FORT ATKINSON — William J. Smith sparked the curiosity of his neighbors almost from the day he moved to Jefferson County last fall.
It had been years since anyone had tried to start a church in Fort Atkinson, and Smith’s effort was particularly unusual.
He installed an altar in his apartment and invited people for daily morning Mass and evening prayers, calling his undertaking “A Vatican-Free Monastic Community.“
The article goes on to describe William Smith who was convicted of two-counts of sexual assault with a 15-year old boy while he was pastor of Christ the King Episcopal Church of his efforts at starting his own abbey. I though for sure he would be a former Catholic priest with the whole ‘Vatican-Free" thing. The Episcopal Church is already pretty Vatican-Free as it is.
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I assume he’s trying to attract disaffected Catholics to his not-even-Catholic-schismatic community.
What’s sad is that his chapel is more church looking than many modern Catholic churches.
Ironically, Saint Benedict mentions that a monastery has to be obedient to the local bishop.
Can you imagine?
guy: “Hello, I’d like to order an altar.”
phoneperson: “Ok. Just tell us the address of the Church and–“
guy: “Oh, no, it’s not a church; it’s a ‘vatican-free’ Episcopal society, located in my apartment.”
He must have a pretty posh apartment – it has its own steeple which is nicely silhoutted by sunset in the photographs!