Refusing to say the Novus Ordo Mass after Vatican II, he took leave of the Order, retaining the Dominican habit and rite for Mass, to join Father Frances Fenton, a priest of the Bridgeport Diocese in Connecticut, in his founding of the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement (ORCM) and opening of Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Monroe, Connecticut. A former Methodist church, the chapel opened on January 21, 1973. Coincidentally, the opening of the chapel was the day before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion.
The ORCM itself, as a corporation for the support of priests who would provide the true Mass and Sacraments for traditional Catholics around the country, came to an end in 1978 following a disagreement among its 11 priests as to how it should be administered. Since that time, Father McKenna has remained alone at Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, assisted by the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary whom he founded and who teach in the chapel's St. Dominic's Academy.
On August 22, 1986, Fr. McKenna was consecrated a bishop with the traditional Roman Rite in Raveau, France by Bishop Guerard des Lauriers, O.P., himself a Dominican and noted theologian who taught at the Lateran University in Rome and who advised Pope Pius XII on the definition of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950. Since his consecration, Bishop McKenna has himself consecrated five bishops and ordained several priests.
Bishop McKenna was also an exorcist, though due to his advanced age and busy schedule, he has given up taking any more cases.
At present, Bishop McKenna continues to minister to the faithful at Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Monroe, Connecticut, offering the true Mass and Sacraments to traditional Catholics who come for Mass on Sundays each week from as far away as New York, New Jersey, Rhodes Island, and Massachusetts.
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