Month: December 2025

The Alternative Pope Project

The Alternative Pope Project

In 2015, I started the Alternative Pope Project. The goal was to identify and study individuals who, during the 20th and 21st centuries, claimed that they, and not the more well-known figure in Rome, were the true leader of the Catholic Church. To refer to them, I coined the term alternative popes.

I soon realized that it would be difficult to find sources about many of the claimants, as little material is found in research libraries. To solve the problem, I created this website. Initially, I wrote brief posts on the papal claimants I knew, asking for more information.

I was amazed by the feedback. Over the past almost ten years, several thousand people have contacted me.  Many have asked questions, wanting to know more, and many have helped me access source material or shared their experiences as (former) members of these groups. With their help, I have been able to amass considerable material, and I have been able to publish several more substantial texts that, in their turn, have led to new contacts and even more sources.

This project’s final outcome will be a sizeable monograph: Could the True Pope Please Stand Up: 20th and 21st-Century Alternative Popes. Hopefully, I will be able to finish it in 2026, thus ending a decade-long project.

To date, I have produced five monographs, five group profiles, and more than a dozen research reports listed below. I have also published ca. 50 blog posts, including brief studies on alternative popes and scanned sources.

Continue reading “The Alternative Pope Project” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 7.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 7.

This is the seventh and last part of the series of images from the archives of Italian-American Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Celestial Messenger, who claimed to be divine. For more pictures and studies, see the Celestial Messenger page.

The focus of Abbate’s Church, the New Jerusalem Church, was his claims of divine status and his role in salvation history. From the early 1910s, he was known as the Celestial Messenger. Later, his title became Padre Celeste. Still, he also referred to himself as the Universal Protector, St. Michael the Archangel rehumanated, the Prince of Peace, God’s Vicar on Earth, and the Celestial King. Thus, Abbate claimed to be something of a combination of a pope, an archangel, a prophet, a king, and God incarnate.

In his interpretation, each first letter in his full name and title, “Giuseppe Maria Abbate di Carmelo, Padre Celeste”, had a symbolic meaning in Italian, summarizing his mission on earth. In English translation, it was: Jesus, Incarnate, Made Human, Most Holy Immanuel, Eternal Prince of Peace, sent to be reincarnated in Abbate to Bless Everybody Eternally. Divinity Incarnate. Celestial Angel, King, Immanuel, the Messiah Arrived, the Ordained Angel. The Door to God. Elected Religious. Christ, Immanuel, Eternal Light, the Sound of the Seventh Trumpet.

While he believed he possessed supernatural powers already from the beginning of the 1910s, in 1923, Abbate claimed that Christ had appeared to him, showing him the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. From that moment, Abbate was convinced that he was “Jesus rehumanated.” His face was the true face of Christ in the modern era. At the same time, Abbate began to claim that he had lived on Mars before coming to Earth in 1886.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 7.” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 6.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 6.

This is the sixth part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. It includes photos of objects found in my collection related to Abbate and his New Jerusalem Catholic Church. These objects include a trumpet, two processional swords, and a box containing relics (mainly hair, beard, and nail clippings).

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 6.” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 5.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 5.

This is the fifth part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. They are part of my collection of documents related to Abbate and his New Jerusalem Catholic Church. See part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Most of the photos in the collection depict the Celestial Messenger, the Reincarnated Virgin Mary, and religious ceremonies or objects related to them. Copies of these pictures were held by Church members and were also part of Abbate’s missionary activities, distributed to potential adherents. Some were also printed in the Church’s newspaper, L’Araldo, published between 1926 and 1928, as well as in brochures and booklets.

However, the collection also includes other photos documenting members, both individuals and groups. There are, e.g., pictures of the Celestial Messenger’s honorary guard, members of the girls’ and boys’ groups, nuns, religious brothers, and ordinary faithful.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 5.” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 4.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 4.

This post is the fourth part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. They are part of my collection of documents related to Abbate and his New Jerusalem Catholic Church. See part 1, part 2, and part 3.

However, in this part, the focus is not on Abbate, but on a girl, Grace, whom he and his Church believed to be the reincarnated Virgin Mary. Grace was born in Chicago in 1915. Both her parents were born in Italy and had recently emigrated to the United States. When she was newly born, Abbate became convinced of her true identity.

Just as Abbate, the reborn Virgin Mary, took a prominent place in religious services, both sitting on thrones. Grace left the church when she was about 18 years old, but her image remained on the church’s altars until the 1980s.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 4.” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 3.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 3.

This post is the third part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. They are part of my collection of documents related to Abbate and his Church. See part one and part two.

The focus of the New Jerusalem Church doctrine was Abbate’s claims of divine status and his role in salvation history. By the late 1910s, Abbate called himself Giuseppe Maria di Carmelo Abbate. When the Church was founded, he was referred to as Celestial Messenger (Messaggiero Celeste).

Later, his title became Padre Celeste. Still, he also referred to himself as the Universal Protector, St. Michael the Archangel, the Prince of Peace, God’s Vicar on Earth, and the Celestial King. Thus, Abbate claimed to be something of a combination of a pope, an archangel, a prophet, a king, and God incarnate.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 3.” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 2.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 2.

This post is the second part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. They are part of my collection of documents related to Abbate and his Church. See part one.


In 1917, Abbate founded a formal church organization. It was called La Chiesa Cattolica di Nuova Gerusalemme del Messaggiero Celeste (the New Jerusalem Catholic Church of the Celestial Messenger). In Italian, the word is usually spelled “messagero,” but, for some reason, the Church always used “messagiero.” At about the same time, Abbate also established a male religious order, the Order of the Celestial Messenger.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 2.” →