‘Heresy and schism’ probe under way against Kiwi monk who says he cannot be excommunicated

Saturday, 16 May 2026

The Kiwi leader of a controversial group of Catholic monks says he is facing disciplinary action over “heresy and schism”.

Fr Michael Mary, who leads the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists, recently revealed he was the subject of a penal process in his group’s home diocese of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Other Sons have suggested excommunication is possible. Mary said he wouldn’t recognise such a punishment from a mainstream church afflicted by “modernist heresy”.

A religion expert thought excommunication was unlikely, but said the group’s legitimacy as a congregation in the Catholic Church could be at stake.

The Sons are a congregation of missionary monks devoted to the traditional Latin Mass. They formed in the late 1980s, finding a home in the Orkney Islands, and at first operated outside the Catholic Church, as the more conservative form of Mass was all but banned at the time.

They began reconciling with Rome in the 2000s (they arrived in Christchurch in 2007) when Pope Benedict XVI invited traditionalists back into the fold. However, the Sons have become increasingly vocal in their condemnation of the church and its leaders since a Vatican investigation into abuse allegations, including unauthorised exorcisms, within their Christchurch community.

The investigation findings remain secret, but Christchurch Bishop Michael Gielen ‒ who ordered the Sons to leave the diocese in 2024 at the recommendation of the Vatican ‒ has said he believed victims.

Last week, Mary told traditionalist Catholic podcaster Stephen Kokx it was the group’s open letter in October 2025 ‒ published after they lost an appeal over Gielen’s orders ‒ that triggered disciplinary action. The letter, co-signed by other members of the group, challenged the legitimacy of the church and its leaders, prompting Aberdeen Bishop Hugh Gilbert to condemn it as “incompatible with the Catholic sense of the church’s unity”.

At the time, Gilbert said he would seek advice from Rome on how to respond. The Sons continue to defy Gielen’s orders and operate in Canterbury. The Vatican has not responded to requests for comment.

In the interview with Kokx, Mary said the Aberdeen diocese was disciplining him for “heresy and schism” and suggested excommunication was on the cards.

The possibility was echoed by other members of the Sons who spoke to Kokx. One also revealed that since April, around the time monk Justin Evans ‒ presumed dead ‒ went missing from their remote Scottish island in the Aberdeen diocese, two priests and a subdeacon left the group, concerned at its questioning of the Pope.

Peter Lineham, a religion expert and emeritus professor at Massey University, said “heresy and schism” meant the Sons were being accused of straying from the teachings of the Catholic Church and might no longer be in communion with the Pope.

Mary told Kokx he would not recognise the result of the Aberdeen penal process because he could not be excommunicated from a church which, in his eyes, was more like “a country that’s been invaded by a foreign army”.

He said he was a real Catholic and suggested it was others ‒ like the popes who came after the Vatican II reforms and Bishop Gielen ‒ who were false.

“The whole church is nearly taken over by this modernist heresy … we’re dealing with heresy in the highest levels, aren’t we?” he said.

In the interview, Mary maintained his position that his group was being persecuted for its beliefs.

Fr Anthony Mary told Kokx the group no longer wanted to be within the structures of the church because it was “detrimental to the faith and it’s sending millions of souls to hell”.

Lineham said despite the serious acts of disobedience, it was unlikely the Vatican would excommunicate the Sons at this stage.

“There’s very few excommunications. It’s only when they kind of have to, to distance themselves from people who are publicly bringing the whole show into disrepute,” he said.

He said the consequences the group had already faced, like the Vatican-authorised order to leave Canterbury, were already quite serious.

Likewise, it was possible the Aberdeen penal process could result in the Sons being stripped of their status as a congregation, and therefore its legitimacy in the church, as Aberdeen Bishop Gilbert himself was the one to recognise them as a religious institute .

Members of the Sons told Kokx the penal process was currently against Mary personally, but they expected other members would be next.

On Wednesday, the Vatican issued a final warning to a different breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics, St Pius X, which has a presence in New Zealand, because of its intention to create four new bishops in July.

If the group went ahead with it, it would constitute a schismatic act that incurred automatic excommunication.