Anthony Cekada

Anthony J. Cekada is a Sedevacantist Catholic priest and author.

Born on July 18, 1951, in San Diego, California, the son of the late Frank J. and Eleanor (Nardi) Cekada, Cekada studied at St. Francis Roman Catholic Seminary College in Milwaukee, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Theology in 1973; he studied organ and musical composition at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. In 1975, after two years as a Cistercian monk, he entered St. Pius X Seminary in Écône, Switzerland, joined the Society of St. Pius X, completed his studies, and was ordained to the SSPX priesthood by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1977.^[1]

Following his sacerdotal ordination, Cekada taught seminarians at St. Joseph's House of Studies, Armada, Michigan, and St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Ridgefield, Connecticut.^[2]

From 1979 to 1989 he resided in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, where he did pastoral and administrative work, and edited the traditionalist publication The Roman Catholic.^[2] In 1983 Cekada, along with eight other priests, broke with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) over various theological issues^[3] and several years later formed the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), headed by then Fr. Clarence Kelly. In 1989 Cekada left the SSPV and he moved to West Chester, where he assists with pastoral work at St. Gertrude the Great Traditional Roman Catholic Church.^[2] Cekada is a well-known and convinced sedevacantist,^[4] believing the popes of the Second Vatican Council to have been illegitimate pontiffs.

He has since devoted a considerable amount of time to research and writing. TAN Books published two of his works criticizing the post-Vatican II liturgical reform. One was a commentary and new translation for The Ottaviani Intervention, a key document in the history of the traditional movement. The other, The Problems with the Prayers of the Modern Mass, discusses the systematic omission of certain doctrines (hell, the soul, miracles, the true Church, etc.) from the 1969 Missal of Paul VI; it has sold nearly 15,000 copies at last count, and has been published in French, Italian, German and Dutch.^[2]

Cekada has written two introductory booklets for newcomers to the Traditional Mass which were published by St. Gertrude the Great Church:^[5] Welcome to the Traditional Latin Mass and Traditionalists, Infallibility and the Pope.^[2]

Cekada's bibliography includes apologetic, analytical and controversial articles on a great variety of topics: the errors of Vatican II and the post-Conciliar popes, canon law, seminary formation, the Feeney case, the Mass of Paul VI, the pre-Vatican II liturgical changes, the validity of post Vatican II sacramental rites, questions in moral and pastoral theology, and the case for sedevacantism, the Schiavo case, the Society of St. Pius X, intramural traditionalist disputes, and rubrical matters.^[6]

In 2010 Cekada completed Work of Human Hands: A Theological Critique of the Mass of Paul VI, a 468-page work published by Philothea Press.^[7] It is a systematic study of the post-Vatican II rite of Mass which maintains that the new rite "a) destroys Catholic doctrine in the minds of the faithful, and in particular, Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the priesthood, and the Real Presence; and b) permits or prescribes grave irreverence."^[8]

Once a month during the academic year Cekada travels to Brooksville, Florida where he teaches Canon Law, Liturgy, and Scripture at Most Holy Trinity Seminary.^[2][9]

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