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The following document is a transcription of an audio recording that is undated,
but was probably created sometime between 1987 and 1990. The 13 minute audio
version has been uploaded to an interment site and can be heard in its entirety at:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?drm56r9c405gco0

In the following document/recording, Fr Michael Scanlan TOR, President of

Franciscan University (at the time) and Council Member of the Sword of the Spirit
(SOS) instructs, admonishes and exhorts members of the Servants of Christ the
King (SOCK), the SOS Covenant Community in Steubenville, OH. Fr Scanlan
was the Senior Head Coordinator of this Community from 1977 to May 3, 1991.

This recording illustrates how Catholic traditions within the history of Marian
Apparitions were used to reinforce the ³Days of Darkness´ teaching of the Sword
of the Spirit. The Apparitions were incorporated to give weight to SOS beliefs
and were part of a framework used to capture and control the thoughts and
emotions of SOCK¶S members. It caused many of them to fear being anywhere
else but inside the safety of an SOS community. At the same time, Community
members were subtly sold the idea that the Catholic traditions of Marian
Apparitions supported the goals and lifestyle of the completely non-
denominational Sword of the Spirit Covenant Community. In simpler terms, they
were lead away from the Church using the Church¶s rich traditions of Marian
appearences.

Reguarding his own role as Senior Head Coordinator, Fr Scanlan boasts to the
Community, saying:
³I don¶t care -or I only care briefly- about what someone thinks of me or says of me. I don¶t care if the
NCR (National Catholic Reporter) says next week that there is this, µnut in Steubenville who is mobilizing
an underground,¶ you know.´

The Catholic priest may have believed himself right up to the time that he was
contacted by the Pittsburgh Sunday Press reporter on Wednesday, May 1 1991.
Asked to comment on the report that Bishop Ottenweller¶s was investigating the
SOS community that Fr Scanlan had lead over the past 13 years, the Third Order
Regular Franciscan would suddenly resign rather than respond. He abandoned the
community on May 3, 1991. The story ran on Sunday, May 5 1991 and can be
found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19192733/RodgersMelnick-1-Bishop-
Investigates-Sword-of-the-Spirit-in-Steubenville. When put to the final test, Fr
Scanlan seemed to care a great deal about what other people would think of him.

As the tape breaks in, Fr Scanlan is actually quoting from a version of the SOS
Policy Notebook, found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19142540/Sword-of-the-
Spirit-Policy-Notebook-0001 (The section to which he is referring is on the second
page of the document, but goes on to the fifth page and reading all of it provides
better context than this article or the audio recording.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

O   c
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-from the audio cassette by Fr Michael Scanlan, TOR

³« to these Days of Darkness, when we encounter serious opposition from within

Christianity. And that that time will come quite soon, and that we have to do
things in obedience to the Lord even when we know others won¶t like them and
may persecute us for them.´ Now, that¶s a general word, but as Roman Catholics
we¶ve heard for 158 years words coming from Mary the Mother of God, through
apparitions that say much the same thing.

1830 at Rue du Bac1 in Paris, Mary¶s words there were, ³that the times are very
evil and that sorrows will befall the whole«, the whole world will be plunged into
every kind of misery,´ and indeed at that time the devotion to the Miraculous
Medal was established, and within one week major persecution and armed conflict
broke out in Paris.

We have Lasalet in 1846 where Mary said, ³if my people will not obey I shall be
compelled to loose my Son¶s arms.´

In Lourdes in 1858 the call was for penitence, penitence, penitence!

In Fatima in 1917, it was that, ³This war will end but if people didn¶t convert and
do penance a worse and more serious war would follow,´ and that this would be
marked by a night of lights, and that Russia would spread her errors though out the

1
http://www.cathetel.com/paris.htm
world, and that the Pope and Bishops would be persecuted and that there would be
general persecution of the faith, and at that point Russia was a third rate power,
wasn¶t even considered important. It has dropped out of the First World War and
was undergoing a tremendous disunity and revolution.

And then in 1937, Sr. Lucy who had been one of the children there, she saw that
night of lights, and said ³This is it!´ and within a week Germany invaded Austria
and the Second World War began.

Most of us believe in the kind of revelations of what has been going on in

Medjugorje, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me%C4%91ugorje] even though they¶re
not confirmed by the Roman Catholic Church, but in Medjugorje we have
experienced the same message saying there is an imminent calamity unless our
people convert, do penance and seek first the Prince of Peace, ³he who gives true
peace to the world.´

We know a lot more about what¶s been going on there, but it has been an ongoing
warning for almost seven years, of the difficult times ahead.*2

Now what has God called us to do about this? And this will be my last point.

³We believe that, very specifically for this time, that the Charter and the
Constitutions and the Mission of the Sword of the Spirit are the kind of response
that is needed.3

In the Charter of the [SOS] we read ³Our purpose is to strengthen Christian life of
its¶ members and to be an instrument for the Lord to establish his reign in the
world.´ We also read in the Charter that the [SOS] is a Missionary body
committed to spreading the Gospel and strengthening God¶s people throughout the
world. The members of the [SOS] desire not only to make their lives and

2
Fr Scanlan is telling the truth. In fact, Servants of Christ the King had a direct connection to Medjugorje via Sr
Isabel Bettwy, a nun and SOS community member who ran a tour service for Franciscan University of Steubenville
and had been to Medjugorje many times. She reported at a SOCK Community Gathering in 1990 where the author
was present that three ͞days of darkness͟ were about to fall on the world. The Marian seer from Medjugorje who
predicted this was going to contact Sr Isabel in advance of the event so community members would have time to
prepare. This event never materialized.
3
Note that any approved Marian apparition always involves a call to holiness, repentance, faithfulness to the
Catholic Church and prayer for sinners and/or the world. These apparitions however do not lead SOS Catholics to
the Church but to the Constitution, Charter and Mission of the Sword of the Spirit. Thus, even if they are valid,
they are misused to reinforce allegiance to a sect outside the Catholic Church (the SOS).
resources available to the mission God has entrusted to them, but to effectively
unite those resources in common mission.´ And this is what makes us very
distinctive -other Covenant Communities do the same kind of thing- the fact that
we put our lives our resources together for God¶s purpose. That we mobilize
because we are united in effort we¶re united in gifts we¶re united in vision we¶re
united in love we¶re united in mutual support and we can thereby put ourselves
before the Lord to be used by Him as a united, combined« section« community
of his Body. Therefore the goals that we have are to be international and
ecumenical body of Christian communities capable of living out daily, Christian
life fervently and carrying out effectively the Christian mission in a time of
difficulty.

A second major goal is to evangelize non-Christians and weakly committed

Christians and to build Christians up in solid, in a solid and missionary Christian
life.4

A third goal is to strengthen the Christian people by being a bulwark, stemming the
tide of evil in the Churches5, where we can have an effect, and speaking the Word
of the Lord« the word the Lord gives us for them.

And fourthly and finally, to work to stem the tide of evil in the world where we can
have an effect. Now I can summarize all that -I know you didn¶t get it all. Our
purpose is first to be the Body of Christ, to live in mutual support as strong a
Christian, committed life as possible« and to grow in Holiness! Then our purpose
-in second, third and fourth- is to evangelize« to strengthen« to evangelize non-
Christians and weakly or nominal Christians; to strengthen the Christian people as
we can with freely giving what God has given to us and to work to stem the tide of
evil in the world. So the first one is being, and then the next three are reaching out,
or our outreaches.6

4
On the audio recording you will hear an ͚alms͛ collection being taken up by the community for missionary work at
the end of the talk. These alms were in addition to an annual, 1% tithe to the SOS, which was in further addition to
the regular 10% tithe expected from each member/member family to support the local community (Servants of
Christ the King.)
5
Stemming the tide of evil in the ͞Churches͟ is not a typo or a misspoken error. The SOS Policy Notebook clearly
defines most Christian Churches (including the Catholic Church) as being ͞foggy,͟ dead or dying. The first five
pages of this document describe the arrogant, condescending view the SOS had (has?) of the mainline Churches.
6
The ͞outreaches͟ are defined in ͞The Schematic͟, a document produced by the SOS community in Steubenville
and distributed to members to illustrate the scope of influence the community wielded. Follow this link to see all
In order to do these things we need to plan, we need to use our resources, we need
to work out the gifts and the abilities and the right place for every member of the
body, put¶em in the right place fit¶tem together, mobilize as best we can our gifts
and strengths because there is a tremendous tremendous tremendous call that
we¶ve heard from God, ‘
 
 ‘‘   ‘  

I don¶t care -or I only care briefly- about what someone thinks of me or says of me.
I don¶t care if the NCR (National Catholic Reporter) says next week that there is
this, ³nut in Steubenville who is mobilizing an underground,´ you know. I care
about the Lord, and weather we are going to be faithful to his word. I care about
whether we are going to love one another, be bound to one another, have each of
us take the position God has put us in, work at it, and not say, ³oh I am just a
mother,´ or I just, just lead a little share group, or I don¶t do much I¶m just a
moderator of a household [of students at Franciscan University], or ya know I¶m
on a kind of griegous (sp?) thing, or I just really worry about sound [sound
ministry: microphones, speakers, etc] but that each one of us hears God¶s Word
and says I¶M IN THE BATTLE FOR THE SALVATION OF MANKIND! I¶M
IN THE BATTLE TO FURTHER GOD¶S KINGDOM! TO BUILD HIS
KINGDOM HERE ON EARTH! I¶M IN THE BATTLE TO WITNESS TO
JESUS CHRIST AND THE BODY OF CHRIST! I HAVE A CALL, A
MISSION, A VOCATION, THAT I¶M GONNA PUT MY WHOLE LIFE INTO
AND I¶M GOING TO PUT IT TOGETHER WITH THE PEOPLE GOD HAS
GIVEN ME so indeed I may be able to rejoice in glory forever for the multitudes
that have been saved and brought into the vision of God, because -with awe and
fear of God- I was faithful to the word he gave me. I am a missionary.

Tape breaks in on another Coordinator: ³We¶re going to respond to that word and
sing the Lord is my Light, which is a proclamation of our commitment to salvation,
a proclamation of our Fear of the Lord«´

Fr Michael Scanlan: (tape breaks in as he is speaking, leading people in communal

prayer)« moment, would you say after me ±if you believe it- Lord Jesus I again

the various ͞outreaches͟ of the SOS community in Steubenville: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19200110/The-

Schematic-0001. Steubenville members were told that i

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i  ii


i  i




7
A spiritually coercive method of getting people to buy into the Sword of the Spirit Mission: making them afraid of
displeasing God.
choose you« (People: m
‘‘ ´) I choose the mission you
have for me«  ‘ ) I choose to abide in the fear
of the Lord« (‘
  ‘ m
) and to work« (‘


) and to love«(‘
 ) and to support my brothers and sisters« (‘

‘
) «in the mission you have given us together ( 
 ‘ )«

Now just receive that grace, the grace of the Fear of the Lord« just receive it«
God has it for you tonight«he can break ±this night- from the old and fleshy fear
into the new« he can move us on« we just say yes Lord I take it, yes Lord I take
it, I take it. Do it o Lord to your people. Amen.

I guarantee you, you¶ll start looking at some situations differently. Not so much
that you¶re going to have some big spiritual high, but that you will find your mind
looking at and evaluating things differently because of accepting that word and
making that decision.

[Tape continues with collection of alms for student missionary work. The nearly
13 minute audio recording is available online here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?drm56r9c405gco0]

John Flaherty

April 4, 2011

Grand Island, NE