Mark Pivarunas
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Mark Anthony Pivarunas, CMRI (born October 31, 1958) is a Traditionalist Catholic bishop and Superior General of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen. He is a proponent of Sedevacantism, a position that holds the papacy is vacant.
Pivarunas was born of ethnic Lithuanian parents in Chicago, Illinois. He entered the religious life in September 1974 entering the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen taking the religious name Brother Mary Tarcisius. He made his final profession on September 12, 1980, at the Congregation's headquarters, Mount Saint Michael, Washington. In May, 1984, Pivarunas was among the clergy who ejected Bishop Francis Schuckardt under controversial circumstances. After some time without a clear leader, on April 23, 1985, Pivarunas and the clergy met with Bishop George Musey (an independent Thuc line bishop), who agreed to advance Pivarunas and two other clerics to the priesthood on June 27, 1985. Bishop Musey's connections with Mount Saint Michael were limited after that.
The priests concluded that, while it was important to dispense the Mass and Sacraments, the condition of sedevantism (Sede vacante, the empty papal see) in the Roman Catholic Church resulted in a vacuum of canonical authority. Leading a coalition of clergy the priests elected the 30 year old Pivarunas to the post of Superior General of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen in August 1989.
In 1991, the clergy at Mount Saint Michael made contact with another sedevacantist bishop, the Mexican Moises Carmona, who offered to elevate Pivarunas to the Roman Catholic episcopate, without the normally required papal mandate. On September 24, 1991, Father Pivarunas was consecrated bishop by Bishop Moises Carmona at Mount Saint Michael in Spokane, Washington.
On November 30, 1993, Bishop Pivarunas consecrated bishop the Reverend Daniel Dolan in Cincinnati, Ohio and on May 11, 1999 he consecrated Martin Davila for the Union Catolica Treno to succeed Moises Carmona.
Bishop Pivarunas now resides in Omaha, Nebraska serving as Superior General of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen and as rector of the Congregation's Mater Dei Seminary there.
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| Episcopal Lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Moises Carmona |
| Date of consecration: | September 24, 1991 |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| Daniel Dolan | November 30, 1993 |
| Martin Davila | May 11, 1999 |
