Supplement to: Father Joseph Iannuzzi EXPOSED, Part 1
From Fr Joseph Iannuzzi (2005), The Antichrist and the End Times, St Andrew’s Productions.
The OSJ Problem
It’s bizarre that Fr Iannuzzi didn’t mention his membership in the Oblates of St Joseph anywhere on this page, under the title “About the Author”? (The same point holds for the 2006 book too). Why would an OSJ priest spend a whole paragraph announcing his membership in some other nameless community on the other side of the world from where he is (presumably) incardinated (“presumably”, because it is virtually impossible to find these things out), and not mention—not even once—the religious community under which he made his solemn vows? The community of fellow religious with whom he currently lives in Rome? This is beyond bizarre. One wonders what narrative Fr Iannuzzi was attempting to create here, and for what purpose.
It’s worse than that, actually:
None of the following search terms turns up even once in the 2005 book or in the 2006 book: “OSJ”, “O.S.J.”, “Oblate”, “Oblates”.
There is no reference to Father Iannuzzi’s being an OSJ in his 2004 book, The Splendor of Creation either—even though note 328 on p.285 mentions the founder of the Oblates of St Joseph.
There is no reference to Father Iannuzzi’s being an OSJ in the published version (2013) of his doctoral thesis of 2012.
And yet a Google search for “Iannuzzi O.S.J.” will return plenty of recent hits (the first three pages are from 2017 to 2022) so we can only assume he is still a member of the Oblates of St Joseph.
On the other hand, who knows? There appears to be no reference to the Oblates of St Joseph on Fr Iannuzzi’s personal website. Try doing a Google search by pasting one of following strings into the search bar. You won’t find any of the four search terms at ltdw.org.
site: https://www.ltdw.org/ "oblate"
site: https://www.ltdw.org/ "oblates"
site: https://www.ltdw.org/ "OSJ"
site: https://www.ltdw.org/ "O.S.J."
What are we to make of this? Fr Iannuzzi seems to be keeping his commitment to his religious order in one compartment (assuming he is still an OSJ—it is difficult to know for sure), and his commitment to the Divine Will movement in another compartment.
But coming full circle, why did Fr Iannuzzi not present himself as an OSJ in his 2005 and 2006 books, presenting himself there as a member of some nameless other religious community instead? What is going on here? Remember that the Official Catholic Directory does list Rev Joseph Iannuzzi as an O.S.J. in 2006 (as well as in 1998 and 2007-2009).
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One plausible explanation for why he hasn’t been presenting himself as an OSJ is that his Superiors in the Oblates of St Joseph have allowed him to promote the writings of Luisa Piccarreta and the Divine Will movement but only on condition that this is not in any way associated with his being an OSJ.
(Other ideas come to mind also: Fr Iannuzzi has left the order, he has been expelled from the order, he is taking a break from the order to discern God’s Will for his life, he is not on good terms with the order, he is steering the audience away from certain details in his life. But these are only hypotheses. And to be fair, it is entirely possible for someone in a religious order to believe that the direction that God is leading him in life is in tension with the current expectations of his order. To be sure, this could be a sign of some vice, a problem of character.)
Other Strange Omissions
The following biographical statement (complete) is from Fr Iannuzzi’s 2004 book, The Splendor of Creation: The Triumph of the Divine Will on Earth and the Era of Peace in the Writings of the Church Fathers, Doctors and Mystics:
Rev. Joseph L. Iannuzzi is a theologian and doctoral alumnus of the Gregorian Pontifical University. He was an associate exorcist to Fr. Gabriel Amorth (the exorcist of Rome), has written several books on revelation and prophecy, appeared on EWTN and was host of several television and national radio programs. Fr. Joseph is presently assigned in Rome, Italy.
In 1983 Fr. Joseph received honors in both orchestra and wrestling. In the 1983 NYSMA (New York State Music Association) the first prize was awarded to the Brentwood High School Orchestra, with Joseph Iannuzzi as one of the performing first violinists. In that same year Joseph was awarded the first place in the New York State Freestyle Wrestling Championships.
Joseph spent the next two years working as a carpenter for a national computer corporation. It was during this period that he began to hear God’s promptings. In 1986 Joseph received a wrestling scholarship to Wilkes University, PA where he pursued his studies in medicine, and worked as the column artist of the university newspaper. His wrestling career took a turn in June of 1988 when he traveled to Medjugorje, Yugoslavia where three locutions from Mary inspired him to enter the seminary.
In August of 1988 Joseph entered the seminary located next to the university in PA. In 1991 Joseph obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Kings University, PA, with high honors and was awarded the Kilburn Award given each scholastic year to the top graduate student of philosophy.
Joseph was sent to Asti, Italy for his novitiate year, during which period he studied Italian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, made his profession of vows and resumed theological studies in Italian. In 1993, after obtaining a Bachelors of Arts in theology with honors from the Pontifical University for the Catholic Missions, he returned to the USA where he was ordained a priest on the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity.
In years to follow, Joseph assisted in the Scranton and Hartford Dioceses. In 1998 he was called anew to Rome, Italy and assigned as assistant pastor at the San Lorenzo in Fonte Church where he pursued his licentiate and doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian Pontifical University. The subject of his theses were respectively, “The Eschatology of the Early Church Fathers,” and “The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta’s Theology of the Operation of the Divine and Human Will within the Deposit of Faith.” In the same academic year of his licentiate, Fr. Joseph was one of four selected students to receive a grant from the Pontifical Biblicum University of Rome to study theology in Israel.
Fr. Iannuzzi has translated six theological works from Italian to English, is the author of four books on mystical and dogmatic theology, and the initiator of international communities devoted to the advancement of the Church’s mystical tradition and to the proper theological presentation of the mystical gift of Living in God’s Divine Will.
Again, no mention of the Oblates of St Joseph. Even more curious (also amusing) is the way in which he skirts about the identity of his seminary. “In August of 1988 Joseph entered the seminary located next to the university in PA. In 1991 Joseph obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Kings University, PA.” King’s College is in Wilkes-Barre, PA, which indeed is only about 7.8 miles from Pittston, PA, where there is an OSJ seminary. Recall the following information from the 1998 edition of the OCD:
On p. 1152: Rev Joseph L. Iannuzzi, O.S.J. is located in Eastern Providence of the Oblates of St. Joseph, Rte. 315, R.D. 4, 18640 in Pittston, Pennsylvania in the Diocese of Scranton. The listed provincial (in the OCD, 1998, p. 1152) is Very Rev. Joseph D. Sibilano, O.S.J.; Rev. Gregory Finn, O.S.J. is 1st Councilor; Rev. Paul A. McDonnell, O.S.J. is 2nd Councilor. [This property is listed as an Oblates of St Joseph seminary here. Rev. Sibilano is currently listed as Priest in Residence, Rev. McDonnell as Rector.]
Note too that Fr Iannuzzi speaks about his “profession of vows” without mentioning which order he made his vows to.
Finally, there is something fishy about the section that I have underlined.
In 1993, after obtaining a Bachelors of Arts in theology with honors from the Pontifical University for the Catholic Missions, he returned to the USA where he was ordained a priest on the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity.
In years to follow, Joseph assisted in the Scranton and Hartford Dioceses. In 1998 he was called anew to Rome …
We know from the OCD that Joseph Iannuzzi was ordained in 1997. But in this passage, Iannuzzi not only withholds the year in which he was ordained (strangely, he refers only to a certain feast day) but arranges his phrases in such a way that the reader is led to think that he was ordained in 1993. One is given the impression that between his ordination and his being called back to Rome, there are 5 years, when in fact he was called back to Rome after 12 months of priestly service (possible less). “In years to follow”—following what? His return to the USA or his ordination in the USA? The ordering of the phrases naturally suggests the latter. If the latter, then he served multiple years as a priest in the Scranton and Harford Diocese before returning to Rome. But we know this is not true, because the OCD consistently states that he was ordained in 1997.
The following biographical statement is from early 2016; it is from Fr Iannuzzi’s Parish Mission at Mary, Queen of All Saints (St. Cecilia’s Church, Pennsauken, NJ):
In August of 1988 Joseph entered the Oblates of St. Joseph Seminary, and in 1991 he obtained a B.A. in Philosophy with high honors from Kings University …
Joseph completed his novitiate year in Asti, Italy … He made his profession of vows and began theological studies in Italian. In 1993, after obtaining a B.A. in theology with honors at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, he returned to the USA where he was ordained a priest on the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity. In years to follow, Fr. Joseph assisted his community in the Scranton and Hartford Dioceses. In 1998 his religious Community called him anew to Rome where he served as Assistant Pastor at the San Lorenzo in Fonte Church where he pursued his licentiate with summa cum laude and doctorate with magum cum laude in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian Pontifical University. The subject of his theses were respectively, “The Eschatology of the Early Church Fathers” (Licentiate), and “The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta – An Inquiry into the Early Ecumenical Councils, and into Patristic and Scholastic Theology”. … From 2006-2009 Fr. Joseph was asked to assist a Parochial Vicar of St. Paul and St. Monica Parishes in the Gaylord Diocese. With permission from his religious superiors Fr. Iannuzzi is currently offering pastoral assistance to the ecclesiastically approved Fiat Totus Tuus Religious Community Petoranello di Molise, Italy.
In response to this, my questions are as follows:
Again, why did Fr Iannuzzi not mention that he was ordained in 1997 (as per the Official Catholic Directory)? Why did he skirt about this fact by referring only to the year in which he returned to the USA, and the feast day on which he was ordained (not the year)?
Why did Fr Iannuzzi not mention his one year in the Diocese of Marquette? According to the OCD, and contrary to the biographical statement above, Fr Iannuzzi was not in the Gaylord Diocese in 2006. [The 2006 edition, p. 727: Joseph L. Iannuzzi O.S.J. is listed as Temp. Parochial Admin of Holy Redeemer Parish, Menominee, Michigan, in the Diocese of Marquette; and as Temp. Parochial Admin of Holy Spirit Catholic Church, also in Menominee.]
Recall that the source I spoke to who is connected with the Companions of Christ the Lamb, said this in passing about Fr Iannuzzi: “In the Marquette Diocese, there were some struggles with parishioners.” Is this why Fr Iannuzzi preferred to leave his one year in Marquette (at Holy Redeemer and at Holy Spirit, both in Menominee) out of his biographical statement?
In any case, one wonders why Fr Iannuzzi is so careful to skirt about certain historical details in his life, and why he felt the need to “massage” the narrative in certain ways.
More Red Flags
The passage quoted from the “About the Author” section in the 2005 and 2006 books already raises a number of red flags, even on a first reading. This is further confirmation that something is not right (to say the least).
First, why the ambiguous, non-informative reference to a “missionary religious community”? (“Fr. Joseph is member of the missionary religious community located in the Diocese of Marquette, MI that enjoys the ecclesiastical approval of his local bishop and the added endorsements of two bishops of the Detroit Diocese.”) If this religious community exists, and is in such good standing, having the “ecclesiastical approval” of no less than three bishops as Fr Iannuzzi claims, then why not give the actual name of the religious community? Bona fide members of genuine religious communities in the Catholic Chuch would not act like this—why would they? They do not hide such basic information from their audience as the name of their own community while they are proudly announcing their membership in that same community! This is extremely odd behaviour. Truly bizarre.
In the next sentence, Fr Iannuzzi does the same thing again. He refers to an “international association” and to “the missionary community” in very generic terms.
As an international association that promotes the Church’s mystical tradition, the missionary community provides solo-wilderness retreats at the CCL (Companions of Christ the Lamb) spiritual center that spans well over 1,000 acres of verdure in the village of Paradise, MI.
Iannuzzi wants his audience to associate him with a certain religious community—but at the same time, he is unwilling to provide further information about it. Indeed, he is not even willing to provide a means (a name, an email address, a website) by which people can enquire further and fact-check. Not even in a footnote. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Fr Iannuzzi wants the audience to think of him as part of some wonderful religious community that is doing God’s work, but does not want the audience to enquire further. How many red flags do you need?
I assume that the name of this religious community is not so holy that it is forbidden to mention it!
If this missionary religious community exists, then surely, it would welcome enquiries from people who would like to know more about it. The community, or someone who represents it, would be more than willing to provide information about the community to interested people, especially those discerning whether they might join. And yet, Fr Iannuzzi doesn’t provide any contact information. Indeed, the reader isn’t given the name of the community!
Notice again how Fr Iannuzzi is very careful to give out some bits of information, and not others. He is willing to speak about the Companions of Christ the Lamb, mentioning them here by name, and also giving their location—but he is careful not to mention the name of his own community. His disclosure of information is very selective, and it is selective in a way that is very odd, to say the least. Indeed, it looks suspicious.
Here is another example of a vague, non-descriptive reference: Fr Iannuzzi claims that his nameless religious community has the “added endorsements of two bishops of the Detroit Diocese.” Wonderful! So which two bishops do you mean, Father? There are a number of them. Is it too much to provide names, so we can check whether your claims are true? If you’re worried about the word count, or space on the page, just use a footnote! As things stand, it would be necessary to work out who the bishops of the Archdiocese of Detroit are (or were at that time) and then ask each of them, one by one, whether Fr Iannuzzi’s claim is true. It certainly seems that this was Fr Iannuzzi’s intention: to make it difficult to fact-check his claims. Giving enough information (“information”) to make a positive impression, but not enough information to enable the audience to fact-check his claims with relative ease.
In 2005, the year in which this book was published, the local bishop in Marquette was Bishop James Garland (bishop of Marquette from 1992-2005). There is no valid reason for not mentioning Garland by name—not if Gardland had indeed given Iannuzzi’s non-descript community his “ecclesiastical approval.” Think about it. If you wanted to reassure your audience that the religious community you were part of had the approval of your local bishop, and the endorsement of two other bishops in Detroit, then you would be eager to mention the names of the three bishops who had given their approval—assuming, of course, that they had. At the very least, you would provide this information in a footnote. And again, you certainly wouldn’t be withholding the name of your religious community!
I looked up all bishops in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan in the year 2004 and/or 2005 (Fr Iannuzzi’s book on the Antichrist was published in 2005; I am being generous by including the previous year).
His Eminence Adam Joseph Maida (born 1930) was made Cardinal in 1994. He served as Archbishop of Detroit from 1990-2009. He retired in 2009.
+ Thomas Gumbleton (born 1930, deceased 2024) served as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit from 1968-2006. He resigned in 2006 (it is said that the Vatican forced him to resign).
+ Earl Boyea (born 1951) served as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit from 2002-2008. He is now Bishop of Lansing.
+ John Quinn (born 1945) served as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit from 2003-2008. He retired in 2022.
+ Francis Reiss (born 1940) served as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit from 2003-2015. He retired in 2015.
No less than four men were serving as a bishop in Detroit in 2005—five if we include the Archbishop/Cardinal. This makes it more difficult to fact-check Iannuzzi’s claim that his international “missionary religious community” enjoyed the “added endorsements of two [unnamed] bishops of the Detroit Diocese” at that time. At least, it presents an obstacle or deterrent to fact-checking from the perspective of someone reading Iannuzzi’s book.
Finally, I question the appropriateness of a priest inviting people to “solo-wilderness retreats”. At the very least, the choice of words is worrying. It is bad optics in this day and age. There are actually two alarm bells in this case. The first alarm is obvious—it looks like an opportunity for sexual abuse. The second is less obvious, and concerns the possibility of creating a cult-like following. A common strategy of cult leaders is to separate people from others in order to initiate them into a “new” spirituality. The followers submit themselves receptively to guidance of one guru—the spiritual master or theological “expert”—who specialises in the new spirituality.
Dr Brendan Triffett
Quick links to other posts:
Supplement to: Father Joseph Iannuzzi EXPOSED, Part 1
Fr Joseph Iannuzzi, we need answers NOW. The two incorporated entities you refer to DO NOT EXIST*
Namely: “Missionaries of Divine Will, Inc.” and “The Divine Fiat, Inc.”
On Father Joseph Iannuzzi’s Alleged Violations of Academic Integrity
This is the post that got a lot of attention and elicited a slanderous response from Team Iannuzzi
A summary of what I’ve uncovered so far about Fr Iannuzzi and Dr Michael James
My response to Dr Michael James’ false accusations and ad hominem attacks
A brutally honest response to Dr Michael James Farrow—Part 1
In which I demonstrate that Dr Michael James is Michael James Farrow
In response to Michael James Farrow’s latest video on the Divine Will Era channel
Fr Iannuzzi’s curious statement about Admiral Byrd
Following on from the hollow Earth theory post
