Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục

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Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (born October 6, 1897 in Phu-Cam; † December 13, 1984 in Carthage , Missouri , USA ) was the first Catholic archbishop of the newly created Archdiocese of Huế in Vietnam and one of the best-known representatives of Sedi vacantism .

His name combines western naming tradition ( Pierre Martin as a first name before the family name Ngô ) with the Vietnamese ( Đình Thục as a personal name after the family name). His younger brother was Ngô Đình Diệm , President of South Vietnam (born January 3, 1901, † November 2, 1963).

Life

Training and activity in Vietnam

At the age of 12, Thuc entered An Ninh's preparatory seminar , where he spent eight years. He then studied philosophy and theology at the Huế seminary and was ordained a priest on December 20, 1925 . After a short teaching stay in Paris, Thuc studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome until 1927 , where he obtained doctorates in philosophy , theology and canon law .

On January 8, 1938 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Vinh Long and titular bishop of Saesina appointed on 4 May by the apostolic delegate for Indochina, Antonio drape OP , as principal consecrator the bishop consecrated. Co-consecrators were the Vicar Apostolic of Saigon , Isidore Marie Joseph Dumortier , and the Vicar Apostolic of Bui Chu , Domingo Ho Ngoc Cân .

On March 15, 1938, Pope Pius XI. "Extraordinary power of attorney" with the following document:

"Plenitudine postestatis Sanctæ Sedis Apostolicæ deputamus in Nostrum Legatum Petrum Martinum Ngô-Dinh-Thuc Episcopum titularem Sæsinensem ad fines Nobis notos, cum omnibus necessariis facultatibus."

"In the full power of the Holy Apostolic See we grant our legate Petrus Martinus Ngô-Dinh-Thuc Titular Bishop of Sæsina all the necessary powers for the purposes known to us."

This enabled Thuc in particular to appoint and consecrate bishops if necessary without prior consultation with the Holy See. This extraordinary power of attorney was granted by the successors of Pius XI. never revoked.

Pope John XXIII on November 24, 1960 raised the previous Apostolic Vicariate Huế to an archbishopric and appointed Thuc first archbishop . During the third session of the Second Vatican Council , on September 30, 1964 , Philippe Nguyễn Kim Diên , Bishop of Cần Thơ , consecrated by him in 1961, was appointed titular Archbishop of Parium and joined him as coadjutor .

The way to sedevacantism

Since he did not agree with the changes of the Second Vatican Council , Thuc renounced the office of Archbishop of Huế on February 17, 1968. Due to the Vietnam War , a return to his homeland was impossible. Pope Paul VI appointed Archbishop Thuc titular Archbishop of Bulla Regia on the day of his resignation .

Archbishop Thuc lived in simple circumstances during the following years, first in Italy, then France. There he came into contact with the Palmarian Catholic Church around Clemente Domínguez y Gómez through the mediation of the priest Maurice Revaz . Until his decision to join the group around Domínguez y Gómez, Revaz was professor of canon law in the seminary of the Society of St. Pius X of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Ecône . He had to give up this activity because of his support for the Palmarians.

Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục consecrated the laity Clemente Domínguez y Gómez and four of his followers (including two older diocesan priests , a Benedictine and a layman) as bishops without papal mandate on January 11, 1976 , whereby Thuc incurred excommunication as a criminal offense. At the latest after the group around Domínguez y Gómez proclaimed him "Pope" in 1978, Archbishop Thuc broke off all contact with her and publicly stated that the "visions" of Clemente Domínguez y Gómez were false apparitions. In the short term, there seemed to be rapprochement with the Holy See, because in 1977 Pope Paul VI. the excommunication of Thuc lifted and him discharged from ecclesiastical punishments. But this attempt at reconciliation ultimately failed because of the obviously irreconcilable differences.

Thuc moved to Toulon , where he worked as a confessor in the cathedral . He later carried out further unauthorized episcopal ordinations there:

  • Jean Laborie (1919–1996), Bishop of the "Eglise catholique latine", on February 8, 1977 (Reconecration sub conditione )
  • Jean-Marie Roger Kozik on October 19, 1978 (Reconsecration sub conditione )
  • Michel Guérard des Lauriers OP on May 7, 1981
  • Moisés Carmona and Adolfo Zamora on October 17, 1981
  • Luigi Boni and Jean-Gérard Roux on April 18, 1982
  • Christian Marie Datessen on September 25, 1982 (Reconsecration sub conditione )

A few more consecrations of bishops are alleged, but it is very likely that they did not take place. On the day of the consecration of Datessen, Ngô published a statement in Munich, where German sedis vacantists around Reinhard Lauth were taking care of him , in which he claimed the sedis vacancy of the Holy See and described John Paul II as an illegitimate Pope.

At the invitation of the Sedisvakantist bishop Louis Vezelis , Thuc traveled to the United States at the end of 1982 , where he died on December 13, 1984 under unexplained circumstances. In a press release on his death, the Holy See stated that Archbishop Thuc had renounced his sedevacantist position at the end of his life.

On the validity of episcopal ordinations

At the express instruction of Pope Paul VI. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Prefect Franjo Cardinal Šeper published a decree on September 17, 1976 concerning some unlawful ordinations of priests and bishops . This decree established the corresponding sanctions under CIC 1917, including excommunication reserved for the Apostolic See. The document also states that the Catholic Church does not recognize the validity of the ordinations and that the persons involved are regarded as belonging to the class to which they belonged before the event.

Thuc latae sententiae was excommunicated by the Holy See , which presupposes the culpable commission of the act that leads to the excommunication. In addition, on the other hand, in statements, the episcopal ordinations were described not only as prohibited, but also as possibly invalid, since Archbishop Thuc, as consecrator, was non compos mentis ( i.e., not in possession of his spiritual powers) and therefore could not validly dispose of the sacrament due to a lack of responsibility .

literature

  • Oskar Schmitt: A worthy administrator in the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ: Bishop Pierre Martin Ngo-dinh-Thuc , Norderstedt 2006, Books on Demand, ISBN 3-8334-5385-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Pitsch: The ecclesiological heresies of Marcel Lefebvre. Verax-Verlag, Müstair, 2008, ISBN 978-3-909065-29-5 , pp. 252f.
  2. ↑ Declaratio Petri Martini Ngô Đình Thục. (pdf, 611 kB) In: Insight 28 (1998). April 1998, pp. 1-9 , archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; Retrieved on August 16, 2019 (facsimile of this declaration with translation).
  3. ^ Franjo Šeper, Jérôme Hamer (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith): Decree regarding some unlawful ordinations of priests and bishops. In: vatikan.va. September 17, 1976, accessed August 27, 2014 (first published in AAS 68 (1976), p. 623).
  4. ^ Anthony Cekada: The Validity of the Thuc Consecrations. In: traditionalmass.org. 1992, accessed on August 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Ngô Đình Thục, Pierre Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Vietnamese clergyman, titular archbishop of Bulla Regia and archbishop of Hue
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Phu Cam , Vietnam
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1984
Place of death Carthage, Missouri , USA