Palmarian Christian Church

The cathedral of Palmar de Troya

The Palmarian Catholic Church (One Holy Catholic Apostolic and Palmarian Church) is a schismatic Catholic church with its own pope, Peter II. It is often considered to be part of the conclavist movement.

Origins

The origins of the Palmarian movement lay in the apparitions of the Virgin Mary that were reported at Palmar de Troya from March 1968. Four Spanish schoolgirls stated they saw her by a little tree on a piece of farmland called La Alcaparrosa. Many people came to witness the supposed apparitions, and a number of miracles similar to those at Fatima, Garabandal and Medjugorje 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 insurance broker from Seville. He gradually became the "principal seer". The original seers were forgotten, their visions dismissed by the local bishop. He claimed that the Virgin Mary had given him instructions to rid the Roman 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 (or Carmelite Order of the Holy Face), which claimed to be "faithful to the holy Pope Paul VI". The order did not have official Church approval, and it claimed that Paul VI (who is still honoured by Palmarians as a martyr-pope) 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.

The consecration of bishops

In order to be guaranteed access to the sacraments, Domínguez's group needed to have its own bishops. In 1976, the (now laicised) Swiss priest Maurice Revaz persuaded the elderly Vietnamese Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc of the authenticity of the apparitions. 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 (Domínguez and a lawyer named Manuel Alonso Corral) and three of the priests associated with the group to the rank of bishop. He did this without obtaining the mandatory authorisation from the Holy See. The Archbishop also ordained some laymen to the priesthood. Thuc and the five men he consecrated as bishops were subsequently excommunicated by Paul VI. Thuc subsequently cut his ties with the group and was reconciled with the Church authorities.

Claim to the papacy

Following the death of Paul VI in 1978, Domínguez set up his own holy see in Seville, claiming that he had been mystically crowned pope by Jesus Christ in a vision. 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 Catholic Church. Some of Catholics previously associated with the Carmelites left the group as a result.

Uniquely, the popes of the Palmarian Church do not claim to be the titular Bishop of Rome. Rather, they claim that Christ transferred the position of Patriarch of the West and Supreme Pontiff to the new episcopal see of Palmar de Troya. This is a departure from traditional Roman Catholic doctrine, which identifies the papacy with the Bishop of Rome. Catholic teaching also holds that personal revelations are not binding on the Church as a whole.

As Gregory XVII, Domínguez called the Roman Catholic Church a false church and declared Pope John Paul II excommunicated. He also canonized Francisco Franco, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer and Christopher Columbus and declared Paul VI a martyr saint.

The group today

The Palmarian Church claims to have 60 clergymen (all of whom are bishops), 70 nuns and 2,000 followers. It has chapels in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America.

Since 1983 the Palmarian Church has drastically reformed its rites and its liturgy, which previously had been styled in the Tridentine form. The Palmarian liturgy was reduced to almost solely the Eucharistic words of consecration. The See of Palmar de Troya has also declared the real presence of the Virgin Mary in the sacred host and the bodily assumption into heaven of St. Joseph to be dogmas of the Catholic faith. By 2004, they had their own version of the Bible, revised by Domínguez on claimed prophetic authority. This development led to the secession of a dissident group of Palmarian bishops based in Archidona, Spain.

Criticism

Controversial practices which are not part of traditional Catholic devotion have been reported in the Palmarian Church since its foundation. In the early 1990s, several priests were treated in local hospitals after apparently undergoing amateur body piercing. Domínguez admitted to having sex with nuns, and had previously been active in Seville's homosexual community.

It has been claimed that Domínguez used self harm to give himself the appearance of the stigmata.[1]

Between 1978 and 1983, many adherents left the Palmarian Church, including the Palmarian Bishop Maurice Revaz. He was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1983. A similar case was Alfred Seiwert-Fleige, who was ordained a priest by Archbishop Thuc and consecrated a bishop around 1980. He left the Palmarian Church in 1981 and was finally reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church in 2001.

"Peter II"

Domínguez died in March 2005 whilst administering the Palmarian Easter Liturgy, supposedly while experiencing a vision. His church later declared him to be Pope Saint Gregory XVII, the Very Great. Manuel Alonso Corral succeeded him as Pope Peter II.

Despite the name 'Peter II', Corral does not claim to be 'Petrus Romanus', the last Pope, according to the controversial Prophecy of the Popes attributed to St. Malachy: he does not claim to be the Bishop (titular or otherwise) of Rome, and has no personal ties to that see.

Popes of the Palmarian Catholic Church

• Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (Pope St. Gregory XVII, the Very Great) - Reigned August 1978 to March 2005
• Manuel Corral (Peter II) - Reigning Palmarian leader, reign began April 2005

(until the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978, Palmarian Catholics generally accept the conventional succession of Roman Pontiffs as valid)

Notes

The original version of this article was adapted from "A million gather for Pope's 'last words' to Spain" by Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid.

Also of note, in The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, a professor at Jordan College is the Palmarian Professor.

External links

• Site of dissident Palmarian bishops operating in Archidona, Málaga, Spain.
• Information in English. Site by former Palmarians who left the community. Testimonies
• Obituary: Clemente Domnguez Gomez. In The London Independent, March 23, 2005, by Elizabeth Nash. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
• Rules governing the followers of the Palmarian church