Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (May 23 1946–March 22 2005) was proclaimed Pope Gregory XVII by supporters of the Palmarian Catholic Church Catholic breakway movement in 1978. He was viewed by mainstream Roman Catholicism as an antipope.

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Self-proclaimed Pope Gregory XVII

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, who was born in Seville, Spain, became closely associated with the Palmar de Troya movement, which had its origins in an alleged apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on March 30 1968 in the village of El Palmar de Troya in the Province of Seville. He claimed to have experienced visions of the Virgin Mary from September 30 1969. He claimed that the Virgin in her messages condemned heresy and what was called progressivism, namely the reform of the Catholic Church underway as a result of Vatican II. His followers claimed he possessed the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus after crucifixion, on his hands. However, the Catholic Church cast doubts on the legitimacy of the alleged visions and apparitions.

Contents

1 Controversially ordained

2 Becoming 'pope'

3 Other claimants to the name 'Pope Gregory XVII'

Controversially ordained

In December 1975, Clemente Domínguez y Gómez founded his own religious order, The Carmelites of the Holy Face, allegedly on instruction from the Virgin Mary. Five people, including its founder, who assumed the name Fr. Clemente, were ordained bishops by a Catholic archbishop who had travelled from Rome, Peter Martin Ngo-Dinh-Thuc, who was subsequently excommunicated for his ordinations, which were deemed "valid but unlawful", for though he had the power to ordain he did not have the authority from Pope Paul VI which is a requirement for episcopal holy orders in Roman Catholicism, (The Archbishop, though subsequently accepted back into the Church, was again excommunicated by Pope John Paul II for further valid but unlawful ordinations in the early 1980s). The ordinations and the validity of Clemente's "mission" were however disputed by the Spanish Catholic hierarchy. In May 1976, Fr. Clemente was blinded in a car accident. However he claimed further visions, including visions from Jesus, who he claimed told him

You shall be the Peter to come, the Pope who will consolidate the Faith and the Church in her integrity, who shall battle against heresy with great power, for legions of Angels shall assist you... me Great Pope Gregory, Glory of the Olives...¹

He also claimed that Christ had named him sub-Vicar of Christ, with the automatic right of succession to the papacy after Pope Paul VI. Clemente changed his name to Fr. Ferdinand. When, on August 6, 1978 Pope Paul died, Fr. Ferdinand claimed the papacy, proclaiming himself Pope Gregory XVII.

Becoming 'pope'

The new 'pope' claimed that he was visited by Christ, along with St. Peter and St. Paul, who told him

The reign of the Glory of the Olives¹ has begun... A great day today, in which you are vested with the Office of Pope, on this feast of the Transfiguration on Mount Thabor,—Feastday of the Holy Face, of the Order of which you are the Founder and Father General. The great Pontificate of the Glory of the Olives begins: the Pope foretold by many mystics and in many prophecies; the Pope who unites in his veins the blood of Spain, the noble blood of Spain, with the true blood of France and with the blood of the chosen people, the Jewish people. There, the grandeur! He will not delay long before taking up the sword and fulfilling the mission of emperor and great monarch... It was also foretold in prophecies in past times how this Pope would be elected: namely through the direct intervention of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. There is no other way of opposing the official election in Conclave in Rome from which the Antipope will come... Only the simple and humble of heart will recognize the true Pope: Pope Gregory XVII.

On August 15, 1978, he was crowned as 'pope' by four of his newly created College of Cardinals in a coronation held in Seville in Spain. During his antipapacy, he purported to canonize Generalissimo Francisco Franco and Christopher Columbus as saints. According to his supporters, Pope Gregory XVII was destined to be the last pope, and would be crucified and die in Jerusalem.

In the 1990s, Gregory XVII was accused of sexual impropriety with several of his nuns. In 1997 he admitted to it and begged forgiveness.

He died on March 22, 2005 in El Palmar de Troya. Incidentally, his "papacy" closely overlapped that of Pope John Paul II.

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez's claim to be the pope of the Catholic Church remains unaccepted by Church itself and its adherents, who accepted Pope John Paul I (1978) and Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) as the true successors of Pope Paul VI. Pope Gregory XVII is generally regarded as an anti-pope.

Other claimants to the name 'Pope Gregory XVII'

Jean Grégoire de La Trinité, alias Jean-Gaston Tremblay, from Canada also proclaimed himself Pope Gregory XVII back in 1968; however, it must be noted that Tremblay usually styles himself Pope John-Gregory XVII and further, that he is the self sytled successor of an ultra-modernist French antipope, Michel Colin, founder of the Renovated Church of Christ and who went under the name Clement XV. In 1999 he was charged with sexual abuse of children, after a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest.

Some right-wing Roman Catholics also claimed Giuseppe Cardinal Siri (May 20 1906- May 2 1989) had been elected as Pope Pius XII's successor in 1958 but that his election was in effect vetoed under Communist threat that Catholics in Communist countries would be persecuted if Siri, who allegedly had announced that he wished to be known as Pope Gregory XVII, was accepted as pope. It was further alleged that Siri was again 'elected' in the 1963 conclave, only again to be vetoed in favour of Giovanni Montini who became Pope Paul VI. No convincing evidence has ever been produced to support this claim and Siri unambiguously accepted popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, in each of whose elections he took part, and died in full communion with Rome.

Some sources in the late 1970s (prior to his election as John Paul II) mistakenly believed that Karol Wojtyla, if elected, would take the name of Gregory XVII.

Palmarian heresy

From the viewpoint of Roman Catholic doctrine, Palmarianism espouses a heresy - that Rome has fallen and lost the faith, and that the Papal seat has been transferred from Rome permanently henceforth to the Andalusian hamlet of Palmar de Troya. Catholicism teaches that neither can Rome altogether lose the faith (see "Vatican Council", 1870) nor can the Papal seat be ever transferred from the city of Rome (Pope Boniface VIII, "Unam Sanctam", etc.).

Notes

¹"Glory of Olives" is the appelation given to the man most people understand to be the penultimate pope according to a popular understanding of the Prophecy of St. Malachy; the Catholic Encyclopedia points out that the prophecy itself does not make such a claim.