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Earl (Fr. Lucian) Pulvermacher, OFM Cap (born April 20, 1918) (died January 11, 2006) was elected Pope Pius XIII of the true Catholic Church in 1998. The "true Catholic Church" is a small sect based in Montana, which claims to be the "true" Catholic Church, as against all other groups or entities claiming that name. Pulvermacher technically could be considered an antipope by other denominations, although he has far fewer followers than the historical antipopes.

Early life and early ministry

Earl Pulvermacher was born in 1918. He entered the Capuchin Order in 1942 (where he was given a religious name of Lucian) and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1948. After an initial period as a priest in Milwaukee he served as a missionary priest in Amami Oshima and later Okinawa. From 1970 to 1976 he served as a missionary in Australia. He left his Order and Australia "without permission" in 1976 and associated with some traditionalist Catholic organizations that had opposed Vatican II.

Post Vatican II

After leaving Australia Pulvermacher was affiliated for a short time with the Society of Saint Pius X. His brother Fr. Carl Pulvermacher joined the Society of Saint Pius X shortly after Fr. Earl Lucian Pulvermacher left them and remains affiliated to this day. After leaving the Society, Pulvermacher established a circuit of private chapels throughout the United States claiming he had the authority to provide the Mass and Sacraments to these people.

1990s

Pulvermacher claims that none of these satisfied him: he judged them all as too liberal and in error. He gradually drifted away until the 1990s. In the mid-1990s he became convinced on highly shaky evidence that Pope John XXIII had been a freemason, and that thus his election as pope in 1958 had been invalid. According to this argument, not just his papacy and all his acts such as the calling of Vatican II would be invalid, but so in a chain reaction would be the conclave necessitated by his death, the resultant election of Paul VI, John Paul I and II and Benedict XVI. According to Pulvermacher's theory, the See of Peter had been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958.

In 1998, a conclave of sedevacantist Catholics, both lay and clerical, in a telephone vote elected Pulvermacher to the allegedly vacant papacy (see Sedevacantism). The new pope has now established his College of Cardinals to provide an ecclesiastical mechanism for the election of his successors.

Though he has adherents, his support is mainly limited to a few people in Montana. Only 28 attended his purported episcopal ordination in a hotel ballroom following his "election". It is noteworthy that he castigates not only what is usually understood as the "Roman Catholic Church" but also (and often with greater fervor) all traditionalist Catholics who reject his claim to be the true pope.

Gordon Bateman

Gordon Bateman was a married Australian layman who belonged to Pulvermacher's circle of friends. Pulvermacher persuaded Bateman to take part in a complicated exercise, whereby Pulvermacher, after being supposedly elected pope, "dispensed" himself from restrictions on his priestly orders, and thereby "consecrated" Bateman a Bishop and thereupon "raised" him to the Cardinalate; thereafter Bateman consecrated Pulvermacher a bishop. As a result, Bateman's marriage broke up. The mutual consecrations of Bateman and Pulvermacher are seen by most Catholics as both invalid (in that neither was a bishop historic episcopate, and thus while they may have had proper form and intention)both lacked the faculty and so was invalid.

Subsequently, Bateman fell away from Pulvermacher after he discovered a curious fact: That Pulvermacher, from his seminarian days, had practiced "divining" with a pendulum. Pulvermacher does not deny this, but on the contrary has defended this. However, as a result, Pulvermacher had himself incurred excommunication latae sententiae on account of Pope Pius XII's (rarely obeyed) ban on such practices. Thus Pulvermacher, having previously proclaimed John XXIII's supposed ineligibility for the papacy because of his supposed membership of the Freemasons, was himself ineligible to be elected "Pope" under Catholic law. While the claims against Pope John remain unproven and disputed, in the case of Pulvermacher he himself had openly admitted they were true.

Bateman's relatives, at the present, are attempting to bring the various Sedevacantist factions together into unity under "Pope Michael" (the aforementioned David Bawden). This is the "St. Gabriel's Group" (*)

Family

Pulvermacher's family do not believe in his "true Catholic Church." Seven of his eight siblings and their families remain in full communion with Rome, including two brothers, both priests. The eighth, another brother, also a priest, is a member of the Society of St. Pius X.

Death

Pulvermacher, the antipope Pius XIII, died of natural causes while visiting Utah on January 11th, 2006. The antipope's body was sailed to Sydney, Australia, where he led a successful missionary lifestyle. Cardinal Bateman posted on a website, "He was the greatest Holy Father in Papal History. He preached the truth and is definitely on the Great Road to the Pearly Gates of Heaven."

Future Successor?

Pulvermacher's legacy has deeply influenced Cardinal Bateman. Pulvermacher was indeed an antipope, and some suggest that Bateman may become an "anti-anti-pope," therefore claiming the papacy without any official election. "I will take the name Pius XIV," Bateman said, "I am doing this in my Predecessor's honor, and his predecessor's honor. Further possibilities of Bateman's future remain unknown.

See also

• Sedevacantism for a more general discussion of this particular post-Vatican II phenomenon
• David Bawden, Clemente Dominguez y Gomez and Manuel Corral for other primary Sedevacantist claimants to the Papacy
• Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI

External links

• A letter from "Pope Pius XIII" (from Catholic Answers)
• Official website
• The Vatican-In-Exile
• Michaelinum: The Catholic Restoration Site

• Capuchins
• 20th century antipopes
• Sedevacantists