Lucian Pulvermacher
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Father Earl Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap (born April 20, 1918) was elected Pope Pius XIII of the true Catholic Church, a small conclavist group regarded as schismatic by orthodox Roman Catholics, in October 1998. He is considered an Antipope, though not a historical Antipope, as his following is too small. Pulvermacher currently resides in the United States in the small town of Springdale, Washington, and claims to have a following of around 90 families worldwide, a claim which is disputed and considered too many in numbers.
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[edit] Ministry up to the mid-1990s
Born into a Roman Catholic family of which four sons would become Capuchin Roman Catholic priests and one daughter would enter religious life, Earl Pulvermacher in 1942, at the age of 24, entered the Capuchin Order, taking the religious name Lucian. He was ordained to the priesthood in June 1946, and from the spring of 1947 to the autumn of 1948 served as an assistant pastor at St Francis Parish Monastery in Milwaukee. He spent the greater part of his career as a Catholic priest in Japan, where he served as a missionary between 1948 and 1970, residing initially in the Ryūkyū Islands and subsequently (from 1955 onwards) on Okinawa. In 1970, he was transferred from Japan to Australia, where he continued his missionary work until he became disillusioned with the changes that had followed the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965. In January 1976, he left the Capuchin Order and the mainstream of the Roman Catholic Church, and returned to the United States. "I was without money," he later wrote, "without a home or anything. The few things I brought along with me I could carry in two bags." [1]
Between January and August 1976, Pulvermacher attempted to find a new "truly Roman Catholic" home for himself in the traditionalist movement of Roman Catholics. He joined the Society of St. Pius X, but his refusal to give the sacraments to people who somehow associated themselves with the mainstream Catholic Church became a source of serious conflict between him and his fellow priests and superiors. (One of his three brothers, Fr. Carl Pulvermacher OFMCap, joined the SSPX shortly after he left it, and remained affiliated with it until his death in June of 2006.) From August 1976 onwards, Fr. Pulvermacher established and served a circuit of private chapels across the country, working as an 'independent' traditionalist priest unaffiliated to any religious order or society. He claims that none of his congregations satisfied him: he judged them all too liberal and too modernistic, as well as too soft on the mainstream Church authorities. In the mid-1990s, however, his independent ministry took a dramatic new direction.
[edit] The true Catholic Church papal election
Pulvermacher's support was largely limited to a small number of people in Montana. Only 28 people attended his purported episcopal ordination, which was held in a hotel ballroom on 4 July 1999. It is noteworthy that Pulvermacher castigated not only what is usually understood as the "Roman Catholic Church" but also (and often with greater fervor) all traditionalist Catholics who reject his own claim to be the one true pope of the true catholic Church.
Claims that Pius died on January 11, 2006 have been both advanced and denied. The "true Catholic Church" continues to issue Caritas newsletters in his name.
[edit] Gordon Bateman
Gordon Bateman was an Australian layman who belonged to Fr. Pulvermacher's circle of friends and supporters, who was ordained a priest by a certain bishop. Following the papal election, Fr. Pulvermacher, merely a priest, attempted to obtain episcopal orders by consecrating Bateman to the episcopate and then having Bateman in return consecrate him. Whether or not a simple priest can, with the Pope's authorisation, consecrate another man as a bishop is a disputed question, with Pulvermacher's opponents firmly dismissing the notion and his supporters pointing to alleged historical precedents for such an action. According to Roman Catholic Canon Law a purported consecration to the episcopacy by a mere priest is not to be considered valid. Therefore Pulvermacher sacramentally is considered a priest (presbuteros) still and not a bishop.
Subsequently, Bateman separated from Pulvermacher's church after he discovered a curious fact: That Pulvermacher, from his seminarian days, had practiced "divining" with a pendulum (considered occultism by Roman Catholic Canon Law). Pulvermacher does not deny this, but on the contrary has defended this. However, as a result, Pulvermacher had himself incurred automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication because of Pope Pius XII's 1940s ban on such practices. Thus Fr. Pulvermacher, having previously proclaimed John XXIII's supposed ineligibility for the papacy because of his supposed membership of the Freemasons, was himself ineligible to be elected Pope under his interpretation of Catholic law. While the claims against Pope John remain unproven and disputed, in the case of Pulvermacher he himself had openly admitted they were true.
Bateman's relatives, at the present, are attempting to bring the various conclavist factions together into unity under "Pope Michael" (David Bawden). This is the "St. Gabriel's Group" (see [2])
[edit] Family
Fr. Pulvermacher's surviving family do not recognise his claim to the papacy. At least seven of his eight siblings and their families remained in full communion with the Holy See of Rome, including two of his brothers, both Roman Catholic priests and active members of the Capuchin Order. The eighth, Fr. Carl Pulvermacher O.F.M.Cap., also a Roman Catholic priest, was a member of the controversial Society of St. Pius X. Fr. Carl until his death also pledged allegiance to and full communion with all post-conciliar Popes of Rome, including Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) and Pope Benedict XVI (2005-).
[edit] See also
- Sedevacantism for a more general discussion of this particular post-Vatican II phenomenon
- David Bawden, Clemente Dominguez y Gomez and Manuel Corral for other primary conclavist claimants to the Papacy
- Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, whose papal reigns "Pope Pius XIII" claims to be illicit and invalid.
[edit] External links
- A letter from "Pope Pius XIII" (from Catholic Answers)
- Official website
- The Vatican-In-Exile (a conclavist site that opposes Pulvermacher's claims)
- Michaelinum: The Catholic Restoration Site (also anti-Pulvermacher, this site supports the claims of David Bawden, "Pope Michael I")
