Clemente Domínguez y Gómez
Gregory XVII, also known by the religious name Fernando María de la Santa Faz, was the first Pope of the Palmarian Catholic Church, who in this capacity, claimed to be the 263rd Pope of the Catholic Church from 6 August 1978 until his death on 21 March 2005. He was an alleged visionary, seer and mystic, who, following claimed apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Crowned Mother of Palmar, founded a religious order which claimed to continue the work of the Carmelites, known as the Carmelites of the Holy Face; after 1978, this order became synonymous with the Palmarian Church.
Domínguez and several other members of the Carmelites of the Holy Face, was ordained as a priest and then consecrated as a Bishop in January 1976, by the schismatic Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, a Vietnamese cleric of the Roman Catholic Church. This Archbishop returned to union with the church in his later years. Following the death of Pope Paul VI in August 1978, Clemente claimed to have a vision where he was allegedly mystically crowned Pope of the Palmarian Christian Church by Jesus Christ himself. He claimed that the Holy See of the Catholic Church had been moved from Rome to El Palmar de Troya, due to the supposed apostasy of the former. During his pontificate, he issued many documents between 1978 and 1980, which laid out the direction of the Church; he invalidated the Second Vatican Council and is also claimed to have excommunicated the leaders of the Vatican City, declaring them Antipopes.
In close collaboration with his trusted éminence grise and Palmarian Secretary of State, Fr. Isidore, during his tenure as Palmarian Pontiff there took place two ecumenical councils; the First Palmarian Council and the Second Palmarian Council. The result of the latter Council was a claimed divinely-mandated purification of the text of the Vulgate, in the form of The Sacred History or Holy Palmarian Bible. His reign also oversaw the construction of the large Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar at El Palmar de Troya, just outside Seville in Andalusia, Spain. Following his death in 2005, the day after, Antipope Peter II, his successor, canonised him as a Catholic saint in the Palmarian Catholic Church as "Pope St. Gregory XVII the Very Great".
Biography
Background
Clemente Domínguez y Gómez was born in Écija, province of Seville, Andalusia, on 23 April 1946, to Rafael Domínguez and Lucía Maria Gómez, Spanish Catholic parents and was raised with a traditional Catholic education. As a young man he worked several different jobs, including for the Compañía Sevillana de Electricidad, an electricity company in Seville and gained the nicknamed "la Voltio", before eventually becoming an accountant working in an insurance company. As a youth Clemente lived a somewhat libertine lifestyle, as a Palmarian source describes during his youth he had a "certain attachment to the world and its vanities, but with the most tender filial love towards the Virgin Mary."Our Lady of Palmar
At 23 years old, he became closely associated with the Palmar de Troya movement, which had its origins in an alleged apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Palmar, on 30 March 1968, in El Palmar de Troya, a village near Utrera in the Province of Seville. He claimed to have experienced visions of the Virgin Mary beginning on 30 September 1969. He claimed that the alleged Virgin condemned heresy and progressivism, namely the reform of the Roman Catholic Church as a result of Vatican II. His followers claimed he allegedly possessed the stigmata on his hands. The Roman Catholic Church has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the alleged visions and apparitions.Ordination by Catholic Archbishop Thục
In December 1975, Clemente Domínguez founded his own religious order, The Carmelites of the Holy Face, allegedly upon instructions from the Blessed Virgin Mary in an apparition.Domínguez, who assumed the name Father Ferdinand,, was consecrated a bishop by Roman Catholic Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục in January 1976. Archbishop Thục was subsequently excommunicated for his consecrations, which were deemed valid but illicit. Domínguez was also excommunicated latae sentientiae. Thục, the Archbishop who consecrated Gómez, reconciled with Rome before his death in 1984.
Claim to the Papacy
In May 1976, Domínguez lost his eyeballs in a car accident. He claimed further visions, including visions from Jesus, who purportedly 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...Great Pope Gregory, Glory of the Olives..." He also claimed that Christ had named him his sub-vicar, with the automatic right of succession to the papacy after Pope Paul VI. On August 6, 1978, Pope Paul died, and Domínguez claimed the papacy, proclaiming himself Pope Gregory XVII.Domínguez claimed that he was visited by Christ, along with Saint Peter and Saint Paul, who told him:
On 15 August 1978, Pope Gregory XVII was crowned pope by four of his newly created college of cardinals in a coronation held in Seville, Spain. During his papacy, he purported to canonize General Francisco Franco and Christopher Columbus. According to his supporters, Pope Gregory XVII was destined to be the last pope and would be crucified and die in Jerusalem.
Sexual scandal
In the 1990s, Pope Gregory XVII rumours began to spread in the Church, claiming that the Pope had been guilty of sins against chastity, with various priests and nuns. After years of silence, in 1997 he admitted to this.Death
He died on 21 March 2005, in El Palmar de Troya and was succeeded by Manuel Corral, who took the name Pope Peter II. Incidentally, the papacy of Gregory XVII closely overlapped that of Pope John Paul II. He died, aged only 58, a mere 11 days prior to the death of his Roman Catholic "rival," Pope John Paul II aged 84.Legacy
Domínguez was allegedly canonized as a saint by Corral on 24 March 2005, two days after his death. He has subsequently been referred to by adherents of the Palmarian Church as "Pope Saint Gregory XVII the Very Great". On 29 July 2005, Corral declared that Domínguez's soul did not spend time in purgatory, but ascended directly to heaven. The Palmarian Catholic Church considers Pope Gregory XVII to have been "vilely caluminated and gravely betrayed", describing him as a "Exceptionally Radiant Solar Luminary of the Church." In the Palmarian “History of the Popes,” or formally, the "Historical Review of All the Popes Who Have Shepherded the Holy Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ", a document which was initially published as part of the Palmarian Bible in 2001, but is now published as an independent edition, he is described in extremely laudatory terms;Papal documents
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