The Institute of the Mother of Good Counsel was formed in December 1985, when four Italian priests left the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). These priests were Father Francesco Ricossa, Father Franco Munari, Father Curzio Nitoglia, and Father Giuseppe Murro. These priests were dissatisfied with the position the SSPX, which acknowledged John Paul II as a true pope but disobeyed him.
In May 1987, the founders of institute wrote a retraction of doctrines they professed in the past when they still belonged to the SSPX.[4]
Bishops
In 1987, Des Lauriers consecrated to the episcopacy Father Giorgio Munari, an Italian priest and member of the IMBC.[5] However, on 26 October 1990, Munari resigned from the episcopacy and priesthood.[6]
From 1990 to 2002, the IMBC was assisted by Bishop Robert McKenna, an American sedeprivationist bishop, who had also been consecrated by Des Lauriers in 1987.[7]
On 16 January 2002, McKenna consecrated to the episcopacy Father Geert Stuyver [it; pt; fr],[8] a Belgian priest and member of the IMBC, who administers to the needs of the institute at present.
The Institute is also connected to three study centers (the Giuseppe Federici Study Center,[10] the Paolo de Töth Study Center[11] and the Davide Albertario Study Center[12]), whose purpose is the study and defense of Catholic doctrine; to these is added the San Simonino Committee, which aims to restore the public cult of Simon of Trent, suppressed in 1965 by Archbishop Alessandro Maria Gottardi.[13][self-published source]
The IMBC also uses the name Sodalitium Pianum as an alternative name; this was the name of an unofficial group of theologians and others set up in the early twentieth century by priest and church historian Umberto Benigni to report to him those thought to be teaching Modernist doctrines.[14]
