Some readers might recall my previous columns on one Father Ryan St. Anne (who has had a few aliases over the years).

Even the Chicago Tribune featured Ryan in a front page story on Feb. 6, 2005.

Interestingly, Hutton Gibson, the controversial father of actor-director Mel Gibson, had the following item regarding Ryan in the summer 2005 issue of his (Hutton Gibson�s) Catholic newsletter, �The War Is Now!� (not available online):

Ryan Patrick Scott, a.k.a. Ryan St. Anne Scott, a.k.a. Randell Dean Stocks, a.k.a. (Make it up!)

The aforesaid Benedictine (?) abbot (?) wanders about the country (Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas) founding and funding abbeys without end, and moving on to greener pastures whenever local support dries up.  He recommends himself highly in place after place by announcing that his evidently successful cancer treatments were paid for by the Gibsons, to wit, Hutton and his better known son, Mel.  On the sole occasion upon which I [Hutton] encountered this fraud, he made no such claim.  He was, he said, an episcopal abbot, having fairly recently been consecrated bishop.  He thought that I should give him the 1842 altar missal from my mother�s parish church in Moruya, N.S.W. because it is a Benedictine Missal.  He wanted one of my grandsons to join his Order.  He scored nothing that day, but soon moved on from his current abbey with $25,000 from the traditional Catholics who had taken him in, and introduced him to me.  (Who was taken in?)

Also, the daughter of a follower of Ryan has a website devoted to exposing him: www.holyrosaryabbey.org.

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Matt C. Abbott is a Catholic journalist and commentator. He is a columnist for and/or contributor to MichNews.com, TheConservativeVoice.com, RenewAmerica.us, Catholic.org, Opeds.com and Speroforum.com. He is also an occasional contributor to "The Wanderer" Catholic newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected].