Most Holy Family Monastery
Monastery information | |
---|---|
Traditionalist Catholic (Sedevacantism) | |
People | |
Founder(s) | Joseph Natale |
Abbot | Michael Dimond |
Important associated figures | Peter Dimond |
Site | |
Location | Fillmore, New York, U.S. |
Public access | No (previously yes) |
Website | vaticancatholic |
Most Holy Family Monastery (also stylized as MHFM) is a
. It is headed by two siblings, Michael and Peter Dimond.According to a spokesperson for the Diocese of Buffalo the monastery is neither affiliated with the diocese nor the Catholic Church.[1]
History
The founder of Most Holy Family Monastery was Joseph Natale (1933-1995), who needed
In 1967, a benefactor helped Natale to purchase a property in Berlin, New Jersey to found a community there together with seven other men with disabilities. However, as there was only a small house there at the time and these men were unable to assist with the construction, Natale sent them away until the monastery could be finished. In subsequent years, Natale's vision for the institution changed. Natale started focusing more on what he perceived as guarding the Catholic religion against acts of the Church's hierarchy which Natale regarded as destructive of "the light of true Catholicism", such as the suppression of the Tridentine Mass and permission for use of natural family planning.[3] By the mid-1970s, the monastery had broken off entirely from the institutional Church.[2]
The monastery's chapel, named the St. Jude Shrine in honor of the "patron saint of hopeless causes," was blessed and dedicated on June 8, 1980.[4] By 1987, the weekly Mass celebrated in this chapel was drawing about 150 worshipers each Sunday,[3] and Michael Cuneo reported at the time of his visit in mid-1994 that the Sunday Mass was attended by "between two and three hundred people".[2]
Initially incorporated in 1993 as the Queen of Angels Corp, the Most Holy Family Monastery is a New York Domestic Not-For-Profit Corporation under the business type "religious organization".[5]
Natale died in 1995, whereupon Michael Dimond (born Frederick Dimond[6]), was elected his successor as Superior. Michael Dimond had joined in 1992 at the age of 19, after converting to Catholicism four years earlier.[7]
As of 2020, MHFM teaches that no one should receive communion or attend
Claims of miraculous experience
According to Michael Cuneo, who researched the various traditionalist movements in the USA, Natale claimed that he had the gift of prophecy in these words:[2]
Even before
Communist conspiracy to destroy the Church. The bishops at the council wanted to democratize Catholicism, they wanted an egalitarian theology, and most of them were secret communists and Masons. They knew exactly what they were doing. My community here was the first one in the United Statesto see the council for what it really was, and we rejected it completely.— Joseph Natale (as quoted by Michael Cuneo), Smoke of Satan (1999), p. 88
Brother Joseph's second illustration of his prophetic powers [was] [...]"Regardless of what you have been told,
John Paul II, and I was told that he would be the next pope and also that he would be an authentic pope, even though most of his actions would be controlled by Communist advisers and manipulators in the Vatican."— Michael Cuneo, Smoke of Satan (1999) pp. 88-89
The author lastly quotes Brother Joseph's "apocalyptic" statement near the end of the interview as beginning: "Five years [from 1994] is about all the time the world has left."[2]: 89
Views
Dimond and his associates refer to the Catholic Church headed by Pope John XXIII and his successors as "the Vatican II sect,"[9] and consider it to be heretical. All popes since, as manifest heretics are therefore incapable of becoming pope.[10]
Michael and Peter Dimond condemn natural family planning (a fertility awareness method for married couples to regulate conception, pregnancy, and birth).[11] The Dimonds regard statements from Catholics condoning natural family planning from before Pius XII as "not infallible or binding" and in conflict with other Catholic teaching that they do consider infallible.[12] The Dimonds' position is noted in the 2010 book Twentieth-Century Global Christianity by Fortress Press, as "an admittedly rare example of contemporary opposition".[13]
The MHFM opposes the doctrines of baptism of desire and baptism of blood, and affirms that "outside the Catholic Church there is absolutely no salvation".[14][15]
Dimond and his associates consider the Holocaust "[t]he propaganda hoax which has been so effectively used to cement Jewish power and influence in the world, and to silence any questioning of Jewish activities, support for Israel or a Jewish agenda [...] we work to expose Jewish domination and evil Jewish enterprises in the world, which (one must say) constitute the main power of the secular conspiracy."[16]
Frederick Dimond (Brother Michael) is the author of UFOs: Demonic Activity & Elaborate Hoaxes Meant to Deceive Mankind, published in 2008 by Most Holy Family Monastery.
Sacraments
None of the members of MHFM have
Criticisms
Catholic League
In 1999, the
Southern Poverty Law Center listing
The
References
- ^ Tokasz, Jay (September 12, 2010). "Monastery accused of taking man's $1.6 million; Former postulant files suit claiming fraud". Buffalo News. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- ^ ISBN 9780801862656. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ^ a b c Mary Helen Gillespie (February 8, 1987). "Traditionalist monks resist 20 years of Vatican reforms". Courier-Post. Camden, NJ. p. 19.
- ^ "Events of Interest: Blessing". Courier-Post. Camden, NJ. June 7, 1980. p. 6.
- ^ "Entity Information: Most Holy Family Monastery", New York State Department of State, Division of Corporations
- ^ "Hoyle v. Dimond et al: Justia Dockets & Filings". Dockets.justia.com. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ^ "Benedictine | What is a Benedictine Monastery?". Mostholyfamilymonastery.com. November 11, 1995. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ^ a b "Where To Receive Sacraments". vaticancatholic.com. September 28, 2014. Archived from the original on July 15, 2022. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
- ^ "Vatican II "Catholic" Church Exposed". vaticancatholic.com. May 12, 2014. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
- ^ "The Heresies of Anti-Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI, and John XXIII – Antipopes of the Vatican II Counter Church". vaticancatholic.com. December 15, 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
- ^ "Natural Family Planning Is Evil". vaticancatholic.com. February 24, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
- ^ "Pre-Vatican II teaching on NFP, how is it refuted?". vaticancatholic.com. February 20, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
- ^ Mary Farrell Bednarowski, ed. (2010). Twentieth-Century Global Christianity. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. p. 427.
- ^ "Supporters Of 'Baptism of Blood' Lie About Pope Leo The Great". vaticancatholic.com. October 29, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
- ^ "Outside the Catholic Church There is Absolutely No Salvation". vaticancatholic.com. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
- ^ "The Holocaust Hoax and Propaganda". vaticancatholic.com. October 30, 2014. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
- ^ Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (December 31, 1999). "Miscellaneous". Annual Report on Anti-Catholicism, 1999 (Report). Catholicleague.org. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
January: Fillmore, NY — Most Holy Family Monastery, a dissident organization that challenges the papal authority of Pope John Paul II, published a pamphlet entitled '101 Heresies of Anti-Pope John Paul II.'
- ^ "Active Radical Traditional Catholicism Groups". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ^ a b "Radical Traditional Catholicism". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved March 12, 2014.