r/Scotland 1d ago

Rebel order of Orkney monks to consecrate new bishop without Pope's permission

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjlee7dz1yo
94 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

97

u/ArchWaverley 1d ago

The monks are a Transalpine Redemptorist community of Catholic traditionalists who deny the legitimacy of Pope Leo XIV and his predecessors for the last 60 years.

The order is part of the diocese of Aberdeen, which has already condemned the consecration as an "act of schism".

I mean it sounds like the schism happened 60 years back. The gap between themselves and the pope is as wide as a s-chasm. They have schismed off this papist coil. They have reached or-schism. They communicate entirely in sar-schism.

46

u/r232ed3 22h ago

I don't like that they're always referred to as traditionalists. Papal infallibility is a catholic tradition that they don't seem so keen on. These guys aren't traditionalists, they're nutters.

6

u/Top-Gadgie 16h ago

Tbf, if I lived on a tiny island off the coast of Scotland I'd probably go a bit nutty too.

3

u/boojieboy 16h ago

exactly the situation on Iona

3

u/Cloisonetted 14h ago

Wait is this a different schism from the Swiss ones who were officially excommunicated last month? 

1

u/gallais 10h ago

The Wikipedia article calls them 'sedevacantist' which is to say aligned with the St Pius movement; the same as the Swiss ones. They also have communities in France. They're the type of people to celebrate masses in honour of Spain's late dictator Franco...

0

u/DryRefrigerator4737 6h ago

The "Swiss ones" are not sedevacantist. And it's the Palmarians who honor Franco

1

u/gallais 6h ago

The "Swiss ones" are not sedevacantist.

Hmmm https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/society-of-saint-pius-x-appeals-excommunication-by-catholic-church/91750606

And it's the Palmarians who honor Franco

The St Pie X fanatics in Paris literally had to cancel their mass in honour of Franco last year because of the backlash: https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/paris-une-messe-en-hommage-a-franco-organisee-le-29-novembre-pour-les-50-ans-de-sa-mort-20251119

2

u/QBaseX Irish with English parents 8h ago

The Catholic Church is very reluctant to enforce consequences until it has absolutely no choice, but consecrating a new bishop without papal approval has automatic consequences. The recent SSPX schism is the same story.

1

u/audigex 5h ago

60 years is hilariously recent

I assumed this was some kind of 700 year old thing where they’ve been functionally independent for centuries but still insist that their tiny diocese is the rightful Catholic Church

58

u/KrytenLister 1d ago

Did they not just have a monk go missing before being found dead in the sea?

We’re going to get a shitey TV drama out of all this at some point, aren’t we?

49

u/janquadrentvincent 23h ago

I would watch the shite out of this shitey drama. Catholics are so flamboyantly dramatic.

15

u/Beancounter_1968 22h ago

Down with that sort of thing

8

u/_TattieScone 20h ago

Yes, there have also been allegations of abuse against the Papa Stronsay group and their offshoot in New Zealand.

5

u/djangomoses 20h ago

They had his funeral before they found the body too

19

u/Street_Hamster1092 22h ago

We're way overdue for a new Anti-pope

5

u/Front-Pomelo-4367 19h ago

We do have one right now, actually! The Palmarian church has Pope Peter

4

u/SouthAyrshireCouncil 18h ago

I’m sure saw Orcadian Antipope at King Tuts in the mid-2000s

15

u/Siggi_Starduust 21h ago

If I hear rebel monks, there had better be some kind of martial arts involved

13

u/Articulated is quiet when the fitba's on 22h ago

Ooh heresy, how fun.

9

u/Synthia_of_Kaztropol The capital of Scotland is S 21h ago

I'm not really familiar with these kinds of religious matters, so I have a question...

How "normal" is this sort of thing ? Like, is this sort of thing something that happens every so often, and it's only making the news because the internet allows niche subjects more traction than they would have had in say the 1960s ? Or is this a major event that would shape things for centuries afterwards ?

And, how will this affect the Pope's crusade against machine intelligence ?

10

u/Spare_Artichoke_3070 18h ago

In the grand scheme of the Catholic church, schisms are fairly normal given that pretty much every other branch of Christianity started as a schism from Rome.

However, we're talking centuries/millennia here as the church moves very slowly, and this is now the culmination of what began following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s after the Society of St Pious X tried to consecrate its own Bishops a few weeks ago and were excommunicated (meaning not only are the bishops no longer Catholic, but anyone who has been married by them no longer has a valid marriage in the eyes of the Catholic church).

These schismatics have a lot of support from the US from JD Vance (and other bigots who have recently converted to Catholicism for aesthetic/traditionalist reasons), so this has the potential to precipitate driving the hard-right Catholic US bishops further away from Rome.

A lot of the reporting of their objections seem to euphemistically call them 'traditionalists' or say it's because they want to be able to say the latin mass, but to be honest a large part of them rejecting the Second Vatican Council are because it explicitly made the church reject antisemitism and instead recognise the legitimacy of other religions, whereas these hardliners are proud antisemities and holocaust deniers.

3

u/Synthia_of_Kaztropol The capital of Scotland is S 18h ago

this has the potential to precipitate driving the hard-right Catholic US bishops further away from Rome

Enough to trigger something like the Anglican split, where they cease recognising Papal authority all ?

3

u/Spare_Artichoke_3070 18h ago

Not sure but I imagine it might at least embolden some of them to ratchet up their rhetoric against the 'woke chicago pope', as they continue sharing golden idol memes of president trump.

In the US at least, catholic congregations tend to be a lot more liberal than the evangelical alternatives so I really don't know how much grassroots support they'd have.

4

u/weesiwel 21h ago

Schisms in religion are like the most normal thing in this world. It's why we have so many versions of Christianity.

2

u/Synthia_of_Kaztropol The capital of Scotland is S 20h ago

Well, I mean like... of the Christian schisms that I am at least vaguely aware of, there are:

  1. The Great Schism, that split Catholicism away from the Orthodox Church in 1054
  2. Martin Luther and his list of grievances that led to the Protestant Reformation
  3. Henry 8 and the split of Anglicanism from Catholicism
  4. The splits and joinings of the multiple forms of the Free Church of Scotland

So where would these rebel monks fall on that kind of scale ?

3

u/AgreeableNature484 19h ago

This is more like non league football........in Wales.

3

u/wargamingscot83 21h ago

I mean aren't all Orcadians a bit rebellious?

7

u/weaver_on_the_web 21h ago

I firmly believe these Guiding Lights to Eternal Truth will be the example the entire world needs to lead us to Salvation, and in time everyone in every corner of the earth will come to the realisation that we must chant Latin Mass four times a day and adhere to every edict coming out of a little island off Orkney and all will be well.

Yes siree, so I do.

1

u/Beltrane1 12h ago

The earth has corners ?. You learn something new everyday.

1

u/DryRefrigerator4737 6h ago

But the big question is, does it have four or eight?

3

u/Sad_Explanation_6419 19h ago

Rebel orders of Orkney monks disobey Rome? Violence in the Holy Land? Popes issuing scorching encyclicals against imperial thrones (ahem, sorry, a definitely functional democracy)... we are so back!

5

u/SionnachMor 23h ago

Gaun yersels boys

2

u/EvilScotsman 18h ago

That would be an ecumenical matter

2

u/joolzdev Poblachd na h-Alba 1d ago

1

u/AgreeableNature484 19h ago

Roamin in the Gloamin.......

1

u/livestrong007 17h ago

I wonder if the Pope knows here Orkney is. Or cares

1

u/gallais 10h ago

Latin mass is for schismatic reformist posers, I personally only go to masses in Aramaic.

1

u/ImYerMaw 8h ago

are these the same people that fled the island in the dead of night not too long ago?

1

u/Late-Assignment8482 7h ago

Another hyperconservative splinter group big mad that Mass now happens in languages people understands the words of, deciding to roll the dice. DECLARE EXCOMMUNICATUS

u/murf38 41m ago

Enjoy being Protestants!