Diocese of Spokane Booklet

We are sure that the Catholics who have joined the Fatima Crusaders are sincere in their belief. The Inland Register series presents the sorrows, the traumas, & the difficulties they have experienced for the sake of their belief. They are seeking to do God’s will as they understand it.

Yet, as Bishop of Spokane, I do not feel that I can stand by silently while people from this group cause confusion in the minds of some of our Catholic people.

The Fatima Crusaders or the Tridentine Latin Rite Church cannot be identified as a legitimate expression of the Roman Catholic faith. Their denial of the papacy as incorporated in the lives of the last four popes is a denial of the church itself. How can one believe in the presence of Christ in the church & the power of his Spirit while denying the concrete presence of the office of the Pope?

There is no such thing as a legitimate expression of the Catholic tradition that is not in union with the Holy Father. The Fatima Crusaders are therefore not legitimately Catholics. Their celebration of the sacraments is not a legitimate part of the life of the church. Bishop Schuckardt has received no mission from the church universal & does not accept the unity of the apostolic office. Yet these are some of the very elements which make the Church Roman Catholic.

The past 18 years have been very challenging for the church. Given the direction by the bishops of the church in union with the Holy Father, Catholics have been about the difficult task of reform & renewal. There have been extreme reactions at times & clearly abuses at times, but guided by the official teaching office of the church it has sought to live by & to teach the mainstream of Catholic tradition as it has been known for 2,000 years.

As your bishop, I must caution you, the faithful of this diocese, to protect yourselves from any error including this effort by the Fatima Crusaders. Their presentation of Catholic tradition distorts the mainstream of Catholic faith by a certain selected historical perception of Catholic life. They take a far too pessimistic view of world order.

Furthermore, they deny the teaching authority of the Second Vatican Council & the last four popes. Implicitly Bishop Schuckardt has set himself up as the final & last arbiter of Catholic tradition. This follows the pattern used by all so-called reformers of the past.

They are above the then current expression of Catholic tradition. History over & over again has demonstrated that such movements are not from the Holy Spirit. Whatever the admitted weaknesses & sinfulness of the Roman Catholic Church, the Fatima Crusaders stand opposed to the unity, Catholicity, & apostolicity of the church. I truly believe the series that begins this week (April 10, 1980) helps to identify this more clearly. I am grateful to Bob Cubbage & the Inland Register staff for their very competent & professional efforts to bring this story to the Catholic people of our diocese.

by Msgr. John Donnelly

Executive editor, Inland Register

This series of articles about the Tridentine Latin Rite Church has been two years in the making. Five interviews with Bishop Francis Schuckardt, the church’s leader, resulted from his own invitation that the Inland Register investigate his claims & the conduct of his membership.

To round out the information he gave us & preserve our own journalistic integrity & objectivity as far as was humanly possible, we have logged many miles, conducted more than 50 telephone & personal interviews, most of them with members & ex-members, & spent literally hundreds of hours researching, examining, evaluating, & comparing various aspects of the controversies surrounding the church.

Then, when we had finished all this, we let the articles sit for several weeks, tore them apart & re-did them, added material that would further clarify, subtracted material that could in our judgment be falsely construed or needlessly hurtful.

Then we pondered & discussed further questions: Why print them at all? Why should a diocesan newspaper get into the business of publishing such controversial material regarding another church group? Why not leave it to the secular journals? Where is the charity in printing such painful divisions among people who are obviously sincere & dedicated to their beliefs?

The answers to these questions have not come easily. We have in fact bent over backwards in this series because of the demands of charity — done everything in our power to avoid being judgmental, taken every possible precaution to give the benefit of the doubt when facts tended to the ambiguous or the detrimental. But we have been faced also with the demands of truth, & our obligation to search out the truth. That is why our work has been so painstakingly long in reaching completion; but it is also why we have concluded the need to publish.

The TLRC has about 800 followers in our reading area alone, & some 5,000 nationwide, according to Bishop Schuckardt. Many others apparently sympathize with it & support it financially. We believe these people have a right to know what the church teaches, & how it conducts its ministry. We also believe that such information should come from the leaders of the church themselves rather than second-hand wherever possible — and that is what we have tried to provide. We also believe that members & ex-members have some important information to offer regarding the effect of the church’s teaching on them. We have tried to provide that as well, as objectively as possible, & from as wide a variety of viewpoints as possible.

As to the question of why a Catholic newspaper should be involved in all this, we think the answer is clear: our mandate is to provide our Catholic people with information & interpretation of events in the world as they relate to the church with the perspective which our faith offers us. There can be no question that the TLRC & its mission affect our church. It was in fact established as a repudiation of the present courses our church has taken; & in its teaching it takes a considerably divergent perspective from our Own regarding our history & theology, however similar some of its practices might be to ours — past or present.

Throughout its 12-year history, none of the secular media has conducted a thorough investigation of the TLRC. They could hardly be expected to, since much of the controversy surrounding this church & its relationship with the Catholic Church lies in nuanced interpretations of theology, liturgy & ecclesiastical history which demand almost an “intermural” sensitivity.

All the more reason, we believe, why it is incumbent upon this newspaper to provide the technical investigative reporting required to be fair to both sides.

We have enlisted a number of professionals in the various fields mentioned to help accomplish this, & our own staff has provided a bridge between theological experts & the media with its own professional competence in the specialized field of Catholic journalism. Whether we have succeeded in our objectives or not is up to you to judge. But be assured — both our readers & members of the TLRC — that we have sincerely tried to be fair & objective, & that we hold no animosity toward anyone involved in these matters. If any one of our Catholic readers as a result of this series were to harbor animosity toward members of the TLRC, or to treat them with anything less than the kindness of Christ — we will have failed of our purpose. As followers of Christ, we can be content to stand by the wise words Gamaliel spoke to the Jewish Sanhedrin regarding the infant Christian church (Acts 5:38-39): ‘‘My advice is that you have nothing to do with these men. Let them alone. If their purpose or activity is human in its origins, it will destroy itself. If, on the other hand, it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them without fighting God himself.”’

The Tridentine Latin Rite Church’s conflict with the Roman Catholic Church shows little sign of settlement. Perplexing questions concerning Catholicism separate the two groups: Can a church council like Vatican II — acting under the auspices of the pope — reform the Mass? Can a pope change the proclamations of past popes? Can a pope expound on & ‘‘develop”’ decrees on faith & morals handed down by his predecessors?

Asserting that past papal decrees & encyclicals are ‘‘infallible,’ TLRC officials answer “no”? to the above. Spokesmen for the Roman Catholic Church say ‘‘Yes.”’

A recent book by a Roman Catholic priest summarizes the church’s position on the above questions. In his book, The Once & Future Liturgy, Father J.D. Crichton writes that past popes have changed supposedly binding decisions by their predecessors — including prohibitions concerning the Tridentine Mass. Vatican II replaced the Tridentine Mass with the ‘‘Novus Ordo’’ (New Rite) Mass, which is now used worldwide.

‘‘Throughout the centuries, popes have never felt bound by what their predecessors did,’’ Father Crichton writes. ‘‘They have never thought their hands were tied . . . they have claimed the right to alter or reform the Roman liturgy.

‘If what Paul VI, with the backing of a general council, has done is wrong, then all his predecessors were wrong, reaching back not merely to Pius V (who mandated the Tridentine Mass) but to Innocent II, to Gregory VII, to Gregory the Great, who added & subtracted things, to Vigilius, to Leo the Great, & beyond him probably to Damasus in the fourth century.”’

More than one pope has changed the Tridentine Mass, Father Crichton explains.

The so-called ‘‘fixed liturgy,’’ decreed by the Council of Trent & carried out by Pope Pius V, was abridged & changed by Pope Clement VIII, who reigned from 1591 to 1605. The liturgy was also changed by Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) & by Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), who introduced a new phase of liturgical reform.

Pope Pius V, Clement VIII & Urban VIII all issued documents when they revised the Mass, saying their alterations were instituted ad perpetuam rei memoriam (the Latin inscription means ‘‘forever’’).

Notwithstanding, pre- Vatican II popes disregarded the mandates of their predecessors concerning revisions in the Tridentine Mass, according to Father Crichton’s book & other research on church history.

Even outside Tridentine Mass revisions, there are numerous instances of one pope contradicting another pope’s position before Vatican II.

For example: in 1336, Pope Benedict XII contradicted his predecessor Pope John XXII, who held that the souls of the just do not enjoy the intuitive vision of God until after the last judgment. In his bull, ‘‘Benedictus Deus,’’ Benedict held that souls immediately see the divine essence with an intuitive & even facial vision.

Pope Pius XII, the last “true pope” in the TLRC’s eyes, also contradicted his predecessors. One example: in 1955, Pope Pius refuted Pope Boniface VIII's pronouncement that all national kings were subordinate to the emperor & that the emperor’s power in turn came from the pope. Pius XII called the assertion of Boniface, who reigned from 1294 to 1303, a “medieval conception conditioned by the period.”

Moreover, canonization does not always guarantee a saint to be the perfect Catholic theologian for all time.

St. Cyprian, for example, held until his martyrdom in 258 that all reconciled heretics had to be re-baptized before being admitted back into the church — an unsound theological position.

‟The time, thought patterns, religious culture & underlying assumptions within the context of history have to be taken into account when reading church decrees & writings by the saints,” said Father Michael Savelesky, rector of Bishop White Seminary.

‟The maturation of thought from one century to the next is also a very important consideration when studying church history,” he added.

Within this context, popes have ‟developed” their predecessors’ decrees on faith & morals,”’ Father Savelesky said.

TLRC leaders argue this point saying papal encyclicals & other church decrees are infallible — & therefore cannot be altered or ‟developed.”

Frater Denis Chicoine, TLRC vicar general, defended his church’s stance by quoting Pope Pius XII’s encyclical, ‟Humani Generis.”

In the encyclical, Pope Pius XII writes, ‟Nor must it be thought that what is contained in encyclical letters does not of itself demand assent, on the pretext that the popes do not exercise in them the supreme power of their teaching authority.”

This excerpt from ‟Humani Generis” is proof that all encyclicals on faith & morals should be viewed as infallible vehicles for the popes, claims Frater Chicoine.

Not so, explains Father Savelesky: ‟Pope Pius XII was addressing the views of those who argued that they did not have to heed church teachings unless those teachings were declared infallible. He was not responding to those who were debating whether or not encyclicals were infallible teaching instruments.”

Pope Pius XII understood that encyclicals are rarely used to promulgate dogma of the church in an infallible manner, he added.

‟A pope only speaks infallibly when he distinctly declares he is speaking infallibly,” Father Savelesky said, noting that such occasions are extremely rare.

‟Encyclicals & other pronouncements by the church should be seen as statements which offer guidance & enlightenment to individuals (both believers & non-believers) rather than viewed as an automatic blueprint for rigid behavior or thought. If that were the case, the encyclicals would neglect the conscience of individuals & their free, personal assent.”

At the same time, it is important to emphasize that ‘‘as a church document, an encyclical appeals for serious consideration by the faithful & our assent to it,’’ Father Savelesky noted. ‘‘An encyclical is the pope speaking in the name of the church discussing the implications of God’s revelation & is not per se God’s final answer on the subject,’’ he added.

Father John Steiner, director of liturgy for the Spokane Diocese, added that ‟the history of theology & liturgy is long & complex. Failure to recognize this has led the TLRC to its extreme & erroneous positions.”

‟There is no such thing as a legitimate expression of the Catholic tradition that is not in union with the Holy Father. The Fatima Crusaders are therefore not legitimately Catholic. Their celebration of the sacraments is not a legitimate part of the life of the church. Bishop Schuckardt has received no mission from the church universal & does not accept the unity of the apostolic office. Yet these are some of the very elements which make the church (Roman) Catholic.”

Bishop Welsh cautioned Catholics in the Spokane Diocese to protect themselves from errors involving Catholic tradition found in the TLRC & other schismatic sects.

‟The TLRC’s presentation of Catholic tradition distorts the mainstream of Catholic faith by a certain selected historical perception of Catholic life,” he said. ‟They take a far too pessimistic view of world order. Furthermore, they deny the teaching authority of the Second Vatican Council & the last four popes.

‟Implicitly, Bishop Schuckardt has set himself up as the final & last arbiter of Catholic tradition,” Bishop Welsh continued. ‟This follows the pattern used by all so-called reformers of the past. They are above the then current expression of Catholic tradition.

‟History has repeatedly demonstrated that such movements are not from the Holy Spirit. Whatever the admitted weaknesses & sinfulness of the Roman Catholic Church, the Fatima Crusaders stand opposed to the unity, Catholicity & apostolicity of the church,” Bishop Welsh said.

Retired Bishop Bernard Topel of the Spokane Diocese said: ‟It is important to point out that members of the Tridentine Latin Rite Church do not belong to the same church that I do. Nor do they belong to the same church that St. Peter, St. Francis DeSales & Pope Pius XII belonged to.

‟If a Catholic should join this group, that person is no longer a member of our Catholic Church. Nor does attendance at their services fulfill a Catholic’s obligation to worship,” he said.

Bishop Sylvester Treinen of the Boise Diocese in Idaho, where a majority of the church members still live although many are moving to Spokane, has said the TLRC ‘“‘is no longer part of the Roman Catholic Church’’ because of its rejection of Pope Paul VI & his successors.

The TLRC is not part of any other traditionalist group or schismatic church. Contrary to popular belief, the TLRC is not affiliated with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre & his Society of St. Pius X movement in the United States & Europe.

The 73-year-old French-born archbishop Opposes the Second Vatican Council’s decree on religious freedom & liturgical reforms. Pope Paul suspended him from the priestly ministry in 1976 because of his opposition to church reforms.

‟Lefebvre is maintaining that Montini (Schuckardt calls Pope Paul VI by his family name) & his successors are true popes but are leading the church into error. We think that this is blasphemy & heresy. If we believed that Montini was true pope, then we would have to follow him…” Schuckardt said.

“Some people have the impression that because we don’t accept Vatican Il, Montini (and John Paul), we don’t believe in the papacy. That is absolutely incorrect. We firmly believe in the papacy & its infallibility.”

The TLRC is continually seeking converts to what they consider to be the Catholic Church in ‘interregnum,” which traditionally is the period between the death of a pope & the election of his successor.

The apostolic fervor of its members has spread through the country.

Chapels which serve some of the larger TLRC community outside the Idaho-Washington area have been established in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Omaha & Colorado Springs.

“We also have small groups of members located in virtually every state of the country,” Schuckardt said.

The seven TLRC priests, six of whom were ordained by Schuckardt, and Schuckardt make individual visits to […] followers at chapels in other cities at least four times a year […] bring the sacraments, Schuckardt said.

In between missionary visits, the small groups of believers meet together in ‘‘cell’’ (study) groups to recite the rosary, study Scripture & papal encyclicals, & strengthen each other in the faith.

They also attempt to bring in new members.

The majority of the TLRC’s 5,000 members in this country live in the same cities as the TLRC chapels, Schuckardt said. The sect’s largest congregation, 800 followers, is divided among Coeur d’Alene, Spokane & Rathdrum, Idaho, where the TLRC owns a 100-acre site called the “City of Mary.” The sect also has approximately 150 members in the Seattle area.

A convent, girls’ school and a “cathedral” are located at the “City of Mary.” Two more convents, a seminary, girls’ high school, rectory, priory, chapel & a bookstore are housed in eight converted buildings in Coeur d’ Alene. Most (if not all) of these buildings will be sold in the near future as the TLRC completes its move to Spokane, a TLRC spokesman said.

The group’s mailing list holds over 10,000 names.

It has also purchased a mansion on Spokane’s south side to serve as a chancery for Schuckardt. Buildings on TLRC property in Spokane & Idaho house the 52 men who are “fraters,’’ or male Religious, in the TLRC. The TLRC seminary is now located at Mount St. Michael. A high school for boys is part of the seminary.

Approximately 200 youths attended the TLRC primary & secondary schools, said Frater Louis Marie, vice-president of the boys’ high school.

The church’s 82 Sisters live in the convents at Rathdrum & Coeur d’Alene. The TLRC plans to build a convent on the Mount St. Michael acreage in the near future.

The TLRC administers approximately $3 million worth of land & property in Washington & Idaho, according to official records & other sources.

Although TLRC members are often called “Fatima Crusaders,” that title is a misnomer, Schuckardt said. The name denotes “an apostolate of the TLRC & not the church itself,” he said. Members of the Fatima apostolate try to live up to the requirements for a holy life made by the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Fatima appearances in 1917, he said.

The TLRC is also known by the name “Mary, Immaculate Queen of the Universe Community.” It is incorporated in the State of Idaho as “Christ the King Priory.” In Washington, it is incorporated under the title “Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church of St. Joseph.”

Other TLRC titles appear in its mailing literature: “Our Lady of Fatima Crusade,” “The Reign of Mary” (which is also the title of its official newsletter) & the “Catholic Catechetical Center.”

Although the church has several titles, what Spokane-area residents have come to know as the Tridentine Latin Rite Church began in Coeur d’Alene in 1968.

Schuckardt, then an internationally known speaker from the Blue Army of Our Lady, a conservative Marian apostolic group, was ousted from that organization because of his public condemnation of Pope Paul VI & Vatican II. He then started his own version of the Blue Army called the Fatima Crusade.

Schuckardt’s followers had assumed the name Tridentine Latin Rite Church by the mid-1970s. The TLRC’s dispute with the Roman Catholic Church seems to be a bitter one. In tape recordings of TLRC seminars held in California in the late 1960s, a TLRC lecturer referred to Roman Catholic parishes as “synagogues of Satan” & the Holy Eucharist consecrated by Catholic priests as “bread from Satan’s table.”

When TLRC leaders & members make annual pilgrimages to Marian shrines in Europe, a TLRC priest will often “exorcise” the shrine from the “evil influences of the Roman Catholic Masses that have been said there,” according to a former member.

Catholic priests & other officials at the shrine are often unaware of who the Tridentines are so they give them permission to recite a Mass at the shrine not knowing it is a Tridentine Mass, forbidden by church law, said the ex-member.

Physical confrontations involving the TLRC have taken place in Idaho & Spokane.”

Kootenai County Court records show that a Religious Sister in the TLRC was convicted of a battery charge in 1976 after she had tried to protect another sister from her mother, a former church member, in a confrontation on Coeur d’ Alene streets.

The father of another TLRC Sister was placed on probation by the same court after knocking a Religious Sister to the ground while kidnapping his daughter from her convent in Coeur d’Alene. Police released the kidnapped Sister from her parents at their family home. The daughter did not file any charges against her parents for the kidnapping.

John Tamplin, an ex-TLRC member & a Rathdrum, Idaho resident, has been involved in several quarrels with TLRC members. Tamplin, who drives a pick-up truck carrying signs denouncing the TLRC as a “satanic cult” & Schuckardt as a “false bishop,” said that on several occasions, TLRC members have thrown paint on, or torn down, his signs while he & his daughter, Mrs. Margie Skarisky, were picketing the TLRC in Idaho & at Mount St. Michael.

On Oct. 16, 1979, the Spokane County Superior Court granted the TLRC a permanent injunction barring Tamplin & his daughter from parking their truck on a “loop road” near the entrance of Mount St. Michael, which the judge ruled is the property of the church.

TLRC members have said they “regret & are saddened” by the argument involving Tamplin & his truck. “The bold wording on some of the signs provoke members who love their church & do not want to see it maligned,” said Thomas Drahman, a TLRC member.

The Superior Court decision does not prohibit Tamplin from displaying his signs or from legally parking on a county road near Mount St. Michael. Tamplin said at the trial that he fears “for his life” to go near the Mount again.

Schuckardt says these & other arguments involving TLRC members & ex-members have made the church appear in a poor light with the public.

News reports have been filled with distortions. Schuckardt said, referring to charges from former members that the TLRC brainwashes its members, tears families apart, operates as a cult, uses too strict discipline with students in its schools & bilks its followers of their hard-earned dollars.

Schuckardt & other spokesmen for the TLRC deny these charges vehemently. They blame bad press on “embittered ex-members who are lying about the TLRC & its practices.” Still, critics clamor for more public scrutiny of the traditionalist sect.

“We have never searched for controversy but it always seems to find us wherever we go,” said one of the church’s Religious Brothers.

The Brother’s words have proven true so far. The church at Mount St. Michael is currently involved in a property dispute with its neighbors that shows no clear sailing for them in the months ahead.

Another article in this series will explore this controversy further.

These same neighbors have also reported incidents involving runaway boys from the Mount’s boarding school to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

Former students say disciplinary measures employed by instructors at the Mount are “too harsh.” Religious Brothers at the Mount have shaved the heads of students if they break certain rules at the school, former students say. These rules include associating with girls, listening to “hard-rock” music, associating with ex-members & leaving the Mount without permission.

Students are often slapped across the face by instructors & other school personnel for “minor infractions,” the sources add. A student will be slapped, sometimes repeatedly, by one of the Religious Brothers for “talking back” to a superior or not having their homework completed, among other infractions, the ex-students say.

TLRC leaders have “forced parents to cooperate with school disciplinary measures,” the ex-students say. The church leaders have suspended families from sacraments when they have not cooperated with school disciplinary measures, the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, say.

The vice-president of the Mount’s high school acknowledges that the above incidents do occur at the Mount although he denies they are “a common thing here.”

“Corporal punishment is only used for serious & ongoing public misconduct by the student,” Frater Louis Marie said, denying that one single incident, such as a student’s failure to complete his homework assignment, will merit an automatic slap across the face.

Students have been slapped for showing “visible disrespect for a Religious superior because he is insulting the religious office of the brother, & not the brother himself,” Frater Louis said.

“If you are concerned with souls, sometimes you have to take a drastic remedy to make a student do what he is supposed to do, or else decide that he should get out of the community,” Frater Louis said, explaining the school’s philosophy on corporal punishment.

Parents of students are suspended from the sacraments only when their “son refuses to return to our school or attends a public school & still lives at home,” Frater Louis said in response to charges from ex-students.

Popes have taught that Catholic youths are required to attend Catholic schools, Frater Louis said. “If TLRC members refuse to send their children to our school without valid reasons, or if they permit their children to live at home without attending any school at all, that family is creating a public scandal & they will be denied communion in our church,” Frater Louis said.

The question of excessive school discipline has also been raised by other former members of the TLRC. Their statements & court reports indicate that grade school students have been mistreated in the TLRC schools.

On Oct. 26, 1976, Frater Paul Welsh was sentenced to serve five days in the Kootenai County Jail for excessive spanking of a 10-year-old student in April of that year. The Religious Brother was also placed on probation for two years by Judge A.H. Parisot, according to court records.

Another incident involving mistreatment of children in TLRC schools took place in 1973 at the St. Louis de Montfort School for boys, then located in Rathdrum, Idaho.

Approximately 35 boys were twice given 40 hacks each with a wooden paddle because they failed class assignments, said Mrs. Jean Case, an ex-member & mother of a son who was spanked.

Her comments have been corroborated by other ex-members.

When questioned about the latter incident, Bishop Schuckardt said: “I was completely unaware of the student abuse because I was in the hospital at the time. We removed the teacher from his teaching position as soon as we verified the incidents.”

Explaining his philosophy on corporal punishment of children in schools, Schuckardt said: “I have always told the teachers in my school that they should be able to keep order in the classroom without the use of corporal punishment. There are times when corporal punishment is necessary, however.”

Statements by members & ex-members concerning TLRC school & church policy will often contradict each Other. Future articles will explore these areas.

A papal assassination & a subversive attack on the church by conspirators to install false popes are among the events that laid the groundwork for Vatican II. The council was the final step in a sophisticated plot by the church’s enemies to exterminate the Catholic religion & replace it with an “antichrist religion,” says Tridentine leaders.

Consequently, the TLRC, headquartered at Mount St. Michaels in north Spokane, believes its small band of followers form the only true Catholic Church in existence. TLRC membership totals nearly 5,000 nationwide, with 800 living in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area, leaders say.

Church members also contend that the papal lineage from St. Peter to Pope Pius XII, the last pope before Vatican I, continues exclusively with them.

Leaders of the schismatic sect defend their position by saying the alleged fall of the Roman Catholic Church is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy concerning the last days of man before Christ’s Second Coming.

The Catholic Church has been destroyed by conspirators who devised a plot nearly two centuries ago to infiltrate & overthrow the church from within, say Tridentine leaders.

Schuckardt has acknowledged these conspirators murdered Pope Pius XII in order to seize final control of the church.

The TLRC leader claims the conspirators are elite members of the international society of Freemasonry. The Freemasons are now in complete control of the worldwide Catholic Church, he said.

An ex-member of the TLRC, Daniel Wilson (pseudonym), said he was taught in the TLRC high school that a “Masonic secret sect named the Carbonari” helped plot to overthrow the Catholic Church as early as 1820 in Europe.” The Carbonari planned to corrupt the Catholic faithful by infiltrating the ranks of the clergy, he said.

After infiltrating the Roman Catholic Church & winning appointments to influential church positions, the Freemasons gradually introduced false doctrines into the church until these heresies culminated in Vatican II, the ex-student said he was taught in the TLRC.

Vatican II, according to TLRC beliefs, completely annihilated the Catholic faith by introducing heretical doctrines & overturning infallible precepts laid down by past popes.

“The upper echelons of the international society of Freemasonry are definitely involved in the Freemasonic conspiracy” to corrupt & control the church, Bishop Schuckardt said in an interview.

“How much the average Freemason on the street knows the conspiracy, I do not know,” the TLRC prelate added.

“We believe the present Roman Catholic Church is an entirely new religion based on humanism rather than the truth of God,” said Frater (the Latin word means “brother”) Denis Chicoine, TLRC vicar general.

According to an article in the Reign of Mary, the TLRC official newsletter, the Freemasons finally grabbed the reins of the church in 1958 by poisoning Pope Pius XII, the “last true Catholic vicar,” in the TLRC’s eyes.

Schuckardt claims Pope Pius XII knew of the Freemasonic invasion of the Catholic Church.

“He let the College of Cardinals fall to its lowest number in modern history because he did not trust the Catholic bishops & officials working in the church enough to appoint them to the college,” Schuckardt said.

The murder of Pope Pius XII paved the way for the election of an “interim pope,” John XXIII, & then the Catholic Church’s first “false pope” of modern times, Cardinal Giovanni Montini who became Pope Paul VI in 1963, Schuckardt said.

He declined to say whether or not Pope Paul was an active Freemasonic conspirator. Former TLRC members, however, claim Bishop Schuckardt has preached that Pope Paul VI was indeed a Freemason.

One ex-member showed a copy of the Reign of Mary in which Pope Paul is referred to as the “Grand Masonic Luciferian Master,” to support this allegation.

Pope John Paul II is “carrying out the Freemasonic principles of the infiltrated church,” Schuckardt said, adding: “I am still observing him to see whether or not he is a knowing instrument of the Freemasons,”

The ultimate goal of the Freemasons is to form a one-world humanistic religion from all the existing religions in the world, according to Tridentine beliefs. The TLRC also envisions a one-world government being established as a counterpart to this one-world religion.

Commenting on the Tridentine teaching, Toby Johnsen, Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Washington State, said, “there is no truth whatsoever” to Schuckardt’s allegation that Freemasons are in control of the Catholic Church.

Father John Steiner, director of liturgy for the Spokane Diocese, said the TLRC’s theory on a Freemasonic takeover of the Roman Catholic Church is “nonsense.” He declined to make any further comment on the subject saying it was “too ridiculous to pursue.”

The international secret society of Freemasonry, a virulent opponent of the Roman Catholic Church at one point in history, has been strongly censured by past popes, among them Leo XIII, Pius IX & Clement XII.

Freemasonry, however, has not incurred any strong censure from recent popes, because it is generally accepted by church officials that Masons are no longer engaged in a campaign to destroy or hinder the church.

But Schuckardt still maintains that the Freemasons have taken over the church. Similar conspiracy theories have also been espoused by other separatist Catholic groups. The Tridentine bishop points to Vatican II as evidence for this conspiracy.

The new laws & decrees of Vatican II are in conflict with what Schuckardt claims are infallible statements from previous church councils, past papal encyclicals & other papal pronouncements.

The 42-year-old prelate has convinced many people that Pope John XXIII & his successors had no right to reform the Mass & other church rituals at Vatican II.

Schuckardt broke away from the church in 1968 with seven followers. One dilapidated building in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, served as church headquarters.

In only 12 years, he has acquired over 800 followers in this area alone, as well as nearly 1,000 acres in church property in Washington & Idaho states & a half-dozen chapels across the United States.

He & his members are skilled at citing pre-Vatican II documents (such as Pope St. Pius X’s encyclical on Modernism) to point out what they believe are glaring contradictions to church statements after Vatican II.

TLRC members however, have been accused of taking quotations out of their historical & cultural context & deliberately ignoring the historical evidence of other reforms & renewals in the church, as well as confusing infallible decrees of popes with less authoritative documents.

The TLRC’s “criteria for orthodoxy & dogmatic understanding are not consistent with the long tradition of the church,” said Father Steiner, explaining that he believes the sect “erroneously teaches a selective form of Catholic instruction.”

“The ordinary teaching criteria of the church give weight to four important areas of tradition: Sacred Scripture, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, the teachings of the councils, & the ‘ordinary magisterium,’ which is the teaching authority of the Holy Father & the bishops,” Father Steiner said.

“In order to be faithful to the theological traditions of the church, one must seek to find that constant thread of truth which links the present & the past in the church’s teachings.” (See side-bar article.) [NOTE: there is no sidebar article in the booklet]

The TLRC also teaches an extended definition of papal infallibility, Father Steiner continued.

“Since the time papal infallibility was defined at Vatican I in 1870, the church has made only one infallible statement & that was on the Assumption. Obviously, this was not changed by Vatican II,” he said.

Certain disciplines were changed & certain teachings were restated in more understandable language at Vatican II. Moreover, the church has the right to mandate the discipline of the Mass & the sacraments. A denial of the pontiff’s prerogative to do this is a heretical doctrinal position regarding the power of the church,” Father Steiner said.

Schuckardt, however, preaches that the TLRC is the only true organized Catholic Church & that it is now only a “remnant church.”

TLRC members look upon Schuckardt as God’s chosen instrument to save the church from destruction as a result of the Freemasonic invasion & the Vatican II decrees. The only true leaders of the Catholic Church for the past 40 years, in their eyes, are Pope Pius XII & Schuckardt.

Accordingly, the TLRC leaders preach that the 739 million Roman Catholics in the world today are apostates who have excommunicated themselves by acknowledging Pope John XXIII & his successors as true vicars of Christ & by accepting Vatican II decrees.

With Paul VI’s election to the papacy, “the true Roman Catholic Church magisterium & the true Catholic laity were exiled into the catacombs where they remain to this day,” states an article in the Reign of Mary.

The task of directing “the church in the catacombs” has fallen on the shoulders of Francis K. Schuckardt — a mission that he states emphatically he neither sought nor desired. It is a commonly held belief among Tridentine members that divine providence forced this role upon their mentor.

If not a pope, Schuckardt is literally the “last true Roman Catholic bishop left on the face of the earth,” his followers believe. Schuckardt accepts this designation but qualifies it with the words: “...as far as we know at this time.”

Schuckardt was ordained & consecrated in 1971 by a bishop from a schismatic Catholic sect. Founded in Holland, the sect of Schuckardt’s consecrator broke away from Rome in 1723. Called the Church of Utrecht at the time of its schism, the sect is now known in America under the title of the Old Roman Catholic Church.

The man who consecrated Schuckardt, Bishop Daniel Q. Brown of Toledo, Ohio, reportedly renounced his heretical affiliation with the Old Roman Catholic Church & made a “profession of faith” to the “true” Roman Catholic Church before consecrating Schuckardt a priest & bishop in Chicago.

Schuckardt’s ordination & consecration, however, are not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. (Schuckardt’s consecration will be further examined in the last article of this series.)

Adrift from the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Schuckardt now directs the TLRC’s ordinary & solemn teaching magisterium — which has historically & ultimately been under the leadership of the pope.

The following excerpt from a confidential newsletter to TLRC members from church leaders illustrates this belief in the nature of the TLRC & the episcopacy of their prelate:

“. . . Those who have attacked or rejected the providentially provided magisterium of the ‘church in the catacombs’ falls under . . . automatic excommunication. Commend such pitiable souls to the Merciful Heart of Mary, for the church infallibly teaches that unless they repent & are absolved by the bishop before death, they are assuredly & eternally damned.”

All members take an “abjuration of error” before acceptance into the TLRC. The abjuration of error is patterned after the Roman Catholic Church’s traditional abjuration of heresy, which is a renunciation under oath of an apostacy, heresy or schism using a certain formula. The TLRC version, however, adds a few lines at the end of the oath repudiating the Holy See in Rome, Bishop Schuckardt said.

New members joining the church are required to receive the sacraments of Matrimony, Baptism, Confirmation & Holy Orders (if applicable) again, if these sacraments were administered to them at the time of, or after, Vatican II.

Besides claiming to hold the only true sacraments, the Tridentines also believe the Roman Catholic Church is now in a state of interregnum, a period between popes, & that their own ranks will produce the true successor to Pius XII.

In addition to waiting for a new pope to emerge from its ranks, the TLRC is expecting the end of the world & Christ’s Second Coming in the near future.

TLRC leaders say current world & religious events are fulfillments of biblical prophecy concerning the last days of man.

By accepting Vatican II, today’s Roman Catholics are casualties of the “great apostacy” predicted by St. Paul when he wrote that the end of the world will not come “unless there first comes a falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the Tridentines believe.

This “deception of the elect,” besides blinding Rome & the Mystical Body, is also seducing world political & religious leaders, causing another fulfillment of St. Paul’s prophecy: “God has allowed them to believe error & lies as punishment for not loving the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:11), said Frater Chicoine.

This domination of falsehood over truth will result in a one-world church (based on the philosophy of humanism) as well as a one-world government, he added.

The United Nations, “which we believe is a communist organization,” will play a key role in founding this one-world government, Frater Chicoine noted.

The antichrist, an evil world leader, will take control of this dual civil-religious institution, he continued. The antichrist will have “authority over race & people, language & nation” as prophesied in Revelations.

“We are primarily concentrating on building spiritual fortitude in our members so that we may survive the increasing trials we envision as the world draws to an end & Christ returns to establish his Kingdom,” he said.

Many Christian fundamentalist groups have cited similar “end-times” theories. The Tridentines, however, augment the belief that they are living in the latter days with predictions by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima & other apparitions.

Besides noting these apocalyptic revelations by the Blessed Virgin Mary at some of her apparitions, Bishop Schuckardt said he believes that the “Third Secret of Fatima” has been revealed & that this secret pinpoints the latter half of the 20th century as a time of ‘‘a great punishment which will sweep over the entire human race,” he said.

The punishment will come in the form of a “great war...where millions of men will perish from hour to hour & those who survive will envy those who have perished,” states certain portions of the alleged secret which Schuckardt has made available to his followers.

Three secrets were given to the children who witnessed the apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. The first two secrets were quickly related to church officials, but the third secret was written down by the eldest of the youngsters, Lucia, & given to the bishop of Fatima who later forwarded the letter to the Vatican. It was reported that Lucia had decided that the letter would not be opened until 1960. When Pope John XXIII read the letter in that year, according to fairly reliable reports, he decided not to make the contents public.

The supposed text of the “Third Secret of Fatima” first appeared in a German newspaper in 1963, sources say. It gained extensive international press coverage about 10 years ago, but the authenticity of this purported message from Fatima has been denied by church authorities.

Schuckardt said the one-world government will trigger the great calamity predicted in the Fatima secret.

Father John Steiner, responding to TLRC theories on the end of the world & Fatima predictions, said, “There has never been any official church teaching on recognizing the time of the latter days of Christ’s Second Coming.”

Rome also does not require Catholics to believe the revelations at Fatima or other apparitions as a matter of doctrine, he noted.

“The third secret of Fatima has not been revealed by the pope,” he continued.

Nevertheless, TLRC leaders believe & teach their last-day theories as fact, ex-members say. They instruct their followers to remain steadfast in their Catholic dogma & practices so they may withstand the coming persecution of the one-world government. Some of the Tridentines expect to face martyrdom, said one TLRC layman.

“Whatever may happen, we will remain true Catholics until the last member,” Bishop Schuckardt said.

Certain political books are listed in TLRC publications & sold in the TLRC bookstore because “members requested that we include these books,” Schuckardt said.

Two parts of Bishop Schuckardt’s political philosophy which former members say are particularly distasteful include:

• the teaching that America is a “Freemasonic Republic” & that it is anti-Catholic to support the U.S. government or honor the American flag:
• the position that modern Jews are not of the same lineage as the Old Testament Jews & that a powerful group of Jews, known as Zionists, is involved in a clandestine plot to take over the world & destroy Christian morality.

This article will explore these two areas.

The TLRC rejects the United States government, the fundamental precept of democracy, & the historical data concerning the founding of this nation, Bishop Schuckardt said.

“The principles of democracy & Catholicism are irreconcilable,” Bishop Schuckardt said. “The Roman Catholic Church has always taught that there are absolute rights & absolute wrongs, but democracy states that the majority is always right,” Schuckardt said, explaining his rejection of America’s government.

“I am not saying that every facet of the government is anti-Christian,” Bishop Schuckardt clarified. “But certain rulings of the U.S. government are definitely prejudiced against Catholicism & do not respect the law of God. Any true government has to respect the law of God as the ultimate truth,” he said.

The ideal government is a Catholic monarchy, he added.

Moreover, “America was founded by Freemasons,” Schuckardt said, claiming that the humanistic philosophy of Freemasonry, along with its Catholic antipathies, has been incorporated into the U.S. government.

Freemasonry is an oath-bound fraternal order of men directly descended from the lodges of stonemasons & cathedral builders of the Middle Ages.

In the 16th century, Freemasons began to embrace social & philosophical issues rather than the craft of masonry, according to the Encyclopedia Americana. In the 18th & 19th centuries, Freemasonic goals & beliefs became bitterly hostile towards Catholicism, prompting several popes to publicly condemn the international society.

Open antagonism between the Freemasons & the Catholic Church, however, has diminished in this century.

Schuckardt & TLRC high school teachers claim Freemasons control America because George Washington & other early presidents were Freemasons; the pyramid & all-seeing eye emblem on the $1 bill is from Freemasonic origins; the democratic system was developed by Thomas Paine & Rousseau, who were Freemasons; and 55 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons, among other arguments advanced by the TLRC.

Reference sources, Freemasons & historians challenge these alleged assertions by Schuckardt & TLRC instructors.

The Encyclopedia Americana states, “Of the 56 signers...nine are clearly identified as Freemasons — and some authorities include five to 10 more.

“Freemasons did not found this country,” said Toby Johnsen, grand master of the Grand Lodge of Washington State in a telephone interview. “Freemasons were only seeking freedom from British oppression like other Americans in 1776,” he said.

Robert Carriker, a history professor at Gonzaga University, also disagrees, saying Schuckardt’s version of American history is “an unfair way to treat history.”

“If one can call this country a Freemasonic republic because Freemasons were involved in founding it, why not call it a ‘business’ or ‘middle-aged man’s’ republic because most of the Founding Fathers were businessmen with an average age of 43,” Carriker said.

Nor is Schuckardt’s opinion that democracy is anti-Catholic shared by Roman Catholics.

Many elements in democracy such as equality before the law, equality of opportunity, freedom of speech, press & assembly, & freedom from arbitrary arrest & punishment are all essential Catholic principles, said Father Michael Savelesky, rector of Bishop White Seminary, & other Catholic defenders of the democratic form of government.

Catholics do, however, reject the theory that every decision by popular or judicial vote constitutes a guarantee of moral rectitude, he said.

Although they reject its government, Bishop Schuckardt said he & the TLRC members love America.

“I love America & our desire for our country is that she be converted to the Catholic faith,” he said. The TLRC has designed its own in honor of Mary, the patroness of America, to show its love & allegiance to the United States, Schuckardt said. This substitutes for the American flag in their church.

The American flag is not displayed in the TLRC because some members feel the red, white & blue flag colors are derived from grim Freemasonic origins, Schuckardt continued.

“The red in the flag symbolizes the blood of priests, bishops & nuns who were nailed to convent doors & murdered by Freemasons in their revolts against Catholic monarchies in Europe,” Schuckardt said.

The grand master of Washington’s Freemasons disagrees with the Tridentine leader’s interpretation of the flag colors.

“I have never heard of this description concerning the flag,” Johnsen said. “Only a very few Masons participated in the constitutional convention which passed a resolution to adopt a flag,” he said.

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, the Continental Congress of 1782 declared the red to represent “heartiness or courage,” the white “purity” & the blue “vigilance.”

Some ex-members claim Schuckardt’s anti-American teachings are a tactic to prevent members from swearing their allegiance to any group outside the TLRC.

In another disputed area, former members say Bishop Schuckardt preaches that America has never had a true Catholic bishop.

Bishop Schuckardt responded, saying there have been “only a very few true Catholic bishops in America.”

Those bishops were Bishop (now saint) John Neumann (1811-1860), who served as prelate of Philadelphia, & the few bishops who endorsed the doctrine of papal infallibility defined at Vatican I (1869-70) for the first time, Schuckardt said.

All the other bishops in America, past & present, have repeatedly compromised or ignored papal decrees & have “succumbed to Freemasonic thought & pluralism,” Schuckardt claims.

Father John Steiner, chancellor of the Spokane Diocese from 1977-80, said Schuckardt’s views on American bishops compromising their faith is “an incredible perversion of the truth.”

When Bishop Schuckardt was asked why Pope Pius XII or his predecessors (the only true popes in the TLRC’s eyes) never warned American Catholics about the alleged heresies of their bishops, or at least sounded a clear alarm that the U.S. Government was supposedly anti-Catholic, the Tridentine leader replied that the popes have indeed issued such warnings.

Schuckardt cites Pope Pius XII’s encyclical letter to the American hierarchy in 1939, Pope Leo XIII’s treatise on the heresy of Americanism as well as his encyclical letter on true Christian government, as examples of warnings to America on the errors in the American church.

Schuckardt’s interpretation of these papal writings, however, is not shared by Roman Catholic authorities.

Pope Pius XII & Pope Leo XIII refer to America not in a direct but a nuanced manner in these documents, Father Savelesky said. In these references, “The popes were not responding to positions officially held by the hierarchy but, rather, they were addressing potentially dangerous tendencies held by some Catholics both in America & Europe,” he said.

Pope Leo XIII explicitly stated in his document concerning “Americanism” that he was not referring to “characteristic qualities which reflect honor on the American people,” he said.

Nor did Pope Leo XIII single out any specific national hierarchy as holding the heretical doctrine, Father Savelesky said.

Bishop Schuckardt also believes the international society of Freemasonry was behind “the heresies of Vatican II.”

Freemasons plotted to infiltrate the Catholic Church nearly two centuries ago & finally succeeded in grabbing the reigns of the church at Vatican II, Bishop Schuckardt said in an interview.

The Freemasonic conspirators poisoned Pope Pius XII, the “last true Catholic vicar” in the TLRC’s eyes, Bishop Schuckardt said.

Pope Pius XII died on Oct. 9, 1958 after suffering two strokes, according to official reports. He was 82 years old.

The TLRC’s controversial interpretation of political & religious history includes the Jewish religion.

TLRC officials, including Bishop Schuckardt, are hostile to Jews, ex-members say, adding that the leaders’ antisemitic views are disseminated to church members as religious education.

Bishop Schuckardt said these allegations from his ex-followers are misconstrued. He did, however, elaborate on his position concerning the Jewish race in an interview.

The Roman legions annihilated the Jewish race when the soldiers plundered & destroyed Jerusalem & the surrounding Jewish homeland in 70 A.D., Bishop Schuckardt contends. The only survivors of the massacre were a false sect of Jews, who embraced the Talmud as their holy book & subsequently became known as “Talmudic Jews,” Schuckardt said.

The Talmud is a multi-volume work comprising the oral interpretation of Jewish law.

“Talmudic Judaism is a combination of Egyptian superstition, pagan rites & total blasphemy against Jesus & Mary,” Bishop Schuckardt said in a 1974 tape-recorded talk to teenagers at a TLRC seminar. “The ideal of this sect is to destroy Christianity, Christian principles & Christian morals,” he further states in the tape.

The Talmudic Jews changed their name to Zionists around the turn of this century, TLRC officials teach.

A large number of Zionists has infiltrated the College of Cardinals & been appointed to high positions in the Roman Catholic Church, according to TLRC literature. Goal of these secret Zionists is to corrupt & destroy the true Catholic faith by introducing false doctrines into the church, an ex-member said he was taught while in the TLRC.

Politically, Zionists have been planning for centuries to take over the world, claimed Schuckardt in the 1974 taped lecture. This view is also taught in TLRC high schools. He also claimed Zionists started the Bolshevik revolution in 1914 & the Second World War as part of their strategy to conquer the world & form it into a world Jewish state.

Zionists already control the financial & political structure of the majority of the world’s countries, he added.

Not all Jews are Zionists, Bishop Schuckardt noted. “In the last 60 years, there has been a resurgence of Hebraic Judaism,” he said, referring to ex-Zionists who have embraced the true Hebrew religion as taught in the Old Testament & have rejected Zionism.

When asked how many, or what percentage, of the 14 million Jews in the world today are Zionists or Hebraic Jews, Bishop Schuckardt answered, “I do not know.”

Ex-members interviewed say Bishop Schuckardt & TLRC instructors use church documents & decrees to bolster their theories about the Jews & to show that Jews & Catholics are enemies.

The church’s Fourth Council of Lateran in 1215, which decreed that Jews be excluded from public office & that they wear a badge, is one example of the past Jewish-Catholic enmity cited to members by TLRC officials, the ex-members said.

In recent times, & especially in this century. Roman Catholic pontiffs have deplored this unfair treatment of the Jews.

Pope Leo XIII, leader of the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903, urged that offensive accusations towards Jews be avoided. He repudiated antisemitism as opposed to the spirit of Christ.

Pope Benedict (1914-22), Pope Pius XI (1922-39) & Pope Pius XII (1939-58) all denounced antisemitism. Pope Pius XI said, “Antisemitism is a movement in which we Christians can have no part whatsoever...Spiritually, we are all Semites,”

Rabbi Eugene Gottesman of Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom said the Tridentine leader’s views on Judaism & the Talmud are “a complete distortion of the facts.”

“This is the voice of antisemitism speaking,” the rabbi said.

The 14.2 million Jews in this world are ‘‘the direct descendants of Abraham, Issaac & Jacob,” Rabbi Gottesman said.

The spiritual leader of over 300 Jewish families in the Inland Empire also challenged Schuckardt or “anyone to look through my 60 volumes of the Talmud & point out any blasphemy of the Christian religion.

“Jews would never blaspheme Christ or Mary because we consider them Jews,” he said.

Rabbi Gottesman disagreed with the TLRC leader’s opinion about Jewish history, saying “there is no such thing as Talmudic Jews,” & “Jewish Zionism is entirely different than what Schuckardt maintains it is.”

A World Zionist Movement was founded in 1894 by Theodore Herzel to work for re-establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, he explained.

World Zionism is now concerned only with the development of the state of Israel, Rabbi Gottesman said.

“Neither the Jews nor the Zionists control the finances or politics of any country in the world except Israel,’’ the rabbi said. He termed Schuckardt’s assertion “vicious.”

“Whoever makes these kinds of statements against the Jewish race is dressing himself in disgrace,” Rabbi Gottesman said.

This worldwide Zionist conspiracy theory advanced by Bishop Schuckardt & taught in the TLRC’s high schools, is not exclusive to the TLRC. Research indicates that the Jewish conspiracy theory, occasionally differing in some respects, is also held by many ultraconservative political groups & by extremist “right-wing Christian groups” in the United States.

Officials at the Spokane County Planning Commission say that such a community, composing 156 homes, was proposed by the Tridentines in 1978. The proposal was later withdrawn by the TLRC in the face of stiff opposition to the development by a group of neighbors.

Residents of Morgan Acres & Orchard Prairie, areas adjacent to the Mount St. Michael property, have lobbied the SCPC claiming that more than the fate of a dream is at stake — it could be the fate of the whole area if too many houses are built on the hill.

The group of 175 residents incorporated under the name “North East Property Owners’ Environmental Protection Association” (NEEPA) in January of 1979.

Members say they feel a “large influx of families & homes into the Mount’s property is ecologically unsafe.” NEEPA has researched the impact of the proposed community on the Mount’s environment to back up their position. Some of NEEPA’s research is detailed later in this article.

A recent ruling by the SCPC seems to indicate that the carefully researched data presented to the commission may be persuading it to take a hard look at future development on the Mount property.

Last March 26, Thomas L. Davis, county zoning adjustor, denied a second request from Tridentine member Donald Ott asking for a zoning variance to build a house on property purchased from the TLRC.

Ott has hired a lawyer & has spent more than six months trying to secure a variance from the county.

Ott’s request is looked upon as a test case that will set a precedent for any future development on the Mount’s property.

Ott bought his property from the TLRC after the church put 430 of its 735 acres up for sale in the spring of 1979. Those acres were divided into 43 10-acre lots.

Under county law, it is legal to divide land into lots of more than 10 acres without county approval, said Steve Horobiowski, county short plat administrator.

Once those parcels are sold, the new owners may subdivide their land into two parcels of at least five acres, again without county approval.

As of February, 34 of the 10-acre lots have been purchased, said Thomas Drahman, administrator of the Mount St. Michael property. Of the buyers, 90 percent are church members, Drahman said.

Only six or seven of the purchased 10-acre lots are owned by single buyers, he continued. Church members have bought the remaining lots in joint-ownership pacts, ranging from two to six buyers per 10-acre lots, he said.

It is precisely the issue of joint-ownership lots on the Mount’s property that caused zoning adjustor Davis to deny a zoning variance to Ott, Davis said at a county zoning hearing.

Ott bought his acreage with another buyer, Mrs. Helen Koza. When Ott proposed dividing the acreage & building a house on his land, a county requirement that building lots have 100 feet of frontage on a county road brought him before the zoning adjustor. Only Mrs. Koza’s half of the acreage borders 100 feet of county road.

“The number of multiple ownerships in the area presents a strong eventuality” that others will file for variance in the near future, David said, adding that there is a “functional relationship” between Ott’s lot & the land of other owners around them.

“Owners with similarly placed property in the area are going to expect the same type of treatment” if Ott is granted a variance, explained Doug Adams, as assistant to the zoning adjustor. “The zoning adjustor must closely scrutinize applications which represent a change in character from existing land use & patterns in any given area,’’ Adams said. Ott’s proposal represents a density change in the Mount St. Michael area, he explained.

Ott protests the county ruling, saying “the zoning adjustor is not basing his decision on facts at hand. He is making assumptions on what might happen in the worst possible analysis.”

Drahman estimates that only 30 houses will be built on the site by 1985. He acknowledges, however, that the property owners hold the final decision on whether & when they will build.

Ott has since filed suit against the county & NEEPA in Superior Court asking for a judicial review of his case. The trial is still pending.

Ott’s lawsuit, however, & his battle with the county planning commission may soon intensify, according to information obtained by the Inland Register this week.

County records show that Ott has filed a notice of a real estate contract transferring his five acres of land to a neighbor, Miss Grace Jedlicka, who owns approximately 10 acres of land bordering Ott’s property, said Richard George, a deputy prosecuting attorney for Spokane County.

Miss Jedlicka has recently acquired a building permit for a house which will be located on land formerly owned by Ott, George said, noting that Miss Jedlicka’s land has the required road frontage.

“The real estate contract itself has not been filed yet, but Miss Jedlicka has an interest in Ott’s property & has obtained a building permit,” George said.

When asked to confirm the alleged land transfer, Ott referred all questions to his attorney, Stanley Schultz.

When reached for comment Tuesday, Schultz said he & Ott are “actively pursuing” a plan to file a lawsuit in federal court against the SCPC. The lawsuit will ask for unspecified damages resulting from “discriminatory treatment of Ott by the zoning adjustor” & other county staff members, Schultz said.

Confirming that Ott has transferred all his property to Miss Jedlicka, Schultz alleges that the zoning adjustor & staff members of the board of adjustment (the county’s appeals board for decisions rendered by the zoning adjustor) repeatedly denied Ott his variance request because of “religious prejudice.”

For example, SCPC personnel asked Ott “several times during public hearings on his variance request whether he was a member of the TLRC,” Schultz said, claiming the question is a violation of Ott’s human rights because “it has absolutely no bearing” on his client’s request.

The SCPC is hindering Ott’s right to build a house because of his religion, Schultz claims.

Ott has incurred “heavy expenses” in his fight to gain a variance from the county, including being forced to buy a house in a different section of Spokane because he could not build his home near Mount St. Michael, Schultz added.

“The final decision to file suit in federal court still rests with Mr. Ott,” Schultz said, adding that both he & Ott feel they have “a very strong case against the county.

Even if a lawsuit is filed, NEEPA representatives are openly skeptical about the land transfer between Ott & Miss Jedlicka. “There is a possibility that Miss Jedlicka may deed Ott’s land back to him after a home is built on the property he once owned,” Mrs. Leon Gaston, NEEPA president, said.

Schultz dismisses the allegation as “sheer speculation” but Mrs. Gaston counters that contradictory public testimony by Miss Jedlicka has made NEEPA suspicious about the land transfer.

At a March 5 (1980) zoning adjustor’s hearing on Ott’s case, Miss Jedlicka stated that she was not planning to build on her 10 acres because she wanted to join the TLRC convent in the near future,

Mrs. Gaston said she believes that Miss Jedlicka is attempting to circumvent the law by helping Ott build his house on his former property.

The NEEPA spokesman cited another reason for its concern about a possible large-scale development of homes around Mount St. Michaels.

A large majority of TLRC members are lobbying the county to change its proposed classification of the Mount area from rural (which only permits the construction of one house per 10 acres) to semi-rural (which permits one house per two to 10 acres), Mrs. Gaston said.

The TLRC landowners’ interest in the semi-rural classification is a sign to NEEPA that large-scale development may be in the offing, Mrs. Gaston said.

Ott denied this charge, saying he supports the semi-rural classification because it is similar to the density currently allowed in the area, which is one house per five acres (as long as county requirements are met).

Spokane County is currently reviewing all its land, excluding incorporated cities, to update its density standards. The county has proposed that the Mount St. Michael region be classified “rural.” A final decision on the classification, however, will be made later this summer after evaluating comments from concerned citizens, said Gary Fergen, county long-range planning administrator.

The controversy surrounding the Mount St. Michael’s property began two years ago.

In 1978, the Tridentines asked the SCPC for permission to build 156 homes on the Mount property for their church community. To have been christened “St. Joseph Village,” the development would have included homes primarily along Palmer Road & Orchard Road.

Upon receiving the proposal, the SCPC requested the Tridentines to submit an Environmental Impact Statement before giving the church a “go-ahead” for its project.

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is a detailed report on the effect a major change will have on critical areas of the environment (water, air, road usage, etc.).

Once drafted by potential developers, the EIS is forwarded to the SCPC & to approximately 40 federal, state & county agencies who review the statement. It is then given to the Hearing Examiners Board, which uses the EIS as a tool in deciding whether the development is feasible & safe, according to Pat Harper, a former coordinator for the SCPC.

Although the Tridentines hired one of their own members from out of state to draft the report, the EIS was never submitted to the county. Instead, the TLRC divided its acreage into 43 10-acre lots & placed the lots on the open market for an average asking price of $5,500 per acre.

An EJS is not required for the 10-acre lots, according to county regulations.

“The original proposal would not work because of the county problems, the expense we would have to bear & because of the neighbors’ concern that the population density would be too high,” Drahman said.

“The church’s board of directors also came to the conclusion that we should get out of the development of property & renew our original purpose for purchasing the Mount — which is the development of the seminary,” Drahman added.

To date, no fewer than 10 dwellings have been erected on the Mount’s property by the Tridentines, including a large house that could possibly serve as a rectory for the bishop, Drahman said.

Arguing that an EIS would have completely resolved any developmental or construction questions in their area, NEEPA members say they are disappointed an EIS was never completed by the Tridentines.

“It appears the Tridentines may be attempting an ‘end run’ around the county regulations in order to build the original amount of homes — or close to the original number of homes — that they proposed in 1978,” Mrs. Gaston said.

“I am convinced that if an EIS would have been made, it would have definitely been against any large-scale development,” she added.

Among other things, NEEPA contends that an EIS statement was needed to answer questions about whether the increased population (roughly estimated to them by Drahman at 2,000) would eventually lead to:

• depletion of water in the surface springs near Palmer Road;
• pollution of the Hilyard trough of the Spokane Aquifer because of the new septic tanks & sewage works;
• widening at resurfacing of Lincoln Road to accommodate increased traffic flow — an act which will bring that road to the “front doors of many residences,” making the homes virtually unlivable.

“The high price of the land – $5,500 an acre – signals to our group that the church wants to keep outsiders from purchasing the land in order to finance the lots to members,” Mrs. Gaston said.

The NEEPA president pointed out that the Jesuits, the Mount’s original owners, are selling specified acreage to the Tridentines for only $1,700 an acre. In their mortgage contract with the Tridentines, the Jesuits agreed to release designated acreage to the TLRC as long as the traditionalist sect meet their annual mortgage payments.

Only 45 acres have been released to the TLRC as of the beginning of this year, Drahman said. The acres are situated “all over the Mount’s 735 acres,” he said.

Summarizing NEEPA’s position concerning the Mount St. Michael property, Mrs. Gaston said the neighborhood environment group feels “the Tridentines are taking advantage of a loophole in the Spokane County law to build as many houses as they want through join-ownership pacts & the possible subdivision of land by single owners.”

Drahman condensed his church’s position in the controversy by saying, “The TLRC is only concerned with the development of religious buildings & schools on the 260 acres owned specifically by the church. The TLRC is not interested in any large-scale development of homes in the area.”

Besides residential dwellings, the TLRC is also planning to construct other buildings on the Mount’s property, according to Drahman.

A girls’ school, convent, cathedral, fire station & a retirement home will hopefully be erected at the Mount in the near future, Drahman said.

In addition, land is being set aside for a cemetery & for raising livestock, Frater Louis Marie, a TLRC deacon, said. Church members are also planting an orchard.

The Tridentine seminary & both the boys’ grade & high schools are currently housed in the main administration building.

Minimum annual payment of the Tridentines to the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is $121,000. “If we make only the minimum payment each year, the mortgage will run 17 to 18 years,” Drahman said.

The Tridentines have made their June 1 payment of last year, said Father John Kelley SJ, secretary of the Oregon Province.

The Mount was purchased by the Pillar Investment Company, which was acting on behalf of the Tridentine Latin Rite Church, on Dec. 30, 1977.

Down payment was $250,000 “& that money came from church members — starting from zero,” said Drahman.

According to the mortgage, the property is being purchased by Drahman; Mrs. Mary M. Drahman, his wife, & Larry P. Urann, a church member & employee of Spokane Associated Brokers in the Spokane Valley.

Church members, who contributed to the purchase of the Mount from the Jesuits, were not buying property for themselves but rather the church, Drahman emphasized.

“Our first dedication is to the church,” Drahman said. “We all felt that it was necessary for the church to grow. We outgrew everything else so we all got behind the church & invested our money.”

“One member did say, ‘I will give you $20,000 for the purchase of the Mount in hopes that I can have property on the land someday,’ but we weren’t committed to do anything but buy property,” Drahman said.

Excluded from the purchase is the Mount St. Michael cemetery & three acres encompassing the burial ground. The Jesuits are still taking care of this property.