Louis Vezelis

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Most Reverend Louis Vezelis, OFM (born 1930) is a sedevacantist Roman Catholic bishop who observes the Rule of St. Francis of Assisi. Bishop Vezelis subscribes to the Oath against Modernism. He served as definitor of the Korean province of the Franciscan Order, to which he had been assigned by the late Franciscan Minister General, Father Augustine Sepinski, OFM. He denounces all popes since Pope Pius XII as antipopes. This is a matter of conscience, according to Vezelis. He was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood for the Franciscan Order on June 16, 1956 by Paul-Emile Cardinal Leger, Roman Catholic Cardinal-Archbishop of Montreal, Québec.

Bishop Louis Vezelis was consecrated a bishop on August 24, 1982, according to his own beliefs in order to continue the Apostolic Succession of the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop Vezelis claims, that a bishop receives the fullness of his powers from the Holy Spirit upon his consecration to the episcopate and thus claims to have ordinary jurisdiction; however it is a favored opinion in normal and traditional Roman Catholic theology that bishops receive their jurisdiction upon appointment to their diocese by the Roman Pontiff himself, even though the Second Vatican Council seems to indicate it is distributed at the consecration itself.

Bishop Vezelis is also an outspoken critic on Israel, often supporting the radical parties Hamas and Hezbollah. He also claims that the Jews are imposters.