Archbishop of San Antonio Garcia-Siller on Alleged Prophetic Messages from The Mission of Divine Mercy

Archbishop of San Antonio, Gustavo Garcia-Siller, removes the faculties of the priest, Reverend John Mary Foster, founder of the apostolate associated with the alleged messages. "The MDM is not,
a canonically erected religious community of either diocesan or pontifical rite and its status as a
Catholic apostolate of the Archdiocese of San Antonio has been suppressed and revoked by official
decree on March 15, 2024."

Full Text: ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN ANTONIO OFFICE OF THE ARCHBISHOP

iVen, Holy Spirit, Ven!

A message from Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, MSpS, concerning the

publication of the alleged prophetic messages from the Mission of Divine Mercy

March 15, 2024

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I write to offer you guidance regarding the recently published alleged prophecies from Reverend

John Mary Foster at the Mission of Divine Mercy (MDM) at Canyon Lake, Texas, Before

addressing the many concerns sent to me and other archdiocesan officials, I wish to clarify the

canonical status of the Mission of Divine Mercy.

‘The Mission of Divine Mercy was granted status as an approved Catholic apostolate by Archbishop

José H. Gomez on May 19, 2010. Reverend John Mary Foster, founder of the apostolate and an

incardinated priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, has enjoyed a special assignment to serve

as the director of MDM. Although he had hoped the apostolate would grow and the number of

members would increase, this has not occurred. The apostolate consisted of Reverend John Mary

Foster, his biological sister and former religious sister Mary Foster, his cousin William Roderique,

his nephew Joseph Jebbia, and a non-family member: Araceli Granados Gantner. The MDM is not,

a canonically erected religious community of either diocesan or pontifical rite and its status as a

Catholic apostolate of the Archdiocese of San Antonio has been suppressed and revoked by official

decree on March 15, 2024. Additionally, Reverend Foster’s faculties to minister have also been

removed as of March 15, 2024.

Since 2009, the Mission of Divine Mercy has offered retreats, sacramental ministry, and a peaceful

setting for the faithful of God. have been supportive of their efforts, and I have enjoyed a positive

relationship with Reverend Foster and the members of the Mission of Divine Mercy. The only

stipulation I have ever requested of the MDM -~ in order to prevent any misunderstandings and

possible scandal -- was to refrain from publishing any alleged prophetic message until they were

reviewed to ensure they were not harmful to the people of God. This stipulation was intended to

protect the faithful since the alleged prophetic writings include many scandalous claims and false

teachings. Until just recently, the members of the Mission of Divine Mercy have been obedient to

my request.

On February 28, 2024, Reverend Foster published an alleged prophetic message from a member

of the MDM community. I contacted Reverend Foster the same day and requested that he remove

the post on the website. On March 5, 2024, 1 met with Reverend Foster for more than an hour,

praying together and discussing the false teachings contained in the post and Reverend Foster’s

oath of fidelity to the Church and duty of obedience to me, which oath and duty he has reaffirmed

each year during the Chrism Mass since his incardination in 2009. The next day, Reverend Foster

posted a second alleged prophetic message. On March 7, 2024, I repeated my direct request to him

to remove these publications from the MDM website and social media, to begin assisting in

repairing the confusion, bewilderment and damage caused by these alleged prophecies. On March

13, 2024, the third alleged prophetic message was widely published.

Reverend Foster, in the statement he posted on the website of the Mission of Divine Mercy entitled,

“We Must Obey God”, outright admits his disobedience to Pope Francis and his Ordinary and cites

the following reasons which he believes justifies his actions:

“We know that many people are concerned that the Mission of Divine Mercy is being

disobedient to our Archbishop in publishing these Messages. And that our “disobedience”

discredits these Messages. That is a very legitimate concern, The key question is: Are we

obeying God? We should always obey God. And normally, we should obey legitimate

human authorities—but only in those cases where human authorities are acting in accord

with God's law. There are occasions, as the Church has clearly taught, when we are called

to obey God even though it means disobeying human authorities.’ We see many examples

in the life of Our Lord Himself as we will discuss below. Is our situation one of those

occasions? We are making three claims that may be shocking to many: 1. That these

Messages are coming from God. They are prophetic Messages. 2. That the Church is facing

an extreme crisis, beyond any she has faced before, because, as a Message we recently

published says “the usurper [is sitting] on the chair of My Peter—he who is carrying out

the Great Treason."? This extreme crisis calls for extreme measures. 3. Given this extreme

crisis, we are obeying God in publishing these messages, even without our Archbishop

permission” (“We Must Obey God”, p.1).

In his document Father Foster, in his own words and by quoting the alleged prophetic messages

refers to Pope Francis as “the usurper” and writes: “In summary, we must always obey

God. Normally, obeying God includes obeying the authorities of the Church, But we are living in

an unprecedented crisis. God is telling us that the Throne of Peter is occupied by a usurper, and

we should not submit to him nor those who are carrying out his unjust designs”? (We Must Obey

God”, p. 11).

Father Foster publicly declares his disobedience to Church authority and encourages others to do the same: “When superiors are actively committing or commanding grave evil, one is not obliged to obey them. We don't believe our Archbishop intends to do evil. We believe he is good- hearted. But he is enthusiastically following Bergoglio, whom we do believe is trying to subvert the Church” (“We Must Obey God”, p. 10).
Conscious of my duty to exercise governance over the ministries of the archdiocese and prudently lead the Christian faithful of the Archdiocese, I cannot allow any further confusion and grave scandal to descend upon the faithful of God and so I have removed Reverend Foster’s faculties for public ministry in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. I pray that Reverend Foster will work with me to repair the damage that has been caused and find a path forward for his ministry.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Gustavo Garcia-Siller.

 Archbishop of San Antonio

Source: https://archsa.org/news/archbishop-statement-on-the-mission-of-divine-mercy/