Louis Vezelis

Louis Vezelis, OFM (born 1930) is an American Traditionalist Catholic Franciscan bishop.

Early life

He was born on January 29, 1930 to Lithuanian immigrants in Rochester, New York. There, he received the sacraments at his local parish and a normal elementary and secondary education, attending Rochester's Aquinas Institute and the minor seminary of the Holy Ghost Fathers.

Invested in the habit in 1949 as a member of the Order of Friars Minor's Lithuanian Vicariate, Vezelis made his novitiate under the American Sacred Heart Province and studied philosophy in the Immaculate Conception Province. He went to the Franciscan Seminary in Montreal for theology. During this period he received the various minor and major orders and on June 16, 1956 Father Louis was ordained to the Priesthood in the Montreal chapel by Paul-Emile Cardinal Leger. Until 1957 he preached and administered the Sacraments in the United States.

Missionary Work

Receiving the "obedience" or mandate of the minister general of the Order, Most Rev. Augustine Sepinski, OFM to establish the Franciscans, especially in Korea, he spent 18 years in the Far East missions where he ministered to both natives and American soldiers. While there, Father Louis built a seminary, friaries, parishes, schools and other housing and was elected as definitor of the province. A faithful missionary with a special affection for the Korean people whose language he learned very well, but dismayed by the liturgical and doctrinal changes in the Church, he returned to the United States in June, 1975 to be fund-raiser for the Korean missions, and also sought to establish a newspaper in that language for the many Catholic immigrants from that country to the U.S. Since his missionary days, he has had a unique situation: directly under the minister general, and not a provincial. His Korean name is Park Song Wee.

Rejection of Vatican II and Sedevacantism

In the spring of 1978, Father Louis was stated to be "automatically dismissed" from the Lithuanian vicariate and the Franciscan Order on grounds of removing himself from the jurisdiction of his superiors. Vezelis believed that by accepting the revolutionary liturgical and doctrinal reforms of the Second Vatican Council the other friars and superiors had left the Church. The same year he became involved with the traditionalist Catholic movement and offered Mass for the faithful including those following Marcel Lefebvre. Eventually he distanced himself from that movement, concluding that not only was Lefebvre a self-accused schismatic, but that his priesthood and episcopate were invalid due to ordination and consecration by a reputed Freemason, Achille Liénart.

On October 4, 1979 Father Louis founded Our Lady of the Angels Friary in his native Rochester and received the first novices in the next years, giving them religious formation. On the vigil of Pentecost of 1982, already suspicious of the legitimacy of the popes since the death of Pius XII, he became convinced of the sedevacantist position after John Paul IIembraced Robert Runcie and called their churches "sister."

Illicit Ordination and Later Life

Having been introduced to Bishop George Musey in the line of Archbishop Ngô Ðình Thuc Pierre Martin, Father Louis was asked to receive episcopal consecration from the traditionalist bishops and consecrated on August 24, 1982. According to most Catholics, Vezelis' ordination was illicit under canon law because it did not have the approval of the Pope and therefore carried the penalty of latae sententiae excommunication. Vezelis' territory was the United States east of the Mississippi River, Musey's the western part of the country, including Florida. Priests including Robert McKenna submitted to Vezelis as their ordinary. From 1983-1984 Archbishop Ngo lived with Bishop Louis at the Rochester Friary.

Four priests were produced from St. Bonaventure Seminary which enabled the Franciscans to accept responsibility for four churches and numerous missions, most of which still exist. Currently there are six friars (two bishops, two priests, and two brothers - one lay, the other a student for the priesthood).Fact|date=April 2008

Episcopal Consecrations

Bishop Vezelis has consecrated two other bishops. The first, as his successor and ordinary of the Western Diocese, Bishop Giles Butler, OFM on August 24, 2005. The two Franciscan bishops then consecrated a secular Mexican priest, Bishop Luis Alberto Madrigal, on December 12, 2007.

Writings and Holocaust Denial

Bishop Vezelis edits the "Seraph", now in its 28th year of publication.

Vezelis has repeatedly condemned the Holocaust as a hoax. In an article written for the "Seraph", later republished on the website of the Institute for Historical Review, an organization widely accused of Holocaust Denial, Vezelis wrote:

In a dispute with Catholic apologist Karl Keating, Vezelis wrote:

Vezelis is the author of "Discernment of Spirits", "Sedevacantism: The only honest response to a painful reality,", and "Archbishop Ngo-Dinh-Thuc: Martyr for the Faith".

Episcopal_Succession
date of consecration=August 24 1982
consecrated by=George Musey
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bishop 1=Giles Butler
consecration date 1=August 24 2005
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consecration date 2=December 12 2007
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External links

* [http://www.friarsminor.org/ Friars Minor] (Official website of the Bishop's order)