Palmarian Catholic Church
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The Palmarian Church (also One, Catholic, Apostolic and Palmarian Church) is a break-off movement from the Catholic Church.
It was established in 1975 by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, an insurance broker from Seville, Spain, who claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to him at a shrine outside the small village of El Palmar de Troya in Andalucia with instructions to rid the Roman Catholic Church of "heresy and progressivism." After ineffectual reform efforts, he set up his own "Holy See" in Seville. In 1978, he elected himself pope, as Gregory XVII, claiming he had been mystically coronated by Jesus Christ in a vision, and named his own cardinals. Uniquely, the Popes of the Palmarian Church do not claim to be the titular Bishop of Rome, rather they claim that Jesus mystically transferred the position of Patriarch of the West and Supreme Pontiff to the episcopal see of Palmar de Troya. Mainstream Catholics (and indeed, most sedevacantist and mysticalist claimants) agree and believe that the Papacy can never be transferred from the See of Rome. Catholic doctrine also holds that personal revelations are not universally binding on the whole Church.
The church claims to have 60 priests (all bishops), 70 nuns and 2,000 followers. It has chapels in Britain and Latin America.
Gregory XVII called the body conventionally recognized as the official Catholic Church a false church, saying "John Paul is seated on Rome's seven hills and holds in his hand the golden cup of filth and fornication." He "excommunicated" John Paul II and canonized Francisco Franco and Christopher Columbus.
Upon Domínguez's death in March 2005, Manuel Alonso Corral succeeded him as "Pope Peter II." According to St. Malachy of Ireland's Prophecy of the Popes, "Petrus Romanus" (Peter the Roman) would be the final Pope.
Popes of the Palmarian Catholic Church
- Pope Gregory XVII (Clemente Domínguez y Gómez) - Reigned August 1978 to March 2005
- Pope Peter II (Manuel Alonso Corral) - Reigning Palmarian Pontiff, reign began April 2005
(until the death of Pope Paul VI, Palmarian Catholics 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 Jordon College is the Palmerian Professor.de:Palmarianisch-Katholische Kirche