Kiwi priest excommunicated, his followers told to repent
Monday, 27 July 2026
A controversial Kiwi priest has been officially excommunicated and his order of monks no longer recognised by the Catholic Church.
The announcement comes the same day Fr Michael Mary, also known as Greg Sim, was illicitly ordained a bishop by a group of unauthorised bishops who claim the current pope is illegitimate.
People close to the group are not surprised by the news, but there is concern about how much further Mary will lead his congregation away from the church.
Mary, who was raised in Central Otago, is the leader of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as Transalpine Redemptorists, a group investigated by the Vatican in 2023 and 2024 following allegations of abuse and unauthorised exorcisms in Canterbury.
The group has denied wrongdoing and the Vatican’s findings are sealed, but Christchurch Bishop Michael Gielen has said he believed what survivors told him and followed the Vatican’s recommendations to order the Sons out of the diocese.
The Sons continue to defy the orders, but Mary was understood to be largely based in the order’s headquarters in the Scottish diocese of Aberdeen.
Mary and the Sons practice an extra conservative form of Catholicism and believe the church reforms of the 1960s have led to a Catholic Church run by evil. They have condemned the church’s leadership and actions in several public statements and interviews with Catholic influencers in the last year.
An open letter the group published late last year was described by Aberdeen Bishop Hugh Gilbert, the bishop who legitimised the order over a decade ago, as an act of disobedience and division. The bishop later confirmed Mary was facing discplinary action over “heresy and schism”.
Mary’s involvement in a small but international movement of Catholics who operate outside of the church and were calling for an election of a new pope had also been of concern to the Vatican.
Mary was found guilty of schism on Saturday (local time), according to a statement by Bishop Gilbert. He said Mary’s words and actions were “instinctively repugnant to the Catholic sense of the faith”.
“He is therefore declared to be excommunicated, dismissed from ecclesiastical office, and prohibited from the celebration of Mass or the other sacraments,” Gilbert said.
“In the event of a sincere change of heart on his part and the making of reparation, these penalties may be lifted.“
The judgement had been done in line with the church’s rules and the Vatican had been kept informed, he said.
Mary’s unauthorised ordination on Saturday (local time) also resulted in the Sons being stripped of its status as an order.
The Sons no longer had legitimacy in the church. The people who took part in the ceremony could now face further canonical penalties, Gilbert said, but were encouraged to repent.
During the ceremony, which was live streamed, the sedevacantist bishop Pierre Roy who ordained Mary praised him for attracting so many young men to his order.
He told attendees the “destruction” of the false church was coming, and asked the Sons to leave behind any association with it.