Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement

The Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement or ORCM is a group of priests founded by Fr. Francis E. Fenton acting on the suggestions of Fr. Joaquin Sáenz y Arriaga, S.J., and was the U.S. organization parallel to the Mexican organization Unión Catolica Trento, founded by Fr. Saenz along with Frs. Moises Carmona and Adolfo Zamora. Fr. Fenton was a founding member of the "conservative" John Birch Society, and was on its American Opinion Speakers Bureau.

Originally a diocesan priest, Fenton became alarmed at the Vatican II "reforms" of the liturgy and resulting attacks on traditional Catholic Doctrine being implemented in the U.S., and in March of 1970 he left his Diocese rather than participate in what he saw as the destruction of the Faith.

Fr. Fenton continued celebrating his beloved Tridentine Mass but now in a private home in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and as more traditional-minded Catholics heard about this private Mass, the number of people attending it continued to grow until it was obvious that a larger facility, and one more closely resembling a church, would be needed for the future. In March, 1972 members of "the group" acquired a chapel in Brewster, New York. Later they purchased a building that was formerly a Protestant Church in Monroe, Connecticut, where in January, 1973 they installed as pastor the Dominican priest Fr. Robert McKenna, who had recently joined Fr. Fenton and his newly formed "Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement".

By fall 1975, the ORCM had gained Frs. Paul Marceau, Charles P. Donohue, Leo M. Carley and Daniel E. Jones ("Dan Jones"), the English Benedictine Placid White, Joseph Gorecki and some other priests, totaling eleven, and services were being held in California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey and New York. A growth period followed, and by 1979 a circuit system set up among the eleven priests offered the Tridentine Mass in sixteen states.

The ORCM was an active movement, and from its presses came several books and numerous pamphlets on the Mass, modest dress, freemasonry, obedience to the Pope, and modern trends in the Catholic Church. The movement stood firm on Pope Pius V's legislation Quo Primum Tempore and the belief that the Mass of Paul VI's was doctrinally unsound, that it was influenced by Protestant ideas, and was thus following Martin Luther's and Cranmer's gradual, but radical changes to the liturgy.

Controversy followed the ORCM from the beginning. Fr. Fenton's membership in and vocal support for the John Birch Society led to continual criticism from Catholics who agreed with Fr. Fenton's assessment of what was happening to the Church, but did not want to be associated with a political organization that was fighting the same kind of attack on tradition in the National arena. While many respected the "conservative" stance of the Society, including its strong opposition to Communism, they disapproved of Fenton's involvement in a non-Catholic organization, believing that this distracted followers from the more central concerns of the Traditionalist Catholic movement. But Fr. Fenton saw it as a single attack against Church and State by the same enemy, and refused approach the situation as two separate battles, one religious, and one secular.

In the late 1970s internal disputes that had grown within the movement became public. Fr. Fenton and Fr. McKenna O.P., came into conflict over the latter's addition to the ORCM's board. A two-year battle for control of the ORCM led to a split with Fr. McKenna coming out in control (1981). It is alleged that one of the ORCM's wealthy patrons instigated and funded the McKenna faction's takeover of the ORCM. It is not known whether Fenton was ejected or if he resigned when he lost control over it.

After this, Fenton retreated to Colorado Springs, along with Fr. Placid White, where fellow-Birchites William and Rita Quinn harbored them, and where he founded the Traditional Catholics of America and began to publish The Athanasian, named after St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, who had been forced into exile by the Arian heretics.

A small group continued to follow him into the 1990s, including John Kenneth Weiskittel. For a time, Fenton was associated with the Society of St. Pius V. Current information on the Fenton group is not available; the website Traditio.com gives the day of Fr. Fenton's death as August 3, 1995, two years after the Athanasian last mentioned him.

Among present or former ORCM members, besides McKenna (in 1986), it seems that Fr. Paul Marceau too had been consecrated a bishop, for he is credited with having performed the consecration of the Church of Our Lady of Fatima at Spring Hills, Florida (That church is presently presided over by independent Terence Fulham, a bishop derived from the Carlos Duarte Costa succession.)

The remnants of the movement exist nominally and it no longer has the vibrant life that it had before the displacement of Fenton. Under Fr. Fenton, the movement was not merely organized to provide Masses, but also had an active intellectual component, which died out with his displacement.