Father Nicolas Gruner suspended.

Vatican--The Vatican Congregation for the Clergy has published a "reminder" that Father Nicholas Gruner, 55, Canadian leader of the International Fatima Rosary Crusade, was suspended from priestly ministry in 1996 and does not have ecclesiastical approval for his activities, such as his plan for an international conference for Peace in the World to be held in Rome October 7-13.

"The Canadian priest has organized such conferences in the past," Catholic World News (CWN) continues, "often attracting priests and bishops who have apparently been unaware of the conflicts between the International Fatima Rosary Crusade and other Marian groups." In 1992 these conflicts cam to ahead when Father Gruner was physically removed from the Fatima shrine in Portugal during a conference he had planned there in defiance of the sh me's custodians.

"Father Gruner has been in conflict with Church authorities for over 20 years. He insists that the Fatima message as gone unheeded. He has rejected he assurances of both Pope John Paul II and Sister Lucia, the surviving Fatima seer, that the directive of the Virgin Mary has been fulfilled, and Russia has been consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Fr. Gruner maintains that the 1984 dedication did not specically mention Russia, and was therefore invalid.

"In 1996, the renegade cleric was suspended from his priestly functions by the Bishop of Avellino, Italy--the diocese in which he had been ordained. Although he appealed the suspension, the appeal was unsuccessful. The Congregation for the Clergy, in its September 12 message, recalls that Father Gruner's suspension was confirmed by a definitive sentence of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura." (LSN-C.W.News, Sept. 12)

Father Gruner heads the Fatima Centre in Fort Erie, ON, and is the publisher of The Fatima Crusader magazine. He is also involved with the monthly Catholic newspaper Catholic Family News, out of Fort Erie, ON. Contacted by Catholic News Services (CNS) in Fatima, Portugal, Fr. Gruner called the timing of the "reminder", the day after the September 11 tragedy in the U.S.A., "very strange." We have bee saying all along that "acts of war wi11 take place if Our Lady's request for the consecration of Russia does not happen."

Archbishop of Miami

Fr. Gruner's interpretation has been circulating on the Internet since 2000, the Archbishop of Florida, John Favalora of Miami, FL, states. Today it is being applied to the tragedy of September 11. "We are close to the last minute of the last day, and the catastrophe is near," and the Pope and the bishops are now awaiting another message which speaks about repentance and prayers," the Internet message says.

The Archbishop has dismissed this interpretation of the September 11 attack on the U.S. He calls the Gruner document "false." "The secret of Fatima is already known and the world has not ended," he states. He adds that false, catastrophic predictions are not necessary to understand that "penance and prayer for the world are even more necessary," because there are "even more insidious enemies such as materialism, secularism, and hedonism."

(Zenit, Sept.18/0 1).

CNS also reports that "although the suspension means Father Gruner has no permission to perform priestly functions, he says he continues to do so publicly because he believes the suspension is invalid" (CNS, B.C. Catholic, Sept. 17).

Comment:

The timing of the Vatican note should not be seen as "strange." It was prepared ahead of September 11 and was intended to forestall people being misled by the planned October Conference on World Peace.

Father Gruner continues to make two points. First, that the Third Secret of Fatima predicts inevitable destruction and divine punishmnent for the world. Secondly, that the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is still to be done.

The Vatican, on the other hand, has suggested that the Third Secret dealt with the great suffering during the period from 1917 onwards, and that today the key word "penance" remains applicable, allowing for changes when the world turns to prayer.

Secondly, Our Lady's request for the consecration of Soviet Russia was fulfilled in 1984. In 1989, the conversion from state atheism came about when Soviet Communism collapsed.

Some six months ago Catholic Insight intended to do a News in Brief item entitled "Fr Gruner, whereto?," meant to raise questions about his claims that the Vatican's explanations of the Fatima secret last year (see "Fatima secret: secret no more," C.I, Sept. 2000, pp. 8-11) were incomplete, incorrect, and even misleading. However, lack of space and time prevented its execution. At the same time, we were also aware that Fr Gruner is involved in a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Toronto, something which Canon Law says is inappropriate for a Catholic priest, because he should seek justice in an ecclesiastical court, not a civil one. However, we were not aware that he had been suspended from the priesthood since 1996. The Vatican notice of September 12, therefore, was new to us.

The most recent issue of The Fatima Crusader, No. 67, summer 2001, is devoted to showing that Fr Gruner's disobedience is not really disobedience at all (by Father Paul Kramer); and that a reading of two of Pope John Paul's statements--May 13, 1982 and May 13, 2000--indicated that one-third of the world's Catholic clergy (priests, bishops and cardinals) work for Satan (by Fr N. Gruner). The Holy Father himself is surrounded by false advisors, he says.

Thus by specious reasoning The Fatima Crusader devotes its pages not to greater love of Our Lady but to the personality of Father Gruner himself

In the end, it shares its targets with the liberal Catholic dissidents who constantly bemoan the so-called autocratic, inquisitorial Curia in Rome.

We know that some readers are supporters of Fr Gruner because they have written us and told us so. We ask them now to cease giving his Crusade financial support. Instead, let us pray for him that he may be obedient to the Church and discontinue his mistaken disputation with the Magisterium.