Ryan St. Anne Scott
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Abbot Ryan St. Anne Scott, (1953 -), born Randall Dean Stocks, is a traditionalist Catholic priest currently living in Galesburg, Illinois. He converted a former home for the mentally ill into his independent Benedictine Holy Rosary Abbey in the fall of 2004.[1] Scott belongs to a breakaway Catholic movement that does not recognize the changes that took place in the Roman Catholic Church following Vatican II, such as the elimination of the Latin Mass. His followers are mainly like-minded traditionalist Catholics.
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[edit] Overview
Scott grew up in northern Illinois in a Methodist family. He married, divorced, and put up a child for adoption. He said he did so at the instruction of a Catholic priest so as not to jeopardize his conversion to the Catholic church and his ordination.[1] Scott claimed that he was a seminarian at St. Ambrose Seminary in Davenport, Iowa. Officials at the seminary said they had no record of Scott's attendance there.[1] Scott has claimed that he was gang-raped by fellow priests in 1976 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, his claim could not be substantiated.[2] In the 1980s Scott joined a Franciscan order in Iowa and then another in London, Ontario. He tried to start a traditionalist ministry within an existing Catholic parish in Darlington, Wisconsin but was ordered to end his efforts by church officials.[1] Scott was also an associate of Father Alfred Kunz, a traditionalist Catholic priest who was murdered in his church in 1998. Scott referred to Kunz as "my confessor, spiritual director, friend, and colleague" and attributed Kunz's murder to his investigation of the sexual abuse scandals in the diocese. These claims could also not be substantiated.[2]
Scott took a job as finance director of Edgerton, Wisconsin in 1994. He pleaded guilty in 1994 to felony misconduct in office for cashing a city check of thirty dollars and 97 cents for three hundred dollars and 97 cents. He was sentenced to three years of probation.[1]
[edit] Ordination and priesthood
Scott told a Chicago Tribune reporter in 2005 that he was ordained in 1993 by the American Catholic Church, which is part of the traditionalist Catholic movement and not allied with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1996, he said, his ordination was validated by a retired Roman Catholic archbishop in Dubuque, Iowa. However, church officials in Dubuque said that the archbishop was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease at the time and has since died. He has established his Holy Rosary Abbey in different locations in the past decade, among them Rising Sun, Wisconsin; Pocahontas, Iowa; Snowflake, Arizona, Hornbeck, Louisiana, and Powers Lake, North Dakota. In 2004, Scott accused the board of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Prairies in Powers Lake of fraud and financial misconduct, while administrators claimed that Scott could not properly perform Easter services and was trying to gain financial control of the shrine. Scott filed a lawsuit against the shrine board asking for back pay and damages.[1]
Bishops in several Catholic dioceses across the Midwestern United States have warned Catholics that they do not recognize Scott as a Catholic priest and have advised "the faithful" not to attend masses he performs or to receive sacraments from him.[1] Bishops in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, the Catholic Diocese of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, among others, have issued warnings against Scott in the past decade.[1] Scott indicated in 2005 that he answers to "Eternal Rome" and not to the current Pope.[1]
In Galesburg, Scott reportedly rises before dawn for prayers and leads followers in the Latin Mass. The building is largely restricted to those who have taken a monastic vow of silence.[1]
[edit] Notes
[edit] External Links
- HolyRosaryAbbey.com, Scott's Web site.
- HolyRosaryAbbey.org, A Web site run by one of Scott's critics
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Scott, Abbot Ryan St. Anne |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Randall Dean Stocks |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Traditionalist Catholic priest residing in Galesburg, Illinois. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
