Jack's Story

I am a Traditional Catholic man in search of Catholic Tradition including true Catholic clergy and authentic Sacraments.

In my search for Tradition, I discovered the CMRI. At the time they presented themselves as holy traditional Catholic clergy. Things felt right and everything appeared to proceed as tradition would have it. And then everything changed when I learned some disturbing truths about the CMRI.

Part of Jack’s experience with the CMRI (Edited from an information supplied to what turned out to be a pro-sedevacantist website. Some names of people involved have been redacted.)

I met at a restaurant in Mtn Home with JE, Fr. Gregory and Fr. Heppel [Edit: Spelling corrected throughout this page as confirmed by Geckle. In the original posting it was incorrectly noted "Epple (or Effel-something like that)" 03-21-2023]...a young priest, obese, really didn’t impress me as inspired. Never-the-less he was relating the conflict that had just transpired. A lot of things were happening almost simultaneously. I can see looking back; to set the important background, a relative of Fr. Geckle [Edit: Geckle informs us that this was incorrectly noted "(possibly his niece-I could be wrong, i dont remember exactly now)" and is actually his cousin. 03-21-2023] and the other 'nun' had just come back from Mt. St. Michaels in Spokane, WA. They had allowed Fr. Heppel to live in their rural house which is located south of Yellville and sort of over by Bruno. While they were out at Mt. St. Michaels, they had convinced someone there to pay the bulk of the cost of a van as it would be used for Church services. Now I know and you can verify thru talking to these other people that even before these 2 'nuns' left St. Michaels, they were ALREADY working with a protestant church south of Yellville.

 Within a day or two of when they got back-I don't know the exact timing, they showed up at MIDNIGHT with about a dozen protestants from that church and forced Fr. Heppel to leave the property. It was a dangerous event. Fr Heppel related he was shaking from fear. They haphazardly loaded up a truck with his possessions. For instance, the protestants picked up the large crucifix he had for the chapel (which he estimated the value at about $1500) and threw it into the truck bed, breaking off a few smaller pieces of it. It gets better; Fr. Heppel had a car worth $3500. They threatened him physically and ordered him to go get the papers and keys and give them to them. Terrified, he obeyed. Fr. Heppel ended up going back to Germany. I lost track of him, but JE would definitely have his contact info today. I’m sure Fr. Heppel will relate this story to you, likely with much more detail.

This story was again related when I began to attend masses at MAE’s] chapel in Evening Shade, I was told by JE about what had happened.

But no, it gets even better. I happened to be down at a friend’s shop in town. I have been friends with M for 35 years, and happened to see this large 8 1/2x 11 thick book of papers. It looked religious and I think there were CDs also. I asked P, M’s wife, where that came from. She said, “the nuns.” So I picked it up and started looking thru it. It was protestant crap that they had compiled and were handing out all over Yellville. There were even a couple pages where they apologized for having been Catholic, saying that “that’s all they knew before they became what they are now.” I'll never forget reading that.

I asked P if I could have all that stack of the stuff and she said sure. So I grabbed it thinking I would take it to Fr. Geckle and he would deal with it. At that time I had no reason not to trust Fr. Geckle, so that’s what I did.

It was a hot day and we talked out in the parking area before going inside. I showed him the pages where they apologized for being Catholic and leafed thru the rest of the protestant type stuff they were doing. Emotional stories of this person, that person, stuff like that. And then I told Fr. Geckle, “These two 'nuns' are living together in a house in very rural area. This looks kinda lesbian.” “No,” he assured me. He said one of them is his niece (I think). It couldn’t be. OK, but it looks bad. I thought perhaps Fr. Geckle was unaware that, south of Yellville on Hwy 14 is known to be where the freaks tend to settle. Like R the lesbian who runs the auto parts store in Yellville and a weird bunch of African Americans who have some freak 'church' where they all wear purple. So that kinda alerted me.

Sometime later I talked to MAE on the phone. I asked her what about Fr. Geckle and the nuns, what happened? She related that Fr. told her that they felt that that was the way they could “do the most good.” I hollered, “WHAT.” MA freaked too. We both agreed this was bs from Fr. Geckle. Nothing happened, but I think I got them to stop wearing 'nun' habits when they go to town. They can’t hide being together as 'religious'. I haven’t seen them in town since, so I don’t know for sure. They used to go to town often as nuns, thereby no one would think twice about being lesbians. Maybe they aren’t, but it looks bad considering the way they are living.

I tried to alert St. Michaels in Spokane as to where the $$ for that  van went. Nobody wanted to get involved. My concerns didn’t go anywhere. I told them about the protestant church the 2 'nuns' were hooked up with. Didn’t matter. They were not getting involved.

One time in the middle of all this, I had asked P to ask the nuns the next time they came by the shop (they came by weekly back then) if I could get a ride to mass in the van. The next time I was in the shop I remembered to ask P what they said. The answer was NO. They had stopped going to MAE’s chapel by then. I didn’t know that. They were working the protestant church full time.

This is what woke me up. Unless this would have happened, I would have gladly continued attending “trad masses” at the CMRI chapels.

Now I question the very structure of CMRI. Without some kind of better oversight, certain types of people will take advantage of the well-meaning laity. This is my experience.

If you want others to verify all I have related (and probably a lot more) let me know. I will forward contact data for JE. He will likely have contact info for Fr. Eppel in Germany. Sadly MAE has passed.

God as my witness, I swear this is the truth what has happened here.

Regards

Jack in Arkansas 

Addendum - September 16, 2022

Since terminating my association with the CMRI, I've learned a lot of things regarding their "corporate" structures. This organization is not set up in any manner of a church. It is set up as a series of shell corporations which serve to collect money and property from people attending their "churches & chapels" and launder them up the chain to their main organizations. Each of these facilities has a board of directors of which the officers are Mark Pivarunas and his clergy. There are a nominal number of lay people who do the basic day to day work for the leadership. As I learn more about this spider's web of shell corporations, I will publish my findings to this or other web sites.

Addendum - March 18, 2023

Following is a brief email exchange with Timothy Geckle (one of the CMRI ministers) and Jack. The Geckle message is broken into two segments for display and is only modified for format to fit the space or to protect the privacy of individuals named.

Jack's response has had minor corrections for punctuation and formatting and to address any privacy concerns.

The actual factual points Geckle presents in his letter have been incorporated as edits to Jack's original text and noted as such. Facts regarding conversations and Jack's research and Jack's first hand knowledge have not been modified as Geckle has provided no actual evidence to the contrary. In actuality, Geckle has confirmed several issues which were known to Jack previously, but he could not otherwise independently confirm. Thank you for participating Mr. Geckle!

Quod scripsi, scripsi (Latin for "What I have written, I have written") Pontius Pilate's words regarding the charge against Our Lord.

March 18, 2023

Hello Jack,
I  was just made aware of your account on the website, "Traditional  Catholic Lies". I wanted to point out that there are several things that  are wrong and either you didn't know or purposefully left out. Since  the website mentions over and over that silence betokens consent and  that we must therefore be hiding something, please note the following:
*The  2 former nuns in AR never came to Mass the entire time I have been  coming here and it was not terribly surprising that they had gone off  the deep end considering that and other things. They had basically cut  all ties with any Catholics I knew of, and I think you are aware of how  John and Polly also wanted nothing to do with them after what happened  with Fr. Heppel. When you showed me the material they were passing out, I  spoke to the Emrys when I went to visit them and told them how there  were many heresies and errors in that material, and they got rid of them  immediately. Trying to portray these two former nuns as being on the  same side as we are or working with us is blatantly false. They spent  very little time with the CMRI. It's clear now that they had their own  agenda for some time and were not really interested in being Catholic -  just "good Christians" as is evident from their writings and behaviour.
You  also stated that MA [Edit: Name truncated for privacy.] said that I said that was how they thought  they could do the most good. That is false. I never told MA anything about what they said because I have never even talked to them.  They used to talk to MA, but stopped after a short time. Pretty  much what I knew of them came from what MA told me. In your account, you make it seem like I was ok with what they were doing  ("doing the most good") which is absolutely false.

---Continued in the next panel---

 March 18, 2023 Geckle continued

Shame on you for  portraying MA as being upset with me or being outraged right along  with you at my supposed lack of concern. MA and I were both  appalled at their behaviour. She wasn't at variance with me on this or anything else I can think of.  I spent many many hours with MA,  knew her very well, and was there at her deathbed and witnessed her holy  death. Shame on you for using her here in this way.
The  one is not my niece but my mothers cousin. She is much much older. A number of people would have known them when they were in Spokane and  elsewhere, and no one has made any mention that they have such leanings  or shown any sign of it. Living together as religious (which they had  done for decades in a convent) is not a sign that they are lesbians, and  I told you this because it would be wrong to spread that around to  people just based on your conjecture. 
*What  you say about our corporations laundering money and sending it up the  chain is absolutely ridiculous and verifiably false. All of the money  that is collected in my parishes is used here in Arkansas for these  parishes. St. Philomena's parish down in Roland has already been able to  pay off the mortgage on the small church we purchased a few years ago  because all of the money that people donate goes to the church there.  And that goes for my other parish here. It's not a shell corporation.  It's not a money making scheme. You don't even know how our parishes  operate and you make these claims as if you have the inside scoop. 
There  are a lot of other ridiculous claims on this website. I know you won't  listen to me as is evident from past interactions, but if you make the  claim that you are honest and that you will take things down if it's not  true, then maybe your pride will get the better of you and you'll take  this down. 
Fr. Geckle

March 18, 2023

Dear Mr. Geckle--
Firstly,  please stop referring to urself as Fr. U are not a real Catholic Priest. U are a pastor of CMRI, which has no affiliation with the  Catholic Church.
Here is the entire list of Catholic Priests in the USA. 284 pages of triple columns.
https://www.officialcatholicdirectory.com/assets/OCD18_PriestsIndex.pdf
U ain't there. If u want to believe u are something u are not, that's fine, but don't expect others to play along.
In response to ur letter, one thing that irritates me is how u are  lying about how MA talked about the protestant literature ur cousin and the other fake nun were spreading around Yellville.
I talked to her at length and maybe she talked to u differently, but to me, she was appalled at ur lack of discipline or concern regarding such heretical behavior. We were both in total agreement that u were lacking in action to defend the Faith.
As far as ur cousin and the other fake nun, they spent considerable time  at MSM, Spokane headquarters, enough so that MSM bought them that van for supposed church work in Arkansas when they left in it. U are simply lying to say they never spent much time at CMRI.
One thing I can't prove, but highly suspect--when the two fake nuns came  back from MSM and immediately tossed out Mr. Hepple, it was so that U would could replace him. Just kinfolk helping each other with their careers. U both come from a family of religious career people and such behavior would be considered perfectly normal.
Please  wake up, amend ur ways, stop pretending being anything more than a  protestant preacher catering to a niche religious market-share of Catholics looking for a TLM. Shame on U...this is schismatic behavior, which is a mortal sin. Open ur eyes and turn from such wickedness. If U want to be a real Catholic Priest, go thru the Catholic process of  priestly formation and receive valid faculties.
Regards-- Jack in Arkansas