They were apparently followers of a Catholic sect based in Quebec called the Army of Mary which was founded by a woman called Mother Paul-Marie. It’s an odd move by the church because the Army makes devotion to the Pope one of the three main “holy works” members are to participate in. From the Star-Tribune:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be possessed by the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday.

The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary.

The Vatican has declared all members of the Army of Mary excommunicated. Hebert said the excommunication was the first in the diocese’s 165-year history.

[…]

At a news conference, Hebert said the nuns “became entranced and deluded with a doctrine that is heretical.” He said church officials removed the Eucharist — which Catholics revere as the body of Christ — from the monastery on Tuesday night.

Hebert said the sect’s members believe that its 86-year-old founder, Marie Paule Giguere, is the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary and that God speaks directly through her.

Excommunication bars the nuns from participating in the church liturgy and receiving communion or other sacraments.

The diocese said the action was taken after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a declaration dated July 11 that the Army of Mary’s teachings were heretical and automatically excommunicated any who embraced the doctrine.

Hebert said the diocese had known for years that the nuns were following the sect and said church officials in the past had encouraged them to come back into the fold.

Excommunication is an extreme step, especially given the fact that church authorities nominally tolerated A.O.M. membership for years. Though not a Catholic myself, I find little heretical on their website. In this climate of religious extremism however, the Army does make a statement that is Al-Qaeda like in tone, if not message. From the A.O.M. website:

The Church is ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC and APOSTOLIC. “The jaws of death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). But all the assaults to destroy it! At the closing of the second millennium we are in the combat of an end. And that combat, foretold in the Apocalypse, has been initiated, “in this time which is our time”, by the Dragon, “enraged with the Woman. He went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep God’s commandments and give witness to Jesus.” The infernal legions cover the earth; evil, in all its forms, sows the destruction of souls and bodies.

Mary has raised her army. Over forty years she discreetly made the preparations by forming, through the cross, the instrument whom she had chosen to transmit her orders, for it is Mary who directs her army.

Announced in 1954, the Army of Mary would be founded providentially on August 28, 1971, inviting all souls to enroll in it in order to live, with Mary, the Christian life amid all the demands of the duties of their state, through interior reform and devotion to the Triple White – the Eucharist, Mary and the Pope. Ten years later, May 31, 1981, this Work was to be the base for the founding of the Family and the Community of the Sons and Daughters of Mary, with the aim of renewing the family, the primary cell of society. On August 15, 1986, the work of the Oblate-Patriots was founded, for the renewal of society. Finally, on May 31, 1992, the Marialys Institute was founded, the fifth Work. Its goal is the bringing together of priests faithful to the Pope and the renewal of the youth.

Together these Works form but one single Work, the Community which the Lady of All Peoples has prepared for the renewal of the Church.

It’s apocalyptic theology may have connotations to outsiders, or more importantly insiders, that the new Pope may want to distance Rome from. Especially if it turns out their great renewal of faith becomes more militant. Located in Quebec but with adherents in America, the newly independent A.O.M. are ones to watch.

h/t Knight of Pan