Irrational
Apparition Followers
El Palmar de Troya, Spain
In 1968 just outside of
Among the many followers there also came two
Spanish individuals, Clemente Dominguez y Gomez (an
accountant and insurance broker from
Clemente became Pope Gregory XVII, because, as he said, Christ
crowned him Pope. He founded the Palmarian Catholic Church (One Holy Catholic Apostolic and
How is it possible that such an irrational claim could have been accepted
by so many people to the point that this new schismatic sect could have so many
followers, millions of dollars in donations, and even real priests and one
bishop accepting them as true?
The
Initially the group around Domínguez y Gomez did not style itself as a separate
church, but as a new Roman Catholic
order of conservative Carmelites (Order
of Carmelites of the Holy Face or Carmelite Order of the Holy Face), inspired by the supposed
apparitions and which styled itself as "faithful
to the holy Pope Paul VI."
This canonically unapproved Order has claimed that Paul VI (who is still
honored by them as a martyr-pope) was detained in the
A key figure in obtaining Holy Orders for
the Carmelites of Palmar
de Troya was the Swiss Roman Catholic priest (Bernardine canon) Rev. Maurice Revaz.
Revaz convinced the Vietnamese Roman Catholic Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin
of the authenticity of the apparitions in Palmar de Troya. Believing the mysticalist
message of the seer-mystics in Palmar de Troya, the Archbishop believed he was called to raise two
of the order's lay members (Dominguez and Corral) and three of the priests
associated with the group, to the rank of bishop without permission of the Vatican in 1976.
He also ordained some of its male lay members to the priesthood to secure
the survival of these 'Carmelites.' Thuc and the five
men he had consecrated as bishops were subsequently excommunicated by Pope Paul VI
because the Episcopal consecrations had been conducted without
Thuc cut off association with the Palmar
de Troya group and asked Paul VI to be forgiven and
absolved of canonical penalties, which request was met by Paul VI.
In 1978 Clemente Domínguez y Gomez set up his own "Holy See" in
Uniquely, the popes of the
The
Palmarian Pope Gregory XVII
called the Roman 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.", and declared Pope John Paul II excommunicated. He also canonized Francisco Franco and Christopher
Columbus as saints and declared Paul VI a martyr saint, according to
the group's claim he had been kept a hostage and drugged in the
Since 1983 the
The See of Palmar
de Troya has also declared the real presence of the Virgin Mary in the sacred host and the bodily assumption into heaven
of St. Joseph
to be a dogma. By 2004 they had their own version of the Bible.
Between 1978 and 1983 many adherents left the
A similar case was Alfred Seiwert-Fleige who was ordained a priest for
the Carmelites of the Holy Face
in early 1976 by Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, and consecrated a bishop around 1980. He left the
Domínguez died in March 2005 whilst administering Palmarian Easter mass and in a vision state. His Church later
declared him to be Pope Saint Gregory, XVII, The Very Great. Manuel Alonso
Corral succeeded him as the Palmarian Pope
and took the name, Peter II.
There has been some movement, in this extremely secretive church, to the more
explicitly millennial.
Despite the name 'Peter II' the Pope does not claim to be 'Petrus Romanus', the last Pope,
according to the Prophecy of the
Popes (controversially accredited to St. Malachy of Ireland and generally disputed among many
Catholics and secular scholars alike), as he does not claim to be the Bishop
(titular orotherwise) of Rome and has no personal
ties to Rome either.
To see pictures and their own propaganda see: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/7170/ibio2.htm You will be surprised at the money they have
generated and the great number of followers.
The Palmarian
Catholics generally accept the conventional list of popes but none after Paul
VI’s deathe in 1978/
Clemente claimed visions,
prophecies & staged stigmata & other scared wounds,
he also lost his eyes in a car crash & was blind from 76 until 05 when he
died.
Comments
of ex-members:
”All I know of Clemente … is that his mother is not a
follower of her son & described him as "disturbed" to the Spanish
media.”
”All funding came from donations, several people were very rich & gave vast
amounts, I heard of one Boston woman who in her will left millions (I'm not
sure of the exact figure but I think it was somewhere between 10-20 million, I
could be corrected on that figure though).”
”At their height one could only imagine the amount of money they brought in, as
well as the Basilica, statues, robes etc; Clemente
& his closest confidants went out almost every night & spent thousands
on having a good time, apparently one restaurant in Seville added an extension
specifically to accommodate them.”
”There are also stories of Corral walking around with plastic bags full of bank
notes, putting them through all their bank accounts, at this point it was not
illegal to have several bank accounts in the same name, they are also
tax-exempt as a religious organization, they had to remove the word Cult from
their teachings to gain this title. They actually used to use the term in
describing themselves.”
"Sinéad O'Connor went through a form of
ordination in a
Cox's consecrator was "Bishop" Ciaran
(Kevin?) Broadbery who, according to
"Bishop" Pat Buckley (The Irish Times, April 29, 1999) was
"laicized by the Bishop of Ferns and is now married."
"Bishop" Broadbery was consecrated by then
"Bishop" Clemente Gómez
who, upon the death of Pope Paul VI, declared himself to be Pope Gregory XVII
of the Holy Palmarian Church.”
”Pope Gregory himself was consecrated by Archbishop Ngo Dinh
Thuc, former Archbishop of Hue. Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc earned for himself and
for all those consecrated by him and their consecrands
ipso facto excommunication for consecrating a bishop without a papal
mandate."
“Here is a list of rules that Palmarian's
have to follow:
1. Woman may not wear trousers.
2. Shorts are banned
3. It is forbidden to wear any shirt or similar garment with short sleeves.
4. Sleeves can only be rolled up for the duration of any work such as washing
dishes etc.
5. Females must wear skirts no shorter than two fingers width below the knee.
6. Tights are banned as they are classed as mens
attire. Female teens and adults may only wear stockings, female children only
socks.
7. Female babies cannot wear all in one baby suits.
8. Shirts and blouses must be buttoned to the neck.
9. You cannot play any sport that requires you to wear short sleeves or shorts.
10. Visiting beaches is banned.
11. All voting banned. e.g. Local and general elections,
referendums etc.
12. Visiting and using swimming pools is banned.
13. Visiting night clubs is banned
14. Denim cloth is banned, therefore wearing jeans is banned.
15. Listening to popular / modern music is banned.
16. Watching boxing matches is banned.
17. Attending non-Palmarian religious services such
as weddings, funerals, christenings etc is banned, for all non Palmarians, even family.
18. Males are banned from dying or bleaching hair
19. Males cannot wear ear jewelry or other face jewelry.
20. Receiving organ transplants is banned.
21. Leaving or providing organs for transplant is banned.
22. All contraception is banned.
23. Disco’s are banned.
24. Later introduced in addition to rule 16, All functions associated with non Palmarian religious services such as wedding breakfasts,
evening functions, i.e. social functions before or after, christenings,
weddings, funerals etc are banned you cannot attend even if function is family
or relatives.
25. Later above rule no. 5 was changed to increase the length of skirts below
the knee from 2 to 4 or 5 fingers width.
26. Children must be told Christmas presents are from parents and not Santa
Claus as he doesn’t exist
27. New Bible introduced, any copies of any other bibles must be burnt. This bible
was authored in
28. TV programs that have people or cartoon characters outside the Palmarian dress code may not be watched. In effect this is
most television, it would encompass news, documentaries,
etc. etc.
29. No social contact with any persons not dressed to the Palmarian dress code. This in effect means virtually
all non-Palmarians.
30. Nobody allowed in the home if not dressed to Palmarian
dress code except workmen.
31. In work, contact with non-palmarian co-workers
must be kept to a minimum, i.e. only talk to when necessary to carry out the
job and no social chat.
32. Only religious books approved by Palmar are
allowed all others banned and must be burnt. This in effect means virtually any
non Palmarian authored book is banned.
33. Any photos/images with priests who have left the order must be
burn/destroyed.
34. Religious films are banned.
35. All prayers and hymns not contained in the Palmarian
missal are banned
36. Birthday candles on birthday cakes are banned.
37. Contact with anyone including relatives who are living with partners and
not married is banned. This would include all marriages outside the
38. Throwing coins in a fountain/well/water is banned.
39. Children must be removed to another room from their classes where non palmarian religious instruction is given.
40. Horoscopes are banned
41. Movies containing references to magic are banned.
42. The neckline of a shirt or blouse etc must when worn be at least 2 fingers
width above the breast bone.
43. Christmas trees are banned.
44. Images of Santa Claus are banned
45. Giving or opening presents on Christmas day (25th December) is banned.
46. Christmas presents must be given and opened on the feast of the Epiphany
“Regarding the Car accident, there were 3 or 4 people in the
car late at night, Clemente in the front passenger
seat, when the car was overtaken by "demonic forces" and went off the
road & hit a tree or pole, the glass from the shattered windshield
lacerated Clemente's eyeballs & they had to be
removed. The others in the car emerged unhurt as far as I know. Other than his
loss of sight he had only minor injuries that healed quickly.”
”The whole thing is Vaticanized so that the faithful
(who defected to Palmar in the light of Vatican II)
would believe that Clemente was carrying on the
"True Church" That’s how he hooked his followers.”
”As for the stigmata I totally agree with your observations, he's showing it
off with pride for the onlookers & cameras. That particular wound came from
the incident with the shard of glass that I mentioned earlier.”
”He wasn't too happy about his eyes though, he never got to see his mini empire
for himself, he used to get drunk and go into depression over his blindness,
I've been told.”
”On a last note he claimed to the Palmarians that the
Virgin Mary appeared to him during Mass & for his great service offered him
his eyesight back, but good oul' Clemente
said No. He would wait a little longer for penance.”
”Convenient huh?”
”He offered everyone that they would be spared in the coming war with the
Anti-Christ, where he would become a Military Leader & Emperor & lead
Gods army to victory, take back Jerusalem, march into Moscow & convert them
all to Palmar, Oh and of course, Moses himself would
come down from the Planet of Mary to fight alongside him.”
”All that is true!!”
“They say all mass in Latin, everything. They say the Rosary everyday & have other
Masses that the devised, every Easter & Christmas they have a week of
praying where all the faithful from around the world congregate at the
Basilica. This is how I met Clemente, Corral &
other Bishops.”
”The Basilica is surrounded by a huge wall with only one gate in, this is guarded by men with machine guns &
guard dogs (I'm not kidding here, I seen it myself).”
”In my opinion & experience with these guys they are very dangerous &
just prior to Clemente's death his sermons were
becoming more militant & martyrdom references were commonplace. I shudder
to think what he would have done if he had lived.”
”Corral (now Pope Peter II) I'm not sure about, I don't think he likes being
Pope, he preferred to run the show from behind the scenes.”
See: http://www.geocities.com/palmardetroyaarchidona2/doc/introducion1.htm
I am posting this Newsletter on the same day that I also post a Newsletter on a true apparition, Our Lady of America. This will give you a good comparison to judge the true from the false, the obedient from the disobedient, the irrational from the rational, the logical from the stupid. What is sad, is that tens of millions of dollars are pumped into these false apparitions and little is done to help, promote and bring about the requests of Our Lady in the true apparitions. How God will judge these irrational followers I do not know, but I do know that it angers me. I hope that it does not anger God, but I think it must.
Richard Salbato 11-09-2007