The founders of Our Lady of Guadalupe independent Catholic church –
made up of primarily Hispanic and Portuguese members who were upset
after the diocese merged three Long Branch parishes – have no right to
call their group a Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church’s regional
bishop maintains.
Bishop David M.
O’Connell issued a release saying the church, which is now associated
with the American National Catholic Church, was created “by schismatic
leaders who deny the unity of the Roman Catholic Church and its
leadership and laws.”
No Catholic church can be independent, said O’Connell.
The
American National Catholic Church adheres to the teachings of
theologian and former Swiss priest Hans Kung, who is now 83 years old.
Among Kung's teachings is the rejection of such concepts of papal infallibility and celibacy for priests.
Father
Matthew Bailey, chancellor of the American National Catholic Church,
points to statements on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website –
which is associated with Rome – that indicate a desire to work with and
potentially recognize the Polish National Catholic Church, a similar
breakaway church.
Our
Lady of Guadalupe was formed by long-time members of St. John the
Baptist Church in Long Branch, which was shuttered in 2009 after the
diocese made a decision to merge three parishes, including St. John, Our
Lady Star of the Sea and Holy Trinity, and form Christ the King parish.
Some
St. John church members waged a campaign to keep its doors open, saying
it was a growing parish with the potential for strong financial
backing.
As the
merger plan proceeded, church members and pastor, Father Juan Daniel
Peirano, had a number of exchanges, resulting finally in the early
closing of the church and the locking of church gates.
Peirano
contacted local police for help in leaving the premises at one point,
and church officials declared the parishioners to be trespassers.
“Our
hope and our prayer is that (Our Lady of Guadalupe members) begin to
find the healing and peace they so desperately want and deserve” Bailey
said. “Good things are happening for Our Lady of Guadalupe. God is
clearly blessing them.”
The
release was issued only two days after Our Lady of Guadalupe staged a
public celebration of the feast day of Saint John the Baptist –
including a Mass celebrated by Bishop George Lucey of the American
National Catholic Church and it followed a letter O’Connell sent to
“whom it may concern” at the break-away church in April in which he said
his principal concern “has been to preserve and protect the unity and
communion of the Roman Catholic Church fractured by your actions.
“My
greatest fear,” O’Connell wrote, is that Our Lady of Guadalupe founders
will take “other well-intentioned Catholics down with them.”