Robert McKenna
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Robert Fidelis McKenna, O.P. (b. July 8, 1927) is a Traditionalist Catholic Dominican bishop residing at ([1]) Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Monroe, Connecticut since 1973.
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[edit] Life
He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1958 by Amleto Cardinal Cicognani. After Vatican II, while working as a translator for his religious Order, he became increasingly concerned with the ramifications of the Vatican reforms, and finally removed himself from those in his Order with whom he felt he could no longer associate in good conscience. He continued as a Dominican priest while joining other priests in the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement (O.R.C.M. or ORCM), an organization founded by Fr. Francis E. Fenton that represented itself as preserving the Catholicism from what its members viewed as radical changes in doctrine and liturgy. The ORCM still exists as a corporation for legal purposes, but has long ceased to be used to represent a religious organization; as early as 1985 Fr. McKenna was seen in his October issue of Catholics Forever to refer to his involvement historically as, "in ORCM days".
Fr. McKenna was consecrated a bishop on August 22, 1986 in Raveau, France by Mgr. Michel Guerard des Lauriers, O.P, one of the bishops consecrated by Bishop Ngo Dinh Thuc without papal mandate.
[edit] Public Stand
Since being consecrated a bishop, McKenna has been one of the main promoters of the Cassiciacum Thesis developed by his consecrator, which states that the papal claimants since Paul VI have not been true popes due to their public heresies, but have only been papa materialiter. According to McKenna, by teaching that men have a "natural right" to worship as they see fit, the successors of John XXIII have attempted to put what they hold to be the heresy of ecumenism in place of Catholicism. Referring to this heresy as "a spiritual insanity," he wrote in, On Keeping Catholic:
Now while the Popes of Vatican II, including the present John Paul II, can function on the purely natural level in running the Church as an organization or legal corporation, they have on the supernatural level - in view of their spiritual madness - no divine authority to speak for the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ or to govern the faithful in His name; no power, that is to say, to function precisely as the Vicar of Christ for so long as this insanity continues. They and the bishops under them, blindly following them, are lacking the jurisdiction they would otherwise have under normal circumstances. We must simply ignore them and carry on as best as we can without them.[2]
Concerning the bishops who are in union with Rome, McKenna had published a similar view in 1980:
Practically all bishops who are not definitely heretics are at least gravely suspect of heresy by reason of the sacrilegious outrages they have tolerated in their dioceses. As a consequence, they have either lost their jurisdiction or possess a very doubtful jurisdiction, and Canon Law itself expressly supplies priests jurisdiction in such cases.[3]
Although he is sometimes classified as a sedevacantist or a sedeprivationist, McKenna considers himself to be a Roman Catholic bishop just dealing with the Church crisis of the present day.
[edit] Exorcist
Bishop McKenna was also a noted exorcist. While exorcisms are not in themselves noteworthy for a Roman Catholic priest, some of his cases were also investigated by psychic researchers such as the Warrens, and some of his cases have been sensationalized against his wishes. He attempted exorcisms in the Smurl haunting case, which case was described in various books and in the Fox TV-movie The Haunted. Another exorcism he performed in 1985 in Warren, MA was featured in the Boston Herald and later recounted by the same reporters in the book Satan's Harvest. Furthermore, he believes that the "the official establishment has no faith in the devil anymore... they do not believe, and when they do, they don't want to get involved." [4] Due to his advanced age, McKenna has given up taking any more cases.
[edit] References
- Wright, Chris. "The Fright Club", Boston Phoenix, June 20-27, 2002. Retrieved on 2006-05-20.
- Curran, Robert (1988). The Haunted: One Family's Nightmare. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-01440-6.
- Lasalandra, Michael (1990). Satan's Harvest. Dell. ISBN 0-440-20589-1.
- The Smurls. The Warrens. Retrieved on 2006-05-20.
- Fr. McKenna, O.P.. Common Law and Common Sense. The Angelus. Retrieved on 2006-05-20.
- Rt. Rev. Robert McKenna. On Keeping Catholic. Retrieved on 2006-05-26.
| Episcopal Lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Guerard des Lauriers |
| Date of consecration: | August 22, 1986 |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| J. Vida Elmer | July 2, 1987 |
| Richard F. Bedingfeld | December 17, 1987 |
| Oliver Oravec | October 21, 1988 |
| Francis Slupski | May 20, 1999 |
| Geert Jan Stuyver | January 16, 2002 |
| Donald J. Sanborn | June 19, 2002 |
| Robert L. Neville | April 28, 2005 |
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