Denis Chicoine - Revolt

Revolt

Chicoine ousted Schuckardt when found that he had the backing of the vast majority of the religious and laity alike, and took charge of the Fatima Crusade. Not long after Chicoine's denunciations, Schuckardt left the area with a small handful of followers. Schuckardt and his followers continued to operate as the Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church while Chicoine reincorporated the group at Mount Saint Michael as the Latin Rite Catholic Church on June 14, 1984. Bishop Schuckardt excommunicated Chicoine for the revolt, said excommunication was never revoked (Wash Ct Case - 84-2-01445-2) prior to Chicoine's death.

The Mount Saint Michael group sued the Schuckardt faction, alleging that they took property belonging to them. They obtained a default judgment against the Schuckardt faction for $250,000.00 as well as an injunction barring them from Mount Saint Michael. (Case 84-2-01445-2). The Schuckardt faction asserts that when Chicoine and his allies sued Bishop Schuckardt in civil court, they committed several ecclesiastical crimes carrying with it the censure of automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church (Canons 2334 & 2341). The Default Judgment was challenged by Schuckardt in 1988 and successfully overturned.

In 1985, Fathers Chicoine, Hughes and McGilloway of Mount Saint Michael were conditionally ordained as priests by the Traditionalist Catholic Bishop George Musey. Musey himself stated his belief that these three priests had been validly ordained by Schuckardt, but that he was conditionally ordaining them to appease the doubts of some. Musey's episcopal lineage descended from Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục. The Schuckardt faction challenges the validity of Bishop Musey’s consecration; condemns him for impeding upon Bishop Schuckardt’s jurisdiction; condemns him for “conditionally ordaining” against Church law people who have been sentenced with a declaratory and condemnatory sentence of excommunication; and for other reasons.

Schuckardt died in 2006.