Palmarian Catholic Church

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, image = File:Catedral El Palmar.jpg
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, alt = Cathedral of El Palmar de Troya
, caption = Cathedral of El Palmar de Troya, seat of the Palmarian pope
, abbreviation = PCC
, type =
, main_classification = Independent Catholic
, orientation = Traditionalist Catholic
, scripture =
, theology =
, polity = Episcopal
, governance = See of El Palmar de Troya
, structure =
, leader_title = Pope
, leader_name = Peter III
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, associations =
, area = Andalusia, Spain
, language = Spanish
, liturgy =
, headquarters = Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar,
El Palmar de Troya
Andalusia, Spain
, origin_link =
, founder = Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (as Pope Gregory XVII)
Jesus, according to Palmarian tradition
, founded_date = August 6, 1978
, founded_place = Andalusia, Spain
, separated_from = Roman Catholic Church (1978)
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, congregations = 1
, members = 1,000 to 1,500 (claimed, 2011)
, ministers_type = Clergy
, ministers = Bishops: 30
Nuns: 30 (2015)
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, other_names = One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Palmarian Church
Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face
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, website
palmarianchurch.org

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The Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face ( es, Iglesia Cristiana Palmariana de los Carmelitas de la Santa Faz), also called the Palmarian Christian Church ( es, Iglesia Cristiana Palmariana), the Palmarian Church, or the Palmarian Catholic Church, is an independent Catholic church with an episcopal see in El Palmar de Troya, Spain, founded in 1978 by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (known as Pope Gregory XVII). The church does not recognize any popes after Paul VI as Catholic, and holds that the Palmarian Christian Church has continued the papacy.

The church regards Pope Paul VI, whom they revere as a martyr, and his predecessors as true popes, but hold, on the grounds of claimed apparitions, that the Pope of Rome is excommunicated and that the position of the Holy See has, since 1978, been transferred to their See of El Palmar de Troya.

The current pope is Joseph Odermatt, known as Pope Peter III.

Scholars, journalists and former followers almost universally describe the organization as a cult. Members are expected not to watch any films or television, vote or read newspapers. They also engage in heavy shunning of former members and are not allowed to talk to people unrelated to the Palmarian Christian Church.

History

Origins

Four Spanish schoolgirls (only known as Ana, Josefa, Rafaela, and ) stated they saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary by a little tree on a piece of farmland called La Alcaparrosa near Palmar de Troya. The apparition became known as Our Lady of Palmar. Many people came to witness the supposed apparitions, and a number of miracles similar to those alleged to have happened at Fátima, Garabandal and Međugorje were said to have occurred. The seers had many supporters, including priests. Several other people reported visions at the site, including Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, an office clerk from Seville. He gradually became the "principal seer" in 1968.

The original seers' visions were dismissed by the local bishop. They returned to their normal lives and have allegedly said they wished only to forget the past and to have no connection with the Palmarian Church. Domínguez claimed that the Virgin Mary had given him instructions to rid the Catholic Church of "heresy and progressivism", and of communism.

In 1975, Domínguez formed a new religious order, the Order of Carmelites of the Holy Face, which claimed to be "faithful to the holy Pope Paul VI". It claimed that Paul VI was detained in the Vatican by evil conspiring cardinals. The order was initially run by laymen, but supported sacramentally by priests from Spain, Portugal, and the United States.

Consecration of bishops

To be guaranteed access to the sacraments, Domínguez's group needed its own bishops. Domínguez wrote a letter to Marcel Lefebvre and asked him to consecrate him, but Lefebvre declined the offer and told them to contact a traditionally-minded Vietnamese bishop instead. In 1976, Swiss priest Maurice Revaz (who had taught canon law at the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) seminary in Ecône) persuaded the elderly Vietnamese Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục of the authenticity of the apparitions. Thục was chosen because he was a papal legate. Accepting the mystical message of the seer-mystics, the archbishop believed that he was called by the Virgin Mary to raise two of the order's members, Clemente Domínguez and a lawyer named Manuel Corral, and three of the priests associated with the group to the rank of bishop. Thục also ordained some laymen to the priesthood. Clemente Dominguez had a vision while Archbishop Thục was present.

Gregory XVII: Claim to the papacy

Following the death of Paul VI in 1978, Domínguez claimed that he had been mystically crowned pope by Jesus Christ in a vision. This reported vision took place in Santa Fe de Bogotá in Colombia, on the 6th of August 1978. He took the papal name Gregory XVII, and appointed his own cardinals. By these actions, the Carmelites of the Holy Face evolved into the Palmarian Christian Church. Some Catholics previously associated with the Carmelites left the group as a result.

In his capacity as pope, Domínguez (Pope Gregory XVII) called the Catholic Church a false church and declared Pope John Paul II excommunicated. Gregory XVII canonized the explorer Christopher Columbus, General Francisco Franco and founder of Opus Dei Josemaría Escrivá; and declared Paul VI a martyr and saint in the Palmarian Christian faith. He survived a car accident, in which he lost his sight in both eyes, and remained pope.

Peter II

Peter II died on July 15, 2011, after a long illness.

Gregory XVIII

Peter II was succeeded in 2011 by his Secretary of State, Ginés Jesús Hernández, who took the name Gregory XVIII. He abdicated the papacy on April 22, 2016. Earlier known as a hardliner, making several rules much stricter, towards the end of his papacy, he abolished some of them. For example, he allowed Palmarians to smoke, to go to the cinema (although immoral and pornographic films were still banned) and to talk to non-Palmarian people (as long as they had never been part of the Church). Hernández abdicated from his papacy on 22 April 2016 to marry Nieves Trivedi (a Palmarian nun), and was succeeded on 23 April 2016 by Odermatt who took Peter III as his papal name. Following his abdication, Hernández told ''El País'' that the Palmarian Christian Church "was all a hoax from the beginning" to profit from believers and supporters of the alleged apparitions of Our Lady of Palmar, and in 2020 expressed regret over not dissolving the church when he was pope. His successor, Pope Peter III, published an encyclical letter in response, in which he accused Hernández of discrediting his former Church in his interview and of stealing two million euros from the Palmarian Catholic Church, alongside several goods (including a BMW X6): he subsequently declared him an apostate, excommunicated him and declared all of his acts to be null and void. Hernández denies the charges of stealing. He and his wife subsequently reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church.

Peter III

After the abdication of Gregory XVIII, a new pope was elected in the Palmarian Church on April 23, 2016. As expected it was Swiss Joseph Odermatt, who was previously Gregory XVIII's Secretary of State. Odermatt adopted the papal name Peter III.

Odermatt disbanded the papal guard corps instituted by his predecessor, deeming it unnecessary for his security. In 2018 he travelled to the United States for the first time.

During his office, the Palmarian Christian Church established an online presence for the first time, opening a website and accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and a channel on YouTube.

Present

In a sermon delivered in August 2011, Gregory XVIII said that the Palmarian Church had between 1,000 and 1,500 members, but in the following years many were excommunicated. In 2015 the number of bishops was probably down to about 30 and the number of nuns were around 30. According to Magnus Lundberg, "except for at the very beginning, most new members were children of Palmarian couples and not people coming from outside". , 32 bishops remained out of 192 men who were consecrated as bishops between 1976 and 2015, according to Lundberg.

During the papacy of Pope Peter III, the church established an online presence for the first time, opening a website and accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest and a channel on YouTube.

In January 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, it was reported that there were 70 positives, including 4 deaths, within the church premises. The rate of COVID-19 cases in El Palmar was 3,713 cases/100,000 inhabitants, triggering confinement measures for the town in spite of the reduced contact between the church members and the rest of the town. In September 2021, the Palmarian Catholic Church introduced new rules that made the wearing of anti-Covid masks compulsory to attend Mass.

Traditions

Bible

As explained by professor Magnus Lundberg (Uppsala University), in 1997 Clemente Domínguez claimed that Prophet Elijah had appeared to him, claiming that the current Bible is "filled with errors that had been introduced by judeo-masonic groups through the centuries" and that it was his mission to revise it. Therefore, after 4 years of work, the Holy Palmarian Bible was published in five volumes in 2001, followed by a smaller two-volumes versions and an illustrated version for children. According to Lundberg, the changes were "dramatic": entire parts of the bibilical books were omitted and numerous parts are "almost unrecognizable due to the allegorical and apocalyptical interpretations, which Gregory .e. Clemente Domínguezclaimed reflected the original intentions of the divine author. All of this makes the work very different from the traditional Bibles, both in structure and content" states Lundberg.

The Bible now used by the Palmarian Christian Church is not available in public libraries and is not available online. However, in 2018 Professor Lundberg scanned one of the English versions and later published it on his blog.

Saints

Saints canonized by the Palmarian Catholic Church include Christopher Columbus, Galileo Galilei, Francisco Franco, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, José Calvo Sotelo, Josemaría Escrivá, Luis Carrero Blanco, Pelagius of Asturias, and 300,000 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.

An internet hoax claiming that the Palmarians had canonised Adolf Hitler originated on a fabricated Palmarian blogging site and was disseminated through Wikipedia and other media; the Palmarian Catholic Church has denied the claim. According to the religious studies scholar Magnus Lundberg, the leadership of the Palmarian Catholic Church treat the continued spread of the hoax as evidence that the media and the internet have been coopted by enemies of the church.

Palmarian popes

Palmarian Christians generally accept the conventional succession of Catholic popes up to Paul VI () but reject the conventional succession after him. As of 2020, none of Gregory XVII's successors have been elected by a Palmarian conclave, but were appointed as successors by the previous pope.

Headquarters

The church's walled compound, near the village of El Palmar de Troya, surrounds the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar which contains the Palmarian popes' ''cathedra'' and at least 15 altars.

Controversy

Sergio María Hernández left his position as Pope Gregory XVIII in 2016 to marry a woman (who was a Palmarian nun) and told ''El País'' that the Palmarian Catholic Church "was all a hoax from the beginning" to profit from believers and supporters of the alleged apparitions of Our Lady of Palmar. In response, the new Pope Peter III published an encyclical letter, in which he accused Hernández of discrediting his former church in that interview, and of stealing two million euros from the Palmarian Catholic Church, along with goods including a BMW X6; Peter III subsequently declared Hernández an apostate, excommunicated him and declared all of his acts to be null and void. Hernández denies the charges of stealing. He and his wife later both reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2020 Hernández was interviewed by ''El Confidencial'': during the interview he accused the Palmarian Christian Church of possessing large quantities of cash and even weapons in some hidden places of the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar; he also regretted not disbanding the church while he was in charge, but predicted that it would soon collapse on its own.

Bibliography

* Magnus Lundberg, ''A Pope of their Own'', Uppsala Unversity, 2017.

See also

* Apostles of Infinite Love
* Conclavism
* Sedevacantism

References

* The original version of this article was adapted from

Further reading

* Marcus Lundberg;
A Pope of their Own: El Palmar de Troya and the Palmarian Church
'.

Palmar de Troya-Holy Catholic Palmarian Church (report by Magnus Lundberg, Uppsala University)

External links

Official Website of the Palmarian Church

{{Authority control

Christian denominations established in the 20th century
Christian organizations established in 1978
Churches in Spain
Independent Catholic denominations
Province of Seville
Traditionalist Catholicism
Conclavism