Mel Gibson Church – Mel Gibson built his own church near Malibu – the Holy Family Traditional Catholic Church in Agoura Hills, California which follows 16th century Catholicism.
Mel Gibson’s church sits on 11 acres off scenic Mulholland Drive and the entrance into the Holy Family Traditional Catholic Church is controlled by a guarded gate.
Controlled by the AP Reilly Foundation, a foundation created by Gibson upon the death of his mother, Ann Reilly-Gibson, in 1997.
Gibson’s secretive sect is not recognised by the Roman Catholic Church because it does not acknowledge the authority of the Pope or the Vatican and rejects the universally accepted teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
The Holy Family Traditional Catholic Church – which offers a daily morning mass in Latin – follows an antiquated ideology of Catholicism dating back to the 16th century.
The church serves roughly 70 families and has assets of $42 million, all donated by Mel Gibson to the AP Reilly foundation run by Mel and his wife Robin.
Female followers of Gibson’s church must abide by a strict dress code, which requires them to wear veils over their hair and long skirts, with pants not allowed for women.
The church was the venue for the wedding of Gibson’s only daughter Hannah, who was walked down the aisle by her father in a private ceremony – reportedly conducted entirely in Latin – in September, 2006.
Gibson reportedly started building the church years ago for his father, Hutton Gibson, an avowed Holocaust denier and racist.
The church is located on 30188 W. Mulholland Highway, between Sierra Creek and Kanan roads in Agoura Hills, Calif., abutting Malibu and Calabasas.
And that’s the latest news on Holy Family Traditional Catholic Church in Agoura Hills, California, aka the Mel Gibson church.
Tags: ancient egypt religion, holy family catholic church, holy family catholic church malibu, holy family traditional catholic church, mel gibson, mel gibson church
October 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I had no idea Mel Gibson was that much of a religious zealot. Thanks. Eugene
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I see several reference to the fact that Gibson started his own church and is not considered part of the Catholic Church . I see not Catholic authority cited. Can you say what makes this church heretical?
April 7th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Sounds wondeful. I wish I could attend. I hear the view is spectacular too.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Mel Gibson has been very vocal about his “traditionalist” views, adhering to the Roman Catholic faith as it was understood before the “modernization” by the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965.
”I go to an all-pre-Vatican II Latin mass,” he told USA Today in 2001. “There was a lot of talk, particularly in the ’60s, of ‘Wow, we’ve got to change with the times.’ But the Creator instituted something very specific, and we can’t just go change it.”
So in 2003 the actor decided to help change things back to the way they were, building a chapel in Malibu, Calif. – The Church of the Holy Family.
Tucked away in the tree-covered mountains of Agoura Hills, 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, the rustic church, unaffiliated with the Roman Catholic archdiocese, has a foot-tall crucifix on the altar and the priest keeps his back to the parishioners as he performs mass every morning entirely in Latin. In church, women must wear head coverings.
There is a more extreme group affiliated with the ultra-conservative stream of Catholicism known as Sedevacantism, meaning, “the seat [of the papacy] is empty.”
They believe there has been no legitimate pope since 1958. Gibson hasn’t said he shares that belief, though his father, Hutton Gibson, is a well known anti-Vatican activist and author of the book “Is the Pope Catholic?”
Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, defended his director to The Catholic World News in 2004. “Mel has a great devotion to Christ, to Mary, to all the saints,” he said, “if some people think that he is not completely in the Church, well then, they only have to pray for him.”
No matter what kind of traditionalist he is, Gibson’s church would teach similar ideas on marriage and divorce as in the mainstream Catholic church, says Roger McCaffrey, founding publisher and former editor of The Latin Mass magazine and the publisher of Roman Catholic Books.
“He’s a man who stoutly believes in the indissolubility of marriage, but now,” says McCaffrey, “this marriage problem is going to test his flexibility to the max.”
After a civil divorce, says McCaffrey, “He’ll still be able to technically be a practicing Catholic, even receive communion.
In other words, he wouldn’t be considered, simply by having a civil divorce or a separation, to be living in grave sin.” But if he ever wants to remarry as a Catholic, Gibson – who wed Robyn in 1981 at a parish church in New South Wales, Australia – would have to petition for an annulment in the same way a non-traditionalist Catholic might.
While Robyn has been active in building Gibson’s Holy Family church and worships there with their family, she has remained an Episcopalian, Gibson told The New Yorker in 2003, explaining that according to traditionalist Catholic teaching, she would be disqualified from salvation.
“There is no salvation for those outside the Church,” he said. “I believe it.” He explained: “Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She’s a much better person than I am. Honestly. She’s, like, Episcopalian, Church of England. She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it’s just not fair if she doesn’t make it, she’s better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it.”
Later, in a 2006 interview, Gibson told Diane Sawyer his belief system did not bar the door the door to heaven to Jews, Muslims, and Protestants. “That’s not the case at all – absolutely not. It is possible for people who are not even Christian to get into the kingdom of heaven.”
September 8th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Mel Gibson can’t keep it in his pants. He has cheated on his wife alot. Now he has got some ugly woman pregnant. He’s not even divorsed yet. isn’t that a sin in your church. You have to get rid of him.
October 19th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Sigue trabajando, great job!
November 15th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Mel Gibson…. typical ‘religous’ hypocrite. And the only money he gives to charity happens to be to his own church… that he operates. Yeah, nice deal. What a guy.