Bishop Brian McGee, 54, of Argyll and The Isles, Scotland, excommunicated a group of hermits on Westray Island, reports Deacon Nick Donnelly on Twitter.
The excommunication was notified on Christmas Eve by mail.
The group consists of Father Stephen de Kerdrel, Sister Colette Roberts and Brother Damon Kelly who, in the past, was arrested ten times for criticising homosexuality and abortion.
The reason for the excommunication was a declaration published in summer on the hermits' website calling Francis “a great heretic” and stating that “never in history has there been such a Pope, who by his actions, words, and teaching, has thrown the whole Church into confusion.”
The hermits declaration therefore withdraw “our obedience from Pope Francis and sever communion with the Holy See.”
The Declaration:
With great grief we look upon the Church, the beloved spouse of Christ, the Great Ark upon the raging sea of the world, and to our horror all seems lost. The bride has become the harlot of old (i) , and the Great Ship is holed and sinking. Wherever we look we see heresy in the ascendant, Christian marriage derided (ii), and morals depraved in the clergy(iii) , religious and among the people(iv) . The Barque of Peter is rudderless, and the crew, namely the Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests seem paralyzed with fear, unable to comprehend the gravity of the situation in which they find themselves, and oblivious to the underlying evils that are destroying the Church. The spirit of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal is not within them(v), the courage of the Holy Spirit seems to have abandoned them, and the Truths of the Gospel have not spurred them into action (vi). Just when they needed to speak, they have fallen silent, and they have no words to confront the captain of the sinking ship, who is the Pope himself(vii) .
Never in history has there been such a Pope, who by his actions, words and teaching, has thrown the whole Church into confusion.(viii) There have been bad and immoral Popes like John XII, and Alexander VI, there have been mad Popes, like Urban VI, there have been severe and unbalanced reforming Popes like Paul IV, and there have been pleasure loving Popes like Leo X, but none of them have spread such alarm throughout the Catholic Church. Such days have never been seen since the days of the Arian heresy(ix) , and yet these days are far, far worse.
A terrible darkness has spread over the world and the Church. Modernism, Secularism, Humanism, and Scientism are eroding the ancient Truths of Faith; and aided by the poisonous ideology of Evolution, which is no science at all (x) , have convinced many in the Church that Man is getting better all the time. Thus ignoring the fact that the last century has seen tyrants and wars which eclipse all others in recorded history, for aided by science the evils of war and tyranny have been magnified beyond all imagining, and that terrifying magnification is ever increasing, and evil is truly unrestrained.
Tragically the head of the Church on Earth, Pope Francis, by his utterances, his behaviour, his teaching and his actions, has shown himself to be indeed a great heretic(xi) . He has proclaimed that no-one goes to Hell (xii), he has undermined the indissolubility of marriage(xiii) , he has approved of couples living together (xiv), he has behaved in an ambiguous fashion towards homosexuals, and received warmly, not only homosexual couples, but a transgender person and his fiancé and pro-abortion advocates. Pope Francis has said that the death penalty is inadmissible (xv), and finally, in outright contradiction to the First Commandment, has said that God has willed all religions (xvi), and that this must be taught throughout the Church in her seminaries, her universities, and her schools(xvii).
In all this, silence has enveloped the bishops. Unable or unwilling to confront the successor of Peter; either through human respect, fear of schism, or through the thought of being cast out of their dioceses by the Pope, they have been reduced to a state of helplessness (xviii). Integrity has collapsed, fortitude has given way to cowardice and the flock are left,(xix) not only to the wolves, but to ravening lions, and every other conceivable violent personification of heresy and untruth . The bishops have forgotten how to teach , are powerless to correct, and seem unable to prevent the cruel invasion of the LGBT propaganda machine into Catholic schools, and nowhere is this more evident than in Britain.(xx)
The approaching mass apostasy of the faithful, foreseen so clearly by Blessed John Henry Newman in 1878 , is now upon us.(xxi)
Though we are utterly unimportant, for who is interested in hermits that dare to speak out, we cannot keep silent for fear of damning not only our own souls, but the souls of countless others(xxii) . We who are watchmen for the Church, who must speak from the watch tower of Truth, have no option but to withdraw our obedience from Pope Francis and sever communion with the Holy See(xxi) . We do this with great fear and trepidation, but we cannot take part in the Pope’s sin. This is not an act of schism, nor is it an act of defiance, it is an act of real prudence; for no-one in their right mind would stay in a burning building, nor would they silently go down with the sinking ship. They would try to save not only themselves, but warn others and help them to safety(xxiv) .
The Holy Roman Church over the last 60 years is being transformed inexorably into the False Church prophesied by Blessed Anna Catherine Emmerich (xxv). The Church’s structures and her teachings have been infected by heresy and wrongdoing, and those who are of the Church of Christ must come out of the False Church, just as the early Christians were miraculously called out of Jerusalem before it was destroyed in A.D. 70. Truly these are desperate times, which require desperate measures. We have most reluctantly had to take such a drastic stand because the successors of the Apostles, namely the Bishops, faced with the horror of an Apostate Pope have failed to defend the gates of the Church, as the hordes of Hell ransack so much of the City of God. However small we are, however much this declaration will lead to us being persecuted, it is worth it.(xxvi) For it is truly a wonderful thing to fight for the Divinity and Majesty of Christ who is our Lord, our Captain and our King , and for his beloved spouse the Church who has been so shamefully used and abused for far too long.
With Great Grief and Sorrow in having had to write this Declaration, but in the Love of Jesus Christ,