The Fatima Crusader is up to issue #62 (Winter, 2000). It is published by the National Committee for the National Pilgrim Virgin of Canada and distributed in the U.S.A. with the help of the Servants of Jesus and Mary. The most recent issues claim a printing of 500,000 copies.

On the surface, it’s all about Fatima, but closer to the truth, it’s mostly about the life and canonical hard times (self-inflicted) of Fr. Nicholas Gruner.

Personally, I appreciate and welcome true devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, as well as devotion to O.L. of Lourdes and O.L. of Guadalupe. Thus, I appreciate articles of true Marian doctrine and devotion as the Church proposes and approves, especially the Marian teachings of Pope John Paul II who credits O.L. of Fatima with saving his life from the assassin’s bullet.

What I do not need nor look for—under the banner of Fatima—are gratuitous assessments (plots; sub-plots; counter-plots) of world and especially Russian politics, along with U.N. conspiracies, and all sorts of verbal assassinations against the Papal Secretary of State and the Cardinal Prefects of Roman Congregations and Tribunals.

It has been my limited American experience to note what I always considered a fatal flaw of politically leftist ideologues: “no enemies on the Left!” Sincere socialists (in so far as they exist) chose not to see and would never mention the clear errors and even atrocities of those of the radical Left (even Communists) because they felt that the “real enemy” was always on the Right. Thus, they were always silent about the “foibles” of their “friends” since they were true crusaders against the “sins” of their “enemies.”

I regret even the usage of the political terms Left and Right (liberal and conservative) in Church life. Such labels have their origin and use in human plans and human ideology but they are misleading, even blinding, when applied to Church doctrine and life. True doctrine is orthodox, or it is not; true practice is correct, or it is not.

Nevertheless, some on the “conservative” side seem to think that if someone is pro-Marian all other “foibles” or “sins” are best not seen and never mentioned. Thus, another blind slogan: “No enemies on the Right!”

Fr. Gruner seems to believe that he alone has cornered the market on how to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In this, Fr. Gruner would have us believe that even the Pope, John Paul II, has it wrong or wrongly understood. Since this is, at best, a prudential judgment—not a de fide judgment of faith and morals—I have full confidence that the prudential judgment of John Paul II is a correct one. Next, I have full confidence, indeed supreme confidence, in the canonical status of John Paul II as Pope. On the other hand, the canonical status of Fr. Gruner is a malleable mystery worthy of a John Grisham or Tom Clancy fiction.

Every Catholic priest must be “incardinated” (belong) to a particular Church (diocese) or personal prelature, or a Religious order, congregation or society: “Accordingly, acephalous or ‘wandering’ (vagi) clergy are by no means to be allowed” (Canon 265). It is possible for clergy to change dioceses, but this requires a valid, signed letter of excardination (from the diocese you leave) and another signed letter of incardination (from the diocese you come to) (cf. Cn. 267).

For 15 or 20 years, Fr. Gruner has been living in Canada. However, his home diocese (of incardination) is Avellino in Italy. Curiously, it is his own Fatima Crusader that reports that “Fr. Gruner had never been a citizen or permanent resident of Italy. . . .” #61 (Autumn, 1999; p. 86).

As above, Church law prohibits a canonical “vagus”—a wandering cleric who is responsible and accountable to no authority in particular. Nevertheless, it still seems to happen that a few clerics seek a friendly port-of-call for valid ordination, but see it only as a launching pad till another “call” or “crusade” comes to them and they are “off” to another career, some journalistic, most not.

Over time, Fr. Gruner has been asked by competent authorities to clarify and regularize his proper canonical status. Thus, his proper Bishop (Avellino), the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy and the Apostolic Signatura (the Church’s highest appeals Court) have rendered decisions and appeals of decisions with which Fr. Gruner is not in conformity. What we have here is a disobedient priest and canonically a highly litigious one.

Of late, the Fatima Crusader (#61) carries one full article of vituperation against almost all Episcopal and Vatican officials who have heard, handled or reviewed his juridical charges and appeals. It is obvious to this reader that the only answers Fr. Gruner accepts as just and valid are his own answers. However, his unrelenting attacks on the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, and on Archbishop Zenon Grocholewski of the Signatura are truly scandalous.

Apart from personal and self-serving canonical sagas and fertile speculations about Russian politics, the Fatima Crusader sometimes actually focuses on Rosary devotions. I think it is the only solution; don’t send money, instead say a Rosary for Fr. Gruner: I have.

The other publication, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness is the work of Brother Michael Diamond, O.S.B. published from a “monastery” in Fillmore, N.Y. Of this author I know little and can find less. However, the booklet, and now a video: “Has Rome Become the Seat of the Antichrist?”, are not just deep, deep right field, they are functionally heretical, deeply scandalous and from some points of view anti-Catholic!

For Brother Diamond, Rome (the Pope) is the Antichrist; the “New Mass,” as he calls it, is “Deadly”; Natural Family Planning is the “Oldest Form of Birth Control”; and he opines that several formal teachings of Vatican Council II are not just erroneous but heretical.

Judging from the content and footnotes of this angry screed, this group (if it is a group) is either Lefebvrites or a branch office of Bob Jones University. It is not really clear to me which; it could be either.