The Detractor Malefactor Chronicle |Tales from the Grapevine: What Detractors Say about the Oblates and Missioners of St. Michael and our Website

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August 2009 (17)

Posted on 08-18-2009
Faith Cop
Filed Under (Faith Cop)

Faith Cop is a new website that touts itself as Protecting Catholics from the Wolves in the Net. It has only four entries as of this date, of which SPCDC is the first entry (March 17, 2009). Only the SPCDC posting has comments, ten of them. It appears that the site was mostly created to attack SPCDC and Bro. Ignatius. As the webmaster is anonymous (a common method for detractors), we do not know who is behind the site, but since this website appeared on the heals of the Fr. Ashcraft incident we suspect is it one of Fr. Ashcraft’s cronies (see Bill Vaile and Ken Deel posts concerning the Ashcraft incident), or perhaps it is from Mr. Zosimo T. Literatus who attacked us about the same time. Whoever it is, the one common denominator behind the attacks on Faith Cop and the others is revenge and a decidedly worldly mind not consistent with Christ.
The post about SPCDC on Faith Cop follows. Our Response is afterwards:

SPCDC
SPCDC purports to be a deliverance ministry named St. Pio Center for Deliverance Counseling, which is owned by the so-called Order of the Legion of St. Michael (OLSM), co-founded by one Bro. John-Paul Ignatius Mary, a Baptist preacher who supposedly converted into Catholicism and is now a hermit of the Order and an unknown (most likely concealed co-founder).
THE ORDER
Official address of the OLSM is stated at 1111 S. Sheridan Avenue, Ottumwa, IA 52501-5350. It declared six employees according to small business info site Manta.
A footnote in an Article of Association posted in its website indicates its founding on 12 December 1993, incorporated in the State of Iowa on 23 September 1994, dissoved 27 July 2001 after it was incorporated in the State of South Dakota on 09 July 2001, dissolved in an 17 April 2006 after it was reestablished as an unincorporated association on 25 March 2006. In this article, the existence of two founders (directors) was also mentioned.
Our investigations however revealed that this hidden co-founder could be no other than Joe Meineke, a lay person (supposedly Catholic also; married with four children) who according to a deleted entry in Wikipedia is a ghost hunting minister of note. Bro. Mary acts as director of the SPCDC with Meineke as associate director, who is also director of the so-called Online Spiritual Warfare Center.
BRO. IGNATIUS MARY
In his information submitted to 4Marks, Ignatius Mary called himself as Bro. Ignatius Mary of the Lady of Mt. Carmel (not of the Order), a religious brother in the diocese of Davenfort (sic) in Iowa. His earliest recorded activity (contributed article) was on 9 February 2009. The article, The Three Secret Strategies of Satan, bore his OLSM title.
In the Order’s official website, he writes in two blogs: Brother Bubba’s Journal and For a Superior View. The latter blog alludes for his superior status in the group.
The review panel who handled the deletion of information about Bro. Mary from Wikipedia noted that he is a self-appointed exorcist with references supporting credentials seem to be entirely self-published demonology sites and Internet radio shows.
MR. JOE MEINEKE
Wikipedia indentified Joe Meineke as into ghost hunting ministries of note.
PUBLIC PERSONA
The teachings of the Order can be glaringly impressive in its faithfulness to the Church as it will not minch words in saying that the teachings of the Church as of course explained by them must be followed without question. For them, other opinions not the same as their Truth opinion does not merit respect as they are not of the same level.
Its official website, St. Michael’s Call (www.saint-mike.org), contains articles that on their face value can pass for a good Catholic resource. It even displays a Semper Fidelis seal to vouch for their fidelity to the Pope. It declares more healing ministries such as St. Dymphna Healing Center, Sexual Addiction Recovery Group, At the Water’s Edge Healing Ministry, and Ten Thousand Angels.
But like any works of deception, written words cannot replace the behavior of the people behind these websites and the articles inside. Convincing appearances can make for the best tools for deception that the less instructed Catholics can surely fall into its predatory intent.
TROUBLING SIGNS
But those were as far as what can be spoken in words. By the time you start asking questions about them, the truth would lose its value or importance as they will not hesitate to do what it takes to not reveal the truth.
These are questions for truth that they never fail to withhold: (1) Who give Bro. Mary and his co-founder the authority to create an Order (religious order)? (2) Before which bishop did Bro. Mary took his solemn vows as a brother? Bro. Mary faunts (sic) his clerical habits and a crucifix necklace in his photos, giving us a presumption that he has an official mandate from the Catholic Church to create the Order. (3) Did the Holy See officially approved their creation of the Order? (4) Who is the Order’s co-founder? (5) What is the nature of this Order? Religious orders requires its members to make the solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience (if Meineke is a co-founder, the Order is illegally created because he could not make the solemn vows being married). If it is a religious congregation, it should refrain from using the name Order as they are not authorized to do so being a simple congregation.
Another problem is: the administration of the Order’s property can be done only by the bishop and NOT by themselves. While religious orders are allowed to manage their own properties and assets independently from the bishop, simple congregations ARE NOT. The bishop oversees it. Meineke also is living with his family and not inside the Order’s premises as a requisite for being a member.
The way it looks, this Order operates as it has a legitimate ministry despite the fact that the Order for all indications available has no canonical status to exercise legitimate ministries inside the Catholic Church. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church…any ministry in the Church (Pope Benedict XVI: Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, 10 March 2009).
For all indications, it is a money-making deliverance counseling service outfit that sells books written by one of the founder, solicits donations, train deliverance ministers perhaps for a fee, and maybe ask for payment on their so-called deliverance services. Interacting with them on this issue, you can get a sense that it will discourage a person from seeking the free help of the legitimate local Catholic Church deliverance ministers and official exorcists so they can perform these themselves.
At worse, the founders’ behavior is like creating a federally valid money-making and money-soliciting group, without valid authority from the Roman Catholic Church, assuming the identity of a Catholic, provide maybe for-fee Catholic-like ministry of deliverance, hoping that no true Catholic would ever discover such fraud, and fight like hell should discovery becomes imminent.
Catholics who accidentally came into the SPCDC may face an uphill battle in defending what they believe because this group even for the sake of intellectual argument would label Catholics, who stood their grounds, as attackers. Any Catholic must defend what he believes without censuring others who do the same: Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. But this group will censure you to protect their interests on the expense of the Truth.
There are also indications that its purported well-distributed forum members, supposedly coming from such countries as Canada even Belgium in addition to the USA, could well be the same people under different names.
In his article, Three Secret Strategies of Satan, Bro. Ignatius Mary wrote: Opinion has its value only at serves to reveal the Truth. And yet there were reports that Catholic members of the SPCDC forum who asked question that could reveal the truth about the organization has been reportedly spurged from membership and their views removed from the forum to avoid them having to answer these questions that might reveal problems.
FROM CHURCH AUTHORITIES
We wrote to the Diocese of Davenport and His Excellence, Most Rev. Martin Amos, Bishop of Davenport, confirmed on March 19, 2009 that the Order of the Legion of St. Michael is unknown to him and it has no connection with the Diocese of Davenport. I have consulted with the two pastors of the parishes in Ottumwa and the organization is not known to them. Apparently, a certain Roy Reeder has been associated with the Order, but is not listed as a member of either Ottumwa parishes.
Canon 209.1 provides that lay initiatives in organizing for spreading Catholic teachings must maintain communion with the Church. Not being known in the Diocese of Iowa clearly indicates that this group is not in communion with the Catholic Church.
LETHALITY
The worst sign is their deliberate intention to hide these information and censure those who ask these questions. It is an act of deception and a lie. It reveals that the Truth opinion they are talking about only applies when they are speaking and concerns others but not them. Such impressive methods of deception, who could have taught them.
What added to the deception it created was the use of the names of holy people of extraordinary missions–Saint Pio of Peitrelcina and St. Michael the Archangel. A look and a mention of these saints’ names can help silence the warning signs any sensitive Catholics might notice from this group. But this group may have underestimated the graces these Saints can convey to Catholics under their attack to uncover their falsehoods.
And should their deception be fully revealed, may St Pio and St Michael the Archangel, forgive them.
PHOTO
The photo shown above is a screen shot from the profile of Bro. Mary in the SPCDC forum. A look at the ashen-white cloaked face, the raised dagger ready to strike, and the hissing sound of the crosss of this Lord Knight is quite disturbing to the soul. And there’s only one fallen angel any Catholic can readily identify this Lord Knight of the Crosss with.
Related photos

Bro Ignatius Mary OLSM in 4Marks profile

Richard Lee Collete Jr in MySpace profile

Mr. Collete claimed in his MySpace blog that he already died by murder. Curious, indeed!
One of our readers, eradicabomalum helped us background check Bro. Ignatius Mary, provided us a link to the Iowa Sex Offender Registry with the photos of the Brother who is actually one Richard Lee Collett Jr. We appreciate very much the information.
If you have more information about this Order and their ministries, please don’t hesitate to post a comment in this article. Your help would be able to protect other Catholics from unexpected influence and unnecessary attacks and deceptions from this group.
10 Responses to SPCDC

paranormalethics (a/k/a Darlene Watts) Says:March 27, 2009 at 5:30 am

Richard Lee Collett Jr a. k. a. Brother Ignatius Mary or Brother John Paul Ignatius Mary is listed on as a sex offender for Iowa on the state’s sex offender list. His hermitage home is just a tiny home he lives in. He is listed as the founder of the Order of the League of Saint Michael, both through websites (with his address and phone number) as well as saying so on his site on some parts. He is not associated with any diocese and does at times claim he is. Brother Bubba is listed as him on one site. I feel relatively confident that Brother Francis Mary is also. He is deceptive to say the least. He’s had the websites since 1998. The commision of the sex offense was in 2005. It is two counts of child pornography.
I’m glad I am not the only one that saw something up with him. You’ll notice on his site, he has a sexual addiction group. Strange how he hinted at what he was there. I’m sure there is more to uncover.
faithcop Says:March 28, 2009 at 3:27 am
Thanks for your information on this Richard Lee Collett Jr. Your active involvement would help other unwary souls avoid deception as dangerous as this. Best regards.

________________________

Now, according to St. Francis deSales, when someone slanders or libels us, we are to give a calm reply to testify to the truth. If the slanderer accepts the truth, praise God. If the slanderer continues his lies, then accept it as mortification, which is good for the soul.
The following points out the truths and the errors of Faith Cop statements and replaces the errors with the facts.
________________________
RESPONSE
FAITH COP: Our investigations however revealed that this hidden co-founder could be no other than Joe Meineke.
FALSE: The OLSM was founded in December 1993 by Bro. Ignatius and seven other people. Joe Meineke was not one of the founders. Bro. Ignatius did not meet Joe until 2001.
FAITH COP: In his information submitted to 4Marks, Ignatius Mary called himself as Bro. Ignatius Mary of the Lady of Mt. Carmel (not of the Order), a religious brother in the diocese of Davenfort (sic) in Iowa. His earliest recorded activity (contributed article) was on 9 February 2009. The article, The Three Secret Strategies of Satan, bore his OLSM title.
FACT: This statement seems to imply some sort of discrepancy in the name for Bro. Ignatius. Brother’s religious name is John-Paul Ignatius Mary of our Lady of Mt. Carmel. In daily practice that religious name is shortened to Ignatius Mary. The OLSM initials designates the order to which Brother belongs. The OLSM goes after the profession name regardless of which form is used (the full name or the shortened name). Changing one’s name to a religious name when offering consecration is an ancient custom in the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict is not is real name!
Bro. Ignatius does not refer to himself as a religious brother but as a consecrated brother. There is a difference to which the detractor seems to be ignorant about.
FAITH COP: In the Order’s official website, he writes in two blogs: Brother Bubba’s Journal and For a Superior View. The latter blog alludes for his superior status in the group.
TRUE & FALSE: Bro. Ignatius does write the Brother Bubba’s Journal but at the time of Mr. Faith Cop wrote his diatribe the blog, For a Superior View, was written by Francis Patrick, our Provost. A picture of Francis was on the blog who is unmistakeably not Bro. Ignatius. Recently Francis Patrick’s blog was renamed to The Provost Adviser. Bro. Ignatius then became the designated author of For a Superior View which refers to Brother as the Founding Superior of the OLSM. The position of Superior is a standard title for the guy in charge and does not indicate a superior status, but just the opposite, the position is a servant’s status. Having a rudimentary understanding of monastic traditions and customs would have avoided this misunderstanding.
FAITH COP: (supposedly Catholic) (so-called) (supposedly converted)
FACT: It is common among detractors and the worldly-minded to pepper their rhetoric with provisional language about things that are clearly known. The technique is called a Liberal Tactic of Obfuscation. Bro. Ignatius is not supposedly’ Catholic or supposedly converted. These are incontrovertible and documented facts. The records are located at the parish of his entry into full communion with the Church.
FAITH COP: The teachings of the Order can be glaringly impressive in its faithfulness to the Church as it will not minch (sic) words in saying that the teachings of the Church as of course explained by them must be followed without question. For them, other opinions not the same as their Truth opinion does not merit respect as they are not of the same level.
Uh? We have no idea what Mr.Faith Cop is trying to say. We have never heard the term Truth opinion. The Truth of dogma and definitive doctrine is not a matter of opinion. We do insist that the official teachings of the Church shall resolve all disputes. Heterodox opinions are not tolerated on our BBSs and website. If that is the problem, then we are guilty as charged. When it comes to dogma and definitive teachings, or any other teachings of the Church, we offer no opinions, but are mere messengers of whatever the Church says about the subject. Many people find such loyalty intimidating as they often wish to have wiggle room around some Church teaching.
FAITH COP: It declares more healing ministries such as St. Dymphna Healing Center, Sexual Addiction Recovery Group, At the Water’s Edge Healing Ministry, and Ten Thousand Angels.
FACT: We have only one healing ministry, the St. Dymphna Healing Center. The Catholic Support Group for Sexual Addiction Recovery is merely a project of that ministry. At the Water’s Edge Healing Ministry is not our ministry, but that of Deacon living in Ohio. We support the work that he does and thus link his website on our website. Ten Thousand Angels is not a ministry. If one clicks on the link one will discover it is a song — a very beautiful song perfect for those undergoing spiritual warfare in their lives.
FAITH COP: These are questions for truth that they never fail to withhold: (1) Who give Bro. Mary and his co-founder the authority to create an Order (religious order)? (2) Before which bishop did Bro. Mary took his solemn vows as a brother? Bro. Mary faunts (sic) his clerical habits and a crucifix necklace in his photos, giving us a presumption that he has an official mandate from the Catholic Church to create the Order. (3) Did the Holy See officially approved their creation of the Order? (4) Who is the Order’s co-founder? (5) What is the nature of this Order? Religious orders requires its members to make the solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience (if Meineke is a co-founder, the Order is illegally created because he could not make the solemn vows being married). If it is a religious congregation, it should refrain from using the name Order as they are not authorized to do so being a simple congregation.
FACT: 1) Canon law gives us the right to create our association (of the Christian Faithful). Our authority is Canon Law 208-223 and confirmed by canon lawyers and others. (see our Disclaimer, which lists the pertinent canon laws).
2) None of our members offer solemn vows. We offer private vows. Private vows may be presented before a priest and/or the community. The wearing of the habit is not a sign of any official mandate from the Church and wearing it makes no presumption. The habit is a sign of consecration. Bro. Ignatius was vested in his habit by a priest during the Mass of his First Profession in 1995. The priest checked with the Vicar General of the Diocese before doing this and was given the go-ahead to do it.
3) No, the Holy See did not approve the creation of our association. That is not how it works. Few orders are officially recognized by the bishop or the Holy See until after many years. Bro. Ignatius specifically and personally asked the Vicar General if OLSM had to wait upon any official recognition from the bishop or get permission to perform apostolates. The Vicar General said, No, just do that you do, and if you get out of line, we will let you know. We have never told by any bishop that what we doing was wrong.
4) The founders of the OLSM are: Richard (Bro. Ignatius), Jose, Ramona, David, Lisa, Jay, Connie, Mike. Bev came a couple months later and is also considered a founder. Jay is the person who gave us our name of Legion of St. Michael. Both Jay and Bev have passed on. May they rest in peace. And no, we will not give the last names or locations of these people as we have an obligation to protect them against evil minded people who may harass them.
5) it appears that Mr. Faith Cop has a fundamental and profound ignorance about how these things work. We are not religious congregation or institute. By the way, there are many religious communities, fully recognized by the bishop or the Pope, who do not take solemn vows, but simple vows. A simple reading of canon law would have informed Mr. Faith Cop of that fact.
The members of the OLSM offer private vows of Chastity, Poverty, Obedience, Prayer, Penance, Mortification, Substantial Solitude, and Substantial Silence according to their state in life. Our structure is nearly identical to John Michael Talbot’s community, the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, a fully recognized community (which took them about fifteen or twenty years to get). That structure for us has a Secular Expression, which is like a third order to which married people and single people may join. Brother is in the Semi-Eremetic Expression, which is a celibate brotherhood. All of God’s faithful are to live in chastity (even married people), a spirit of poverty, and in obedience to the Church. The exact nature of that chastity, poverty, and obedience is determined by the person’s state in life. For a married person, chastity means fidelity to their spouse and wholesome mutual self-giving in the marital embrace, and openness to life. A married person lives in a spirit of poverty and simplicity, and all must be obedient to the Church.
Brother’s vows are more intense in that he is living a celibate brotherhood, thus chastity is in what is called in perfect continence, which means celibacy (no marriage) and obviously no sex outside of marriage. Brother failed on the second part in terms of his addiction to pornography, but God forgives and that is in the past, as we hope are the sins of all the readers of this blog. Poverty for Brother means literal poverty. Technically he owns no property at all, not even his cloths. That property that for legal or insurance reasons must be in his name, such as the house and his automobile, are signed over to the General Council in a power of attorney to control as they wish. Obedience for Brother is not only to Pope and Magisterium, but also to the Provost of OLSM and to the General Council (Board of Directors).
As to our purpose and mission, one may read that here.
FAITH COP: Another problem is: the administration of the Order’s property can be done only by the bishop and NOT by themselves. While religious orders are allowed to manage their own properties and assets independently from the bishop, simple congregations ARE NOT. The bishop oversees it. Meineke also is living with his family and not inside the Order’s premises as a requisite for being a member.
FALSE: Again, Mr. Faith Cop is utterly ignorant of the issues. As a defacto association of the Christian faithful, the property of the association is administered by the governing board of the association. In our case the governing board is called the General Council. This is also true of Private Associations. The bishop does have the authority to ensure that there is no financial irregularities, but does not administer the association’s property or finances.
FAITH COP: The way it looks, this Order operates as it has a legitimate ministry despite the fact that the Order for all indications available has no canonical status to exercise legitimate ministries inside the Catholic Church. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church…any ministry in the Church (Pope Benedict XVI: Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, 10 March 2009).
FALSE: Mr. Faith Cop has failed to mention that the letter by the pope to the bishops was a letter exclusively about the SSPX. The ministers do not exercise… refers to the priests of the SSPX. The term minister in the letter refers to priests. This letter was to inform the bishops of the status of the SSPX priests and does not apply to anyone else. As already mentioned we have legitimate exercise of our association and apostolate according to canon law.
Here are just a few quotes from canon law:

Canon 298 §1: In the Church there are associations distinct from institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, in which the Christian faithful, either clergy or laity, or clergy and laity together, strive by common effort to promote a more perfect life or to foster public worship or Christian doctrine or to exercise other apostolic works, namely to engage in efforts of evangelization, to exercise works of piety or charity and to animate the temporal order with Christian spirit.

Canon 299 §1: The Christian faithful are free, by means of a private agreement made among themselves, to establish associations to attain the aims in canon 298.1 …

Canon 215: The Christian faithful are at liberty freely to found and to govern associations for charitable and religious purposes or for the promotion of the Christian vocation in the world; they are free to hold meetings to pursue these purposes in common. (see c. 298)
Canon 216: All the Christian faithful, since they participate in the mission of the Church, have a right to promote or to sustain apostolic action by their own undertaking in accord with each one’s state and condition; however, no undertaking shall assume the name Catholic unless the consent of competent ecclesiastical authority is given.

Assuming the name Catholic refers to the use of the word Catholic in the name of the association.
FAITH COP: For all indications, it is a money-making deliverance counseling service outfit that sells books written by one of the founder, solicits donations, train deliverance ministers