Anthony Cekada

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The Reverend Father

Anthony Cekada
Traditionalist Catholic Priest
Portrait of Cekada in 2012
ChurchSaint Gertrude the Great
Orders
Ordination29 June 1977
by Marcel Lefebvre
Personal details
BornJuly 18, 1951
San Diego
DiedSeptember 11, 2020 (aged 69)
West Chester Township, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
Denominationformer Roman Catholic, then independent of the Roman Catholic Church
Alma materThe International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland
Anthony Cekada
Websitehttp://www.fathercekada.com/
Ordination history of
Anthony Cekada
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byMarcel Lefebvre
Date29 June 1977
PlaceThe International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland

Anthony J. Cekada (July 18, 1951 – September 11, 2020) was an American Sedevacantist priest and author.[1]

Biography[]

Early life[]

Anthony Cekada was born on July 18, 1951, in San Diego, California, the son of the late Frank J. and Eleanor (Nardi) Cekada. He was a third generation Slovenian-Italian-American (the Cekada surname is still found on the northeastern borders of Italy).[2] He was raised in Milwaukee where his father worked as a chauffeur for the Schlitz family of Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company fame.[3] After graduating high school in 1969 Cekada began studying at St. Francis Roman Catholic Seminary College in Milwaukee where he "immediately began a one-man protest against ... theological and liturgical modernism"[4] before graduating with a bachelor's degree in Theology in 1973; he studied organ and musical composition at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. In 1975, after two years as a Cistercian monk, he entered St. Pius X Seminary in Écône, Switzerland, joined the Society of St. Pius X, completed his studies, and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1977.[5][6]

St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary[]

Following his sacerdotal ordination, Cekada taught seminarians at St. Joseph's House of Studies, Armada, Michigan, and St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Ridgefield, Connecticut.[7]

The Nine[]

From 1979 to 1989 he resided in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, where he did pastoral and administrative work, and edited the traditionalist publication The Roman Catholic.[7] In 1983 Cekada, along with eight other priests, broke with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) over various theological issues[8] and several years later formed the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), headed by then Fr. Clarence Kelly. In 1989 Cekada left the SSPV[9] and he moved to West Chester, where he assisted with pastoral work at St. Gertrude the Great Traditional Roman Catholic Church.[7] Cekada was a well-known and convinced sedevacantist,[10] believing the popes of the Second Vatican Council to have been invalid pontiffs.

Once a month during the academic year, Cekada traveled to Brooksville, Florida where he taught Canon Law, Liturgy, and Scripture.[7][11]

Death[]

On September 2, 2020, Bishop Daniel Dolan announced via Twitter that Cekada was seriously ill and had been hospitalized with a suspected stroke.[12] In the following days his condition continued to decline, as he underwent surgery.[13] On September 10, Dolan announced that Cekada was dying and in hospice care.[14] He died on September 11, 2020.[15] He was 69 years old.

Authorship[]

He had devoted a considerable amount of time to research and writing. TAN Books published two of his works criticizing the post-Vatican II liturgical reform. One was a commentary and new translation for The Ottaviani Intervention, a key document in the history of the traditional movement.[16] The other, The Problems with the Prayers of the Modern Mass, discusses the systematic omission of certain doctrines (hell, the soul, miracles, the true Church, etc.) from the 1969 Missal of Paul VI; it has sold nearly 15,000 copies at last count, and has been published in French, Italian, German and Dutch.[7]

Cekada had written two introductory booklets for newcomers to the Traditional Mass which were published by St. Gertrude the Great Church:[17] Welcome to the Traditional Latin Mass and Traditionalists, Infallibility and the Pope.[7]

Cekada's bibliography includes apologetic, analytical and controversial articles on a great variety of topics: the errors of Vatican II and the post-Conciliar popes, canon law, seminary formation, the Feeney case, the Mass of Paul VI, the pre-Vatican II liturgical changes, the validity of post Vatican II sacramental rites, questions in moral and pastoral theology, and the case for sedevacantism, the Schiavo case, the Society of St. Pius X, intramural traditionalist disputes, and rubrical matters.[18]

In 2010 Cekada completed Work of Human Hands: A Theological Critique of the Mass of Paul VI, a 468-page work published by Philothea Press.[19] It is a systematic study of the post-Vatican II rite of Mass which maintains that the new rite "a) destroys Catholic doctrine in the minds of the faithful, and in particular, Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the priesthood, and the Real Presence; and b) permits or prescribes grave irreverence."[20]

References[]

  1. ^ Reid, Alcuin (2012). "Work of Human Hands: A Theological Critique of the Mass of Paul VI by Anthony Cekada (review)". Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal. 16 (1): 62–65. ISSN 1543-9933.
  2. ^ Gens.info Italian Surnames Search, http://www.gens.info/italia/it/turismo-viaggi-e-tradizioni-italia#.X9tRh1UzbIU Retrieved 17 December 2020
  3. ^ Michael W. Cuneo (21 July 1999). The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. JHU Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8018-6265-6.
  4. ^ Michael W. Cuneo (21 July 1999). The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. JHU Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8018-6265-6.
  5. ^ From the biography posted on Cekada's parish website at http://www.sgg.org/general-info/clergy
  6. ^ Michael W. Cuneo (21 July 1999). The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. JHU Press. pp. 114–116. ISBN 978-0-8018-6265-6.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "St. Gertrude the Great » Clergy".
  8. ^ Anthony Cekada (2008). "The Nine vs. Lefebvre: We Resist You to Your Face" (pdf). Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  9. ^ Michael W. Cuneo (21 July 1999). The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. JHU Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8018-6265-6.
  10. ^ See Anthony Cekada, Work of Human Hands: A Theological Critique of the Mass of Paul VI (West Chester OH: Philothea Press 2010), Preface, xvii.
  11. ^ "MOST HOLY TRINITY SEMINARY – Pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic". www.mostholytrinityseminary.org.
  12. ^ Bp. Daniel Dolan [@dolan_bp] (September 2, 2020). "Fr Cekaka has been suffering very much the last few days, and we suspect stroke. He has been admitted to the hospital. Please remember him in your prayers" (Tweet). Retrieved December 29, 2020 – via Twitter.
  13. ^ Bp. Daniel Dolan [@dolan_bp] (September 7, 2020). "Fr. Cekada is doing very poorly. He didn't sleep last night, is confused and restless and mostly uncommunicative. He faces several procedures, some very serious. But he was able to receive Holy Communion, and we prayed together" (Tweet). Retrieved December 29, 2020 – via Twitter.
  14. ^ Bp. Daniel Dolan [@dolan_bp] (September 9, 2020). "Fr Cekada is indeed dying. It seems useless to torture him with any further medical procedures. My goal now is to see him back at home, under the care of hospice, and assisted spiritually. Please pray for this, and the supreme grace of a good death" (Tweet). Retrieved December 29, 2020 – via Twitter.
  15. ^ See Fr. Cekada's obituary at https://www.muellerfunerals.com/obituary/the-rev-anthony-cekada
  16. ^ James Likoudis; Kenneth D. Whitehead (2006). The Pope, the Council, and the Mass: Answers to Questions the "Traditionalists" Have Asked. Emmaus Road Publishing. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-931018-34-0.
  17. ^ "Free Info Updates | Traditional Latin Mass Resources". www.traditionalmass.org.
  18. ^ See index on Cekada's web site at: http://www.traditionalmass.org/articles/
  19. ^ http://www.philotheapress.com/
  20. ^ Work of Human Hands, Chapter 1, 7.

External links[]

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