Photos of exorcist +McKenna's consecration by +Guérard des Lauriers emerge
Given his later role in consecrating Bishops Donald Sanborn and Geert Stuyver in 2002, McKenna's episcopal consecration by Guérard des Lauriers was an historic event. But who was +McKenna?
Given his later role in consecrating Bishops Donald Sanborn and Geert Stuyver in 2002, McKenna's episcopal consecration by Guérard des Lauriers was an historic event. But who was +McKenna?
(WM Round-Up) – Previously unpublished photographs have emerged, showing the moment Bishop Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers, O.P., consecrated Father Robert Fidelis McKenna, O.P., to the episcopate.
The consecration, which took place according to the traditional Roman rite in Raveau, France on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1986, was a milestone in the preservation of valid episcopal orders following the post-Vatican II crisis.
Bishop McKenna would go on to play a significant role in the Traditionalist movement in the United States. Most notably, he consecrated Bishop Donald Sanborn, the current rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Reading, Pennsylvania and perhaps one of the most well-known living “sedevacantist” (or “sedeprivationist”) bishops today.
(For more on the wisdom, or otherwise, of using these “sede” terms, see here.)
Sanborn founded the Roman Catholic Institute, one of the larger “sedevacantist” organizations for priests, ordaining its priests and two bishops (Bishops Joseph Selway and Germán Fliess).
McKenna was a Dominican, ordained in 1958. After Vatican II, he joined Fr Francis E. Fenton’s Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement. This organization ceased operations in 1978, and McKenna seved at Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Monroe, Connecticut, where he also founded the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He remained there until his consecration in 1986.
In the decades following his consecration, Bishop McKenna ordained numerous priests and consecrated five bishops, including:
Richard F. Bedingfeld (1987)
Oliver Oravec SJ (1988)
Donald Sanborn (2002)
Geert Jan Stuyver (2002)
Robert L. Neville (2005)
McKenna and exorcisms
The sensationalist paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren sought McKenna’s services as an exorcist, and he reportedly was involved in the so-called Amityville Haunting incident.
He was certainly involved in the case of Bill Ramsey, “The Southend Werewolf.”
Ramsey was subject to episodes of uncontrollable rage, in which he committed acts of preternatural strength and violence. Even the British police were at a loss to explain Ramsey’s case.
Various explanations were ruled out, until the Warrens suggested, much to Ramsey’s initial scepticism, that he may be demonically possessed by some kind of “wolf spirit,” and in need of an exorcism. They arranged for him to be taken to Bishop McKenna for the latter.
The below video on the latter incident contains footage of the lat bishop:
In another video, with the air of a completely normal, matter-of-fact man from Essex, England, Ramsey attributed his deliverance from to McKenna’s ministrations:
“He was then – [McKenna] says – bringing out the devils that were causing it. And, well anyway, I came back round again, and these demons obviously must have left me during this attack, until I fell back and I was pouring with sweat. Feverish, I was. And, as I say, from that day to this, it obviously did the job. Whatever was in there must have come out, and never bothered me since.”1
Asked whether he now believed in demonic possession, Ramsey replied:
“Oh yeah, yeah. I’ve got to believe that that happened, yeah. I’ve sincerely got to believe that that was the absolute answer to it.”2
The Daily Catholic relates that McKenna later “distanced himself” from the Warrens, objecting to their “glamorizing” such cases.
McKenna died in 2015, and his funeral sermon was preached by Bishop Sanborn.3
Guérard des Lauriers and the wider context
Guérard des Lauriers, who consecrated McKenna, was a Dominican theologian and former papal adviser to Pius XII. Today, he is best known for his “Cassiciacum thesis” – also held by Bishops Sanborn and Stuyver – and his involvement in the 1969 Ottaviani Intervention.
He was consecrated to the episcopate in 1981 by Bishop Ngô Đình Thục in response to the growing crisis of authority in the Church.
Most of the “traditionalist” clergy operating today were ordained after Vatican II and outside of the usual structures. Guérard des Lauriers and McKenna are somewhat unusual, in that they are two of the small number of “traditionalist” clergymen, who were ordained before Vatican II and refused to go along with its religious revolution.
McKenna himself wrote of the “doctrinal insanity of the Vatican II Popes” and “the chaos in the Church on the parish level”, saying:
“Only those born in the last generation and simply ignorant of the traditional Mass and rites of the Church can possibly think such a situation perfectly normal.”
The continuity with the pre-conciliar Church provided by such men – both clerical and lay – is a crucial aspect of our position and stand, distinguishing it from those of various heretics and schismatics who have appealed to mythical “golden ages” in the past – addressed in greater detail here.
The images of this historic consecration, now published for the first time, give us a glimpse back into a pivotal moment in the post-conciliar period.
These photos are shared with permission, at least as far as we were able to ascertain. They appear to have originated with Bishop Rodrigo da Silva. We first saw them Twitter, shared by Matthew Joseph. It was unclear whether the source was a certain Miguel Alejandro Jomarrón Fernández or the website De ventre matris meae. The latter confirmed that they were – both of whom have granted permission to share them in so far as they are able.
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Sanborn recently talked about McKenna in the December 2024 quarterly fundraising livestream for Most Holy Trinity Seminary, saying:
“Well, I knew him to a certain extent. I visited Connecticut occasionally, after he was consecrated a bishop… I really don't know too much about him. I know he was educated in the New York Province [of the Dominicans] and then he was stationed in New Haven, where he actually examined the works of St Thomas Aquinas and the original manuscripts of St Thomas Aquinas, yes I know that.
“And then he uh joined with Fr Francis Fenton, who was a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in something called the ORCM, the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement, which was in the late mid- to late-1970s. And a chapel was purchased in Monroe, Connecticut, and it’s still there. And he established a Congregation of Nuns, who follow the Dominican Rule, and he was consecrated a bishop by Bishop Guérard des Lauriers… That’s really all I know about him. I don’t know too much else about him.
I’m beginning to understand why the RCI doesn’t take part in exorcisms.
He also consecrated Bishop Slupski, a Redemptorist originally from Poland.