages.
Price confirmed this in a statement shared with LifeSiteNews:

Quote
I, William M. Price, witnessed an exhibit arranged by Fr. Timothy Hoopes at St. Charles Church, Cheboygan, MI, for All Souls Day, 2025. Father’s exhibit included replicas of human skulls and gourds. Father notified curious observers of the Church’s habit of displaying such in the Middle Ages. Also, Father prepared a certain mixture, available to the faithful to take and burn in their homes to ward off evil spirits. 
As a seventy-eight-year-old cradle Catholic, I have never witnessed any such event in any Catholic church I attended during my lifetime.
Incidentally, a police record confirms that Hoopes recently picked up a 13th century book on astrology which was addressed to Hoopes’ residence at the St. Charles rectory, and mistakenly delivered to St. Charles Church according to Price, who found it there. 
The book is a historical work on medieval astrology and divination, identified as Decem tractatus astronomiae, attributed to the 13th-century Italian astrologer Guido Bonatti and written in Latin with astrological diagrams.
According to Lapp, the book was previously banned by the Catholic Church, and if a priest obtained it without requesting permission from his bishop, Lapp argued, he would have “incurred the automatic punishment of apostasy.” Bonatti was a prohibited author according to the local Indexes of Venice (1554), Rome (1559), and Parma (1580) and this specific book was prohibited in the Portuguese Index of 1561 because of its teachings on predictive astrology.

Bishop Gerardo Zendejas warned against ordaining Hoopes
In an audio recording obtained by LifeSiteNews, SSPX Resistance Bishop Gerardo Zendejas said he had advised the late Bishop Richard Williamson not to ordain Hoopes. Zendejas is not a native English speaker.
“He has been in many places, and we told Bishop Williamson not to ordain him because we have many backgrounds in scam – some kind of scam,” Zendejas told Lapp. “But he ran away from the seminary that we have. He just left with no reason. He disappeared. So, and whatever afterwards (he) was doing, we find out that always he got in problem (sic). So, he is a very problematic person.”
“And he makes stories and stories and stories, and just he makes, like you say, fraud. This is what he is a specialist in – to make frauds,” Zendejas continued. 
He later warned Lapp, “Be careful. Be careful with (Hoopes) – because he has done this. You are the fourth or fifth (group with whom he) has made some kind of trick.”
Price’s reputation damaged with congregation, family
Lapp has also requested on Price’s behalf that the SSPX Resistance bishops correct the record regarding statements by Hoopes that have damaged Price’s reputation. Lapp himself has heard “members of the community state that Price forced the congregation from St. Charles and defrauded the faithful.” 
Price noted that Hoopes’ allegations about him have resulted in the alienation of a few of Price’s family members, causing significant personal distress for him and his wife.
Price says that, before Hoopes’ 2024 arrival, he had devoted about five years to acquiring, restoring, and preparing St. Charles Borromeo Church so that Catholic worship could resume there.
During that period, Price says he invested at least $200,000 of his own funds in the property.
He also says he contributed an extraordinary amount of personal labor to restoring the church. Price personally remodeled multiple rooms in the basement and built a custom bathroom for Hoopes as well as custom furniture (such as a large reading stand) for the priest so he could walk on a treadmill while studying.
Hoopes’ response
Hoopes declined to address the specific allegations and statements in detail. In response to questions from LifeSiteNews about his own statements to his congregation about their transfer out of St. Charles as well as about his purchase of a book on astrology, Hoopes stated the following:

Quote
After a review and thoughtful consideration of your questions, I judge that the church is the proper forum for discussing such matters, rather than the press. I strongly disagree with the implications and mischaracterizations implied by the questions as posed. They lack the important and relevant context; they are based upon false assumptions and/or innuendos, and reflect a lack of understanding of church operations.
Finally, I do not see how such matters are in the public interest; therefore, I have no present intention of discussing them in public. If such matters require discussion at all, one should address them within our community, with the involvement of the church, the Board of the Friends of St. Charles, and immediately affected persons.
Finally, I will say for my part: I profess the integral Catholic Faith, meaning I tender not only the assent of Faith due to Her infallible teachings, but also the pious and religious assent due to Her authentic magisterium. All that Holy Mother Church rejects as heretical, false, impious, rash, temerarious, superstitious, immoral, etc., I also reject along with Her in the same sense and terms as She Herself does.

According to Lapp, “The fundraising in the name of St. Charles without actually supporting St. Charles is being actively reviewed by a retained civil attorney. A criminal complaint has not been ruled out.”



Offline Matthew

  • Mod
Re: Fr Hoopes Mess
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 10:13:36 PM »

Quote
Bishop Gerardo Zendejas warned against ordaining Hoopes
In an audio recording obtained by LifeSiteNews, SSPX Resistance Bishop Gerardo Zendejas said he had advised the late Bishop Richard Williamson not to ordain Hoopes. Zendejas is not a native English speaker.
“He has been in many places, and we told Bishop Williamson not to ordain him because we have many backgrounds in scam – some kind of scam,” Zendejas told Lapp. “But he ran away from the seminary that we have. He just left with no reason. He disappeared. So, and whatever afterwards (he) was doing, we find out that always he got in problem (sic). So, he is a very problematic person.”
“And he makes stories and stories and stories, and just he makes, like you say, fraud. This is what he is a specialist in – to make frauds,” Zendejas continued. 
He later warned Lapp, “Be careful. Be careful with (Hoopes) – because he has done this. You are the fourth or fifth (group with whom he) has made some kind of trick.”
I might draw your attention to this part of the article.


Bp. Zendejas was right (again).


Re: Fr Hoopes Mess
« Reply #2 on: Today at 12:52:22 AM »
I believe he ran away from the SAJM Seminary in France. Then got ordained in Ireland where he didn't stay for very long after. 

Re: Fr Hoopes Mess
« Reply #3 on: Today at 01:51:07 AM »
 :fryingpan: This is the sort of thing that keeps me Home Alone if I’m forced to “take a side.” It’s a huge distraction from the Church’s purpose, which is the Salvation of Souls. In this case, it’s the salvation of MY soul in jeopardy when going to Mass puts me into the no-win position of “monkey-in-the-Middle.” If any priest starts using the Sacraments or Mass attendance as a weapon in his private dispute, I’m out of there.  If my fellow laity abuse me or others in a non-dogmatic dispute, consider me “persona non grata,” as well.  

Offline Ladislaus

  • Supporter
Re: Fr Hoopes Mess
« Reply #4 on: Today at 06:25:02 AM »

... the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) faces allegations that [they] instigated the removal of a 78-year-old veteran from the board of a church nonprofit, refused to offer Mass in the church when the veteran refused to transfer its ownership to him, and misled donors about how their contributions would be used.

That sounds like normal "modus operandi" for SSPX, where they won't offer Mass for you unless you sign over your property and mislead the faithful about their contributions (embezzling money off to the seminary, and elsewhere).

Oh, wait ... this is about that Father Hoopes.