Redemptorist Order Rejects Sedevacantist Group Ahead of Planned Unauthorized Bishop Consecration

The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) issued a statement on 7 July in Rome, signed by General Superior Rogério Gomes, to distance the order from the sedevacantist community Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSsR). The statement clarified that “FSsR never were part of the Redemptorist Congregation, nor were they ever legally linked to the General Curia,” and condemned “false, inaccurate and historically unfounded reports” that had confused the two groups.

Gomes highlighted that the current community using the name “Redemptorists Transalpine” was founded only in 1988 after separating from the Society of St Pius X, entered full communion with the Holy See in 2008, and was erected as a diocesan institute in Aberdeen in 2012. He emphasized that Redemptorists in Scotland remain fully in communion with the Catholic Church, accept Vatican II, and follow canonical law.

The statement was made weeks before a planned episcopal consecration scheduled for 25 July on Papa Stronsay in the Orkney archipelago. The ceremony, intended to ordain the founder Fr Michael Mary, would be presided over by Bishop Pierre Roy—a former St Pius X priest now linked to the sedevacantist movement—and would occur without papal mandate, making it canonically illegal. The Redemptorists warned that misinformation and rapid social‑media spread threaten historical truth and Church unity.