Nicholas GrunerDeceased

Fr. Nicholas Gruner was a Canadian priest who founded and led the Fatima apostolate now known as The Fatima Center. He was ordained in 1976 by the bishop of Avellino, Italy, and later moved to Canada. In 1978 he founded the Fatima Crusaders, known today as The Fatima Center and also called the International Fatima Rosary Crusade, and served as its director (Wikipedia; The Fatima Center).

Canonical dispute. Gruner's standing was contested for most of his ministry. According to Catholic Culture, he was ordered in 1996 to return to Avellino or find a bishop to incardinate him. A Vatican statement, as quoted in a press release, said he was under suspension a divinis, confirmed by a definitive sentence of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (Catholic Culture). Catholic World News reported at his death that he had been suspended in 1996 and that the Vatican upheld the suspension in 2001 (Catholic World News). The Fatima Center rejected this, arguing that he was not suspended and was the victim of a canonical manoeuvre (The Fatima Center).

Positions. Gruner held that the consecration of Russia requested at Fatima had to be performed by naming Russia explicitly, and that John Paul II's 1984 act did not meet that requirement. He also argued that the Vatican's 2000 publication of the Third Secret was incomplete. These positions put him at odds with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document The Message of Fatima (Holy See; California Catholic Daily).

Watchdog criticism. A 2007 Southern Poverty Law Center report on radical traditionalist groups included The Fatima Crusader. Among its claims was that the magazine defended the writings of Fr. Denis Fahey (SPLC); see Judaism and antisemitism.

He died on 29 April 2015 while working in the Fatima Center's office in Fort Erie, Ontario (Wikipedia; Catholic World News).