TLRC & CMRI Priests

All of the early priests who worked with TLRC left the group on negative terms, except for Fr. Burton J. Fraser who died in a car crash in 1971 and is buried in a non-Catholic cemetery in Colorado. Of the six priests who were ordained by Bishop Schuckardt, three remained with the CMRI and one remained with Schuckardt (there's no record of the other two, I assume they left both factions).

Five Original Priests

  • Fr. Clement Kubesh (see Clarkson History blog) joined Schuckardt in 1971 after he left his bishop (Diocese of Omaha). He left the group in the early 1980s and is buried in Memorial Gardens cemetery (at the back near the main building) in Coeur d’Alene (see Find a Grave). He told the other priests that Schuckardt was an abusive homosexual, but nobody would listen to him, and he left on negative terms. Fr. Kubesh had been with the group from the earliest days, and he didn't want to talk with anyone about why he left. The CMRI today speaks highly of him, ignoring the fact that Fr. Kubesh wanted nothing to do with them.
    • Rev. Clement C. Kubesh
    Rev. Clement C. Kubesh on the left, avid cigar smoker
  • Fr. Burton J. Fraser, SJ (Jesuit) was an advisor to the group and told Schuckardt he should accept consecration from Daniel Q. Brown. Shortly before the consecration, Fr. Fraser was killed in a car crash in Colorado, and his body was totally mutilated. He was buried in a secular cemetery in Colorado, and his tombstone has no mention that he was a priest. Fr. Fraser has been credibly accused by the Jesuits for sexual abuse of a child (see main abuse page).
  • Fr. Joseph Pineau had joined Schuckardt from the Diocese of Spokane after his retirement in 1968. Schuckardt had him pushed out, and he went to live with his sister in Californa. In 2003, Pineau was listed as accused of child molestation by the Diocese of Spokane (see main abuse page).
  • Fr. Lawrence S. Brey worked with the TLRC early on, writing a forward to the popular book, "Questioning the Validity of the Masses using the New, All-English Canon" by Patrick Henry Omlor (1968). Due to disagreements with Schuckardt he left and moved to an independent traditional Catholic school in Minnesota. In 2018 he was accused in a lawsuit of "ritual sexual abuse" of a child at the school during the 1970s and 1980s (see main abuse page).
  • Fr. George Kathrein, CSsR (Redemptorist) said Mass for the group in the earliest years, but ended up leaving to join the SSPX. Angelus Press released a recent book on him.

Other TLRC Priests

  • Frater Aloysius, part of Bishop Schuckardt's inner circle, left the group in the early 1980s
  • Fr. Denis Chicoine was pushed out of the group in 1989 due to a vote of no confidence, and moved to New Zealand where he lived until returned to Mt. St. Michaels where he died in 1995. It's odd that he seems to have been forcibly exiled by the group, when he had been at the center for so many years. Current CMRI does not tell members that he removed by a vote of "no confidence" by the other CMRI priests. Perhaps it was because he was seen as too much of a hardliner and had too many skeletons in the closet.
  • Fr. Alphonsus Maria went with TLRC-Schuckardt after the 1984 split. He was the only priest that had sided with Schuckardt
  • Joseph Marie (Belzak) aka Brother John Francis Marie, had been consecrated a bishop by Schuckardt in 2006. However, he later decided this consecration was invalid, and has been on his own for some time. He claims to be a hermit now (see his website).

A court case in Utah (see case) listed a number of members who left with Schuckardt in 1984:

  • Andrew Karl Jacobs aka Brother Mary Fidelis. He was consecrated a bishop by Schuckardt in 2006 and became Schuckardt's successor.
  • Gabriel Gorbet aka Brother Isaac Jogues Marie
  • Michael Mangold aka Frater Phillip Marie
  • Vladimiar Boridin aka Brother Longiuns
  • Courtney Krier aka Frater Matthew Marie
  • Raymond Kosch aka Frater Clement Marie
  • Terry Horwath aka Brother (later Frater) Mary Mathias

Former CMRI Priests

Since his consecration in 1991, Bishop Pivarus has ordained numerous priests. Many of these priests have since left the group or have distanced themselves from CMRI chapels. Some of these priests have begun to associate with the bishops of St. Gertrude The Great in Ohio, as that group is known to take a more hardline stand on various issues (annulments, BOD, liturgy).

  • Terence Robert Fulham was ordained by Bishop Pivarunas (1996?) and later left the group & had himself made a bishop in the Duarte Costa lineage. He died in 2017 (link)
  • Fr. Louis Kerfoot left the CMRI with Sister Claudia and got married in 2001. They had likely been a couple for a while, and he only left after both of his parents had died in the previous years. He’d been with the TLRC, and had sided with the Chicoine faction.
  • Fr. Gerald Kasik (ordained 1995, likely by Bishop Pivarunas) and Fr. Kevin "Thomas Marie" Vaillancourt (ordained 1985 by Bishop Musey, born Sept 8, 1954, died Oct 24, 2022) both left the CMRI and have been under Bishop Daniel Dolan and Bishop McGuire of St. Gertrude The Great in Ohio. Fr. Kevin was on sick leave from 2014 until his death in 2022. Fr. Kasik had been trying to run a boys camp in North Idaho. They operate out of Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel in Spokane. The chapel is located at 3914 N Lidgerwood St in Spokane, and the number is 509-489-6602 & possibly 509-981-9098 ([email protected]).
  • Fr. Michael Oswalt joined from the main Catholic Church and within 5 years had left the group on negative terms.
  • Fr. Paul left the CMRI and had joined "The Apostles of Infinite Love" before returning to his family property on Church Road near the City of Mary. He no longer attends CMRI chapels.
  • Fr. Anthony Short & Rev. Crawford left the CMRI and live in Minnesota with a group of about 10 families.
  • Fr. Adam V. Cyr and Fr. Bernard Uttely OSB left the group on negative terms. Fr. Adam V. Cyr joined with Bishop Dolan and SGG around 2010 (operating out of a chapel in Seattle, WA), leaving to join another priest (possibly Gerald Kasik) in northern Idaho (possibly to run a boys camp). Fr. Cyr said the funeral Mass for serial child rapiest Father Mario Blanco in 2008.
  • John Cox was a 22 year old seminarian who left the TLRC in 1979.
  • Fr. Marcellus Moylan was a seminarian under Bishop Pivarunas who left the group on negative terms.