A Scottish bishop announced Sunday that members of traditionalist religious communities present in his diocese since 2022 will return to the English diocese in which the orders were established.
But one of the religious communities has said it is being pushed out of the diocese, and that its members will be left “homeless” by the bishop’s decision.
The situation points to global tensions between religious communities using older liturgical books and the dioceses in which they exercise ministry.
In a statement read at a Feb. 23 Sunday Mass at the Lawside complex in Dundee, Bishop Andrew McKenzie said he had been “very aware of the situation involving the Marian Franciscan communities” since his arrival as Bishop of Dunkeld in August 2024.
“After careful consideration of the facts and following consultation with appropriate experts, along with the Council of Priests of the Diocese of Dunkeld, it has been mutually agreed that the Marian Franciscan Sisters and Friars will return to the Diocese of Portsmouth, in which they were constituted and to which they belong,” said McKenzie, in a message read by Marian Franciscan priest Fr. Philomeno James Mary.
“The Diocese of Dunkeld will endeavor to provide the celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form for those who wish to celebrate the Eucharist according to this rite,” the bishop said.
Several sources in the diocese told The Pillar they believed the liturgy was a source of tension between the Marian Franciscan Sisters and Friars and the bishop of the diocese in southern Scotland.
But McKenzie himself did not offer any reasons for his decision in the Feb. 23 statement and the Marian Franciscans have not said why they believe they were asked to leave the diocese.
The Marian Franciscans friars posted the bishop’s statement on their social media account Feb. 22, saying that members “have been told to leave the Diocese of Dunkeld.”
“Very soon 50 people (counting friars and sisters resident) will be homeless. To find another accommodation for both communities is not easy. Please pray for us and help us,” the order said.
The Marian Franciscans are inspired by what they describe as “the Franciscan-Marian Charism,” seeking to follow the example and teachings of the Auschwitz martyr St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, who promoted devotion to the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
Members profess the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and make a vow of Marian consecration. Their daily pattern of prayer begins at 1:30 a.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m.
The men’s community was established in 2015 in a friary in the Diocese of Portsmouth, in southern England. They were invited in 2022 to found a second friary in the Diocese of Dunkeld by its then Bishop Stephen Robson.
Welcoming them to the diocese, Robson, who was seen as sympathetic toward traditionalism, said: “They are an Old and New Rite traditional Catholic community. Though among themselves and in their own community they celebrate Mass and the Office in the Old Liturgy, they are also able to celebrate Mass in the so-called Novus Ordo or New Rite as in all our parishes in the diocese.”
He added: “The Franciscans will also be able to look after the Latin Mass community from now on, so keeping them all together for Mass at Lawside. And supply work by the friars, if they are asked, will be possible in our parishes. They will also concelebrate with us at the Chrism Mass with the rest of our priests.”
In September 2022, the order took over a convent and pastoral center at the Lawside complex. The men’s branch, the Friars of the Immaculate and St. Francis, established Lawside Friary, while the women’s branch, known as the Sisters of the Immaculate and St. Maximilian Kolbe, settled at St. Joseph’s Convent.
The friars left the town of Gosport, in the Portsmouth diocese, but retained a small presence in the North End district of the city of Portsmouth. The sisters were based at Bridgemary, Gosport, and on the Channel Island of Alderney before their move to Scotland.
At Lawside, communities reportedly grew from an initial seven friars and 20 sisters to 20 friars and 30 sisters.
Bishop Robson resigned in December 2022 on health grounds at the age of 71. He was succeeded by Fr. Martin Chambers, who died unexpectedly two weeks before his installation in April 2024. Bishop McKenzie was appointed to lead the Dunkeld diocese in May 2024.
McKenzie, who previously served as administrator of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, has an MA in Liturgical Studies from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. He has worked in seminary formation and with Scotland’s National Liturgy Commission.
Bishop Philip Egan, who has led the Portsmouth diocese since 2012, told The Pillar that he will be working with the friars after their dismissal from the Dunkeld diocese.
He said the Marian Franciscans were provided with “extensive facilities” after they were invited to the Scottish diocese.
“We were no longer able to accommodate them here in the diocese, although the men still have a very small community here in north Portsmouth,” he said in a Feb. 24 email.
“They have now been given notice to leave Dunkeld. We were advised of this over the weekend.”
“We’ll obviously be working with the community to look at options going forward. This is where we are up to at the moment.”
The Marian Franciscans have developed a mass media apostolate, consisting of the YouTube channel Radio Immaculata, the quarterly Co-Redemptrix magazine, the Mary House Press publishing house, and an annual international Mariological symposium.
Radio Immaculata, which has 23,000 subscribers, has featured interviews with Church figures including Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and Fr. Chad Ripperger.
The friars are supported by a charity, the Friends of the Marian Franciscans.
Commentators have compared the Marian Franciscans’ situation to that of the Transalpine Redemptorists in New Zealand’s Christchurch diocese.
The traditionalist order, based on the Scottish island of Papa Stronsay, was instructed to leave the Christchurch diocese in July 2024 by Bishop Michael Gielen.
But that action followed a Vatican investigation — and there are no indications of a Vatican probe preceding the decision to ask the Marian Franciscans to leave the Dunkeld diocese.
The Transalpine Redemptorists are one of several traditionalist communities to have faced scrutiny from Rome in recent years, against the backdrop of a broad crackdown on celebrations of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass.
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) announced in September 2024 that it would be subject to an apostolic visitation, which has already begun in the U.S. The traditionalist community of priests who do not take religious vows has almost 600 members, with an average age of 39. Its membership has increased steadily since it was founded in 1988.
For their part, the Marian Franciscans have not indicated much about their engagement with the bishop in Dunkeld.
In his Feb. 23 homily, Marian Franciscan priest Fr. Philomeno James Mary said: “It is natural that we are sad to be told to leave this location, having seen over the last two and a half years now, approaching, many young vocations for the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.”
He said that the order had hoped to establish a prominent Marian shrine at Lawside and had received a statue of Mary for the shrine the day before the decision was made known.
“Is this a coincidence?” he asked. “No, everything rests in God’s providence and with Our Lady.”
Addressing the congregation, he added: “As religious here, we wanted to say that we are aware of your pain and stress about this decision. Really, this impacts the lay faithful in a more acute way than ourselves. We share your pain with Our Lady.”
