Conclavism

Conclavism is the claim to election as pope by a group acting or purporting to act in the stead of (i.e., under an assumption of the authority ordinarily vested in) the established College of Cardinals.[1] This claim is usually associated with the claim, known as sedevacantism, that the present holder of the title of pope is a heretic and therefore not pope, which implies they consider they have the right to elect a pope.

Not to be confused with Conclavist, an assistant to a cardinal during a papal conclave.

The term comes from the word "conclave", the term for a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a Bishop of Rome, when that see is vacant, but which proponents of conclavism apply to the group that elects an antipope.

A similar but distinct phenomenon is that of those who base their claim to the papacy on supposed personal supernatural revelations.

Beginnings

The phenomenon of sedevacantism developed in the late 1960s and the 1970s, the years that followed the Second Vatican Council. In the mid-1970s, the sedevacantist pioneer Father Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga of Mexico advocated holding a papal election, and some other traditionalist Catholics discussed the idea in the following years.[1] However, conclavism became an actual movement only in the 1990s.

The first to claim (in 1978) to have been elected Pope in this way was the Croatian, Mirko Fabris,[1] a stand-up comic who performed under the jocose name "Krav" (a masculinization of the feminine noun krava, meaning "cow") and who accordingly called himself Pope Krav I. Krav's claim was satirical in nature, and was meant to critique the history of disputed papal successions.[2]

A more serious claim was that of David Bawden, who in the late 1980s promoted the idea of a papal election and ultimately sent out over 200 copies of a book of his to the editors of all the sedevacantist publications he could find, and to all the priests listed in a directory of traditionalists as being sedevacantists.[3] He was then elected by a group of six people who included himself and his parents, and took the name "Pope Michael".[4]

The father of conclavism is said to be Kenneth J. Mock, an American of obscure origins who was involved in the election of Pope Michael, Pope Pius XIII, and Pope Linus II.[5]

Conclavist claimants to papacy
  • Pope Krav I. Mirko Fabris, elected in 1978 in Zagreb, Croatia, died in 2012.[1]
  • Pope Michael (1990). In 1990, Teresa Stanfill-Benns and David Bawden of Kansas in the US, called for a conclave to elect an antipope. They publicised their request around the world, but only six people participated in the election. On July 16, 1990, the six gathered in Belvue, Kansas, and elected Bawden who took the name Pope Michael.[1][6]
  • Pope Linus II (1994). Another conclave, this time held in Assisi, Italy, elected the South African Victor von Pentz, an ex-seminarian of the Society of St Pius X, as Pope Linus II in 1994. Linus took up residence in Hertfordshire, England.[1][7]
  • Pope Pius XIII (1998–2009). In October 1998, the U.S.-based "true Catholic Church" elected Friar Lucian Pulvermacher as Pope Pius XIII. He died on November 30, 2009. No successor has been named since his death.[1]
  • Pope Leo XIV (2006–2007). On 24 March 2006 a group of 34 episcopi vagantes elected the Argentine Oscar Michaelli as Pope Leo XIV. On his death on 14 February 2007, he was succeeded by Juan Bautista Cardinal Bonetti, who took the name of Pope Innocent XIV, but resigned on 29 May 2007. He was succeeded by Alejandro Tomás Cardinal Greico, who took the name of Pope Alexander IX.[1]

Supernatural

Technically distinct from the conclavism claimants are the "popes" whose claims to the papacy derive from alleged divine revelations or apparitions. In these cases, there is no "conclave" process.

Alleged divine appointment was the basis for the pre-Vatican II (1950) claim of Michel Collin (1905–1974) to the papacy as Clement XV.[8][9] Collin's sect survives, divided into different factions, to this day.

Supernatural claimants

Several of those in the following list have styled themselves Pope Peter II, a name that has apocalyptic connotations in view of the "prophecy of Saint Malachy".

  • The leaders of the Palmarian Catholic Church (Pope Gregory XVII, Pope Peter II, Pope Gregory XVIII and Pope Peter III)
  • Pope Emmanuel, the Italian Gino Frediani (1913–1984), a priest of Gavinana, who asserted his claim in 1973.
  • Pope Peter II, Chester Olszewski of Pennsylvania, a former Episcopalian priest, who asserted his claim in 1977 or 1980
  • Pope Gregory XIX, the American Reinaldus Michael Benjamins, who asserted his claim in 1983.
  • Pope Peter II, born Maurice Archieri, living in Paris or Le Perreux, France, who asserted his claim in 1995.
  • Pope Peter Romanus II, born William Kamm of Cologne, Germany, a convicted sex offender currently in prison in Australia. Kamm, who is known as the "Little Pebble", apparently does not currently pretend to the papacy, but is claimed to be the next pope in waiting.
  • Pope Peter II, born Aime Baudet, of Brussels, Belgium.
  • Pope Peter II, born Julius Tischler, a German, about whom little is apparently known.
  • Pope Peter-Athanasius II, who lives, according to different sources, in Brussels or in Canada.
  • Pope Gregory XVII, Jean-Gaston Tremblay of the Apostles of Infinite Love in Quebec: successor to "Clement XV" (Michel Collin)[10]

See also

References
  1. George D. Chryssides, Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements (Rowman & Littlefield 2011 978-0-81087967-6), p. 99
  2. "Mirko Fabris Krav". en.standup.si. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  3. Link to Letter
  4. Fox, Robin (2011). The Tribal Imagination: Civilization and the Savage Mind. Harvard University Press. p. 104. ISBN 9780674059016.
  5. "LinksPage".
  6. Staff (2006-12-06). "10 Most Bizarre People on Earth". Oddee. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  7. Claudio Rendina, La santa casta della Chiesa (Newton Compton Editori 2010 ISBN 978-8-85412683-1)
  8. Michael W. Cuneo: The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism (JHU Press, 1999 ISBN 978-0-8018-6265-6), pp. 121–134
  9. "Pope Clement XV" Time magazine, (15 March 1971)
  10. Curran, Peggy (January 9, 2012). "Death of 'Pope Gregory' could cause infamous Quebec cult to splinter". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
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