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Nicholas Gruner (1942- ) is a Roman Catholic priest and a promoter of the message of Our Lady of Fatima, a manifestation of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal in 1917, particularly its anti-communist aspects during the Cold War. However, the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo Higuera, in an August 10, 2004 clarification on his priestly status specifically stated that Gruner is "not a priest in good standing with the Roman Catholic Church."1
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Origins of Fatima Anti-Communism
In 1929, Lucia dos Santos, one of the three children entrusted with alleged revelations from the church-sanctioned Marian apparition at Fatima, Portugal, revealed that the Virgin Mary had requested that Russia should be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. If that did not happen, Sister Lucia explained, communist "subversion" would triumph, the Catholic Church would be persecuted, the Papacy would enter a period of tribulation, faithful Catholics would be martyred and whole nations would be destroyed. In accord with Sister Lucia's avowal, Pope Pius XII consecrated the entire world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1942. However, that proved to initially be insufficient for Sister Lucia, who indicated that Pius XII's actions had not been specific enough, and that when this specific observance was to be repeated, the Pope and all the bishops of the Church should do so simultaneously. In 1984, Pope John Paul II followed his predecessor in consecrating the entire world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Gruner and the Fatima Crusader
Born in Montreal in 1942, Father Nicholas Gruner was ordained at Avellino, Italy on August 22, 1976 by Bishop Pasquale Venezia[1]. In 1978, he launched a periodical dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, which was an unremarkable journal mostly dedicated to praying the rosary, until Father Gruner became focused particularly on the consecration of the Soviet Union controversy.
Gruner held that John Paul II was held by the consent of his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, to an alleged Vatican/Moscow concordat, which had been signed between His Holiness and then-Premier Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. This was primarily due to the fact that the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, also supported this alleged concordat. Throughout the eighties, the Fatima Crusader made further frequent allegations that the Vatican had been subverted, and that the Soviet Union was engaging in deliberate deception when it depicted Mikhail Gorbachev and perestroika as initiators of internal communist reform after the Afghan War fiasco of the eighties. In 1988, he urged a letter writing campaign against arms control talks.
When the Soviet Union finally disintegrated in 1991, more orthodox Fatima pietist groups, like the Blue Army and Fatima Family Apostolate, rejoiced, regarding this as evidence of the efficacy of the dedication of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that John Paul II had conducted nine years beforehand, but which Gruner and the Fatima Crusader discounted.
Father Gruner initiated a radio and television campaign for his message, leading his organization's claimed membership to reach an estimated four hundred thousand by the early nineties. Since then, the "Crusader" has continued to argue for the Consecration of Russia and maintained that such action is urgent. However, Gruner's message was never recognized by Sister Lucia, the last survivor among the three Portuguese children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared at Fatima. In fact, when asked about statements that Nicholas Gruner, who was collecting signatures insisting that the Pope finally consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and alleging that this has never been done, Sister Lucia told the archbishop: "The Carmel Community has rejected the forms for the collection of signatures. I have already said that the consecration requested by Our Lady was done in 1984, and it has been accepted in heaven."citation needed
Opposition from Sedevacantists
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There is controversy about Gruner among some Sendevacantists, for several reasons. First, Gruner not only recognizes the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy, but he has repeatedly praised its leadership in the pages of the Fatima Crusader, John Paul II in particular.
Compounding the controversy is Gruner's own priestly status: a 1976 ordination in Italy, in full union with Rome, would most certainly mean that Gruner was ordained with the New Rite of Ordination, which is considered invalid by some sedevacantists.2
See also
Bibliography
- Michael Cuneo: "The Vengeful Virgin: Studies in Contemporary Catholic Apocalypticism" in Tim Robbins and Susan Palmer (ed) Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem: New York: Routledge: 1997: ISBN 0-415-91649-6
- Nicholas Perry and Loreto Echevarria: Under the Heel of Mary: London: Routledge: 1988: ISBN 0-415-01296-1
- Sandra Zimdars-Swartz: Encountering Mary: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1991: ISBN 0-691-07371-6
References
- ^ http://www.fatimafamily.org/news/gruner.html "Gruner - Not in Good Standing with the Roman Catholic Church"
- ^ http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/Nick_Gruner.html "Why would you say that 'Fr.' Gruner is a schismatic?"
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- This page was last modified on 10 October 2008, at 23:38.
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