SEVENTH LINEAGE_____
.

The second complex lineage case is that of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin, a brother of Ngo Dinh Diem Jean Baptiste, the first President of the Republic of Viet Nam, who was murdered in November 1963.

In the mid-1970s, while living in exile in Italy, the lonely, depressed and impoverished Msgr. Ngo was befriended by Rev. Maurice Revaz, a Swiss priest who, at that time, was teaching canon law at the traditionalist seminary of the Sacerdotal Society of St. Pius X which Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus Marcel Lefebvre has established in Ecône, Switzerland.

Throughout the 1970s many traditionalist clergy and laity in Europe and America were expressing impatience over Msgr. Lefebvre's then reluctance to consecrate traditionalist bishops.

Canon Revaz, for his part, had even become convinced that the real Pope Paul VI was being held prisoner in a Vatican dungeon, with an imposter playing his rôle as Pope.

Around 1976 Canon Revaz heard there was a lay group near Seville, Spain, that was also convinced that Paul VI either was a prisoner in the Vatican or was being kept in a drugged state in order to manipulate him. Canon Revaz began corresponding with its two leaders, Clemente Dominguez Gómez and Manuel Alonso Corral, both of whom for several years had been saying that they were receiving visions of Our Lord and Our Lady.

Canon Revaz, after a trip to Rome and an unsuccessful attempt to find, and liberate, the imprisoned and/or drugged Pope Paul VI, left the Ecône seminary permanently, and went to Spain along with two companions, an Irish woman visionary who claimed to be receiving mesages from the incarcerated and/or drugged Pope, and a German nun, Sr. Cherubina, who for some time had been working at the SSPX seminary.

Canon Revaz had gotten to know Msgr. Ngo, both from making many visits to Rome, where the exiled Archbishop had been living since 1963, and from a trip that Msgr. Ngo had once made to the seminary in Ecône. Revaz convinced the Archbishop to go to Spain and to consecrate priests and bishops for the Dominguez/Alonso group.

There are reports, from sources very hostile to Msgr. Ngo, that Canon Revaz and his companions persuaded Msgr. Ngo to perform the ordinations and consecrations by convincing him that a bi-locating Pope Paul VI (the real, imprisoned, one, not the imposter) had appeared in Spain and approved the idea.

At any event, within days of the ordinations and the consecrations that Msgr. Ngo performed in Spain, the Vatican announced publicly that Archbishop Ngo had been automatically excommunicated for attempting to consecrate bishops without a Papal mandate. Msgr. Ngo, however, quickly expressed regret for his actions in Spain and sought forgiveness from the Vatican. The excommunication was then lifted.

The Dominguez/Alonso group, however, went on without him. Its newly made bishops within weeks started ordaining priests and consecrating bishops and, at the death of Paul VI in 1978, they declared themselves the Holy Palmarian Church (the "Iglesia Una, Santa, Católica, Apostólica y Palmariana").

But, right after the lifting of his excommunication, Archbishop Ngo was again back to consecrating independent bishops. This time, the consecrations were for a wide variety of groups, including sedevacantists loosely grouped under the name Tridentine Latin Rite Church.

Finally, some years before his death, Msgr. Ngo agreed also to perform consecrations for a wide assortment of splinter groups, some of them not even Roman Catholic.

Excommunicated a second time for these later consecrations, Msgr. Ngo moved to Rochester, NY, where for a few years he lived with an independent bishop (who had been consecrated by one of those bishops whom Msgr. Ngo had earlier consecrated for the Tridentine Latin Rite Church).

While he was living in upstate New York, Msgr. Ngo was invited to New York City to attend a conference of exiled Vietnamese. While there, he was persuaded to join (some say, was kidnapped by) some emigré Vietnamese who were living in a monastery in Missouri and were loyal to the Vatican. Shortly after arriving there, Msgr. Ngo died. Upon his death, the Vatican released a statement saying that he had recently asked for, and had received, John Paul II's forgiveness.

Msgr. Ngo's lineage includes the broadest conceivable spectrum of theologies likely ever to be held by men all claiming to possess valid "Catholic" priestly and episcopal orders that are derived from a single prelate alive in their lifetimes. The spectrum ranges from the head of a French Satanist sect all the way to the strictest of Traditional Roman Catholics.

Needless to say, there are critics of both the liceity and validity of the various "Thuc lineage" episcopal consecrations. Click here for a web site comprising arguments favoring and opposing the validity of the Thuc consecrations and another web site posting a recent essay denying validity. Also of interest is "Document sur la mort de Mgr Thuc"
.

.

.

.

Some Reported Consecrations in the Palmar-line:
The Identities of the Consecrator(s) Not Yet Known

.

  • xx/xx/197x ______ Marie Emmanuel ______ (b. in 19xx; still living).
    Ordained a priest on 01/01/1976 at xxxxx by xxxxx, bishop of xxxxx.
    Consecrated a bishop on xx/xx/19xx by . He became a Cardinal of the Holy Palmarian Church. A FRENCHMAN
    •  
  • xx/xx/19xx José J. P. Dominguez (b. in 19xx; still living).
    Ordained a priest on 09/01/1977 at xxxxx by xxxxx, a bishop of xxxxx.
    Consecrated a bishop on xx/xx/19xx at xxxxx by xxxxx, a bishop of the xxxxx. A SPANIARD
    •  
  • xx/xx/19xx Alfonso B. Salazar (b. in 19xx; still living).
    Ordained a priest on 01/14/1977 at xxxxx by xxxxx, a bishop of xxxxx.
    Consecrated a bishop on xx/xx/19xx at xxxxx by xxxxx, a bishop of the xxxxx. A SPANIARD
    •  

.

.

.

.

.

.


 

Return to my Introduction to Episcopi Vagantes Lineages.

Return to Catholicism Page.

Return to TJB Home Page.