In 1968, Brazilian priest Valdir Ros (1942–1994) founded the Instituto Estrela Missionária (IEM; the Institute of the Missionary Star) in Urubici in his home diocese of Lages in the southern part of the country. It was an organization devoted to promoting mission among non-Christians and providing education for future missionaries. The same year, he moved to the diocese of Nova Iguaçu in the Baixada Fluminense, part of the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan era, where he also became a pastor of the impoverished parish of Riachão. The seminar was founded with the support of the diocesan bishop. Still, the IEM had an unclear canonical status for a long time, but in 1977, it received the status of a diocesan pious association (pia unio). However, that was nothing compared to Ros’ vision: to form a Latin American congregation that would contribute to world mission, not a group devoted to local parish work.

Though the relation had not been unproblematic before, in late 1979, an irreconcilable conflict grew between Valdir Ros and the bishop of Nova Iguaçu Adriano Hypólito OFM (1918–1996). There were several reasons: political,  religious, personal–and medical. In conversations, private letters, printed books, and pamphlets, Ros fiercely attacked the bishop, accusing him of being a Jew, a Communist, a Freemason–and a demon. When the conflict reached one of its many peaks in 1981, members of the IEM, too, regarded Ros as severely ill, and he was confined to a psychiatric clinic against his will. By this time, he was replaced as the parish priest in Riachão, and IEM soon left the diocese to move to another part of the country.

Annuntio vobis Gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam. Reverdissimum Patrem Lucianum Pulvermacher, OFM Cap., Sanctae Catholicae Ecclesiae Presbyterem.

On October 24, 1998, white smoke appeared from the chimney of a small house in Montana. It was the signal that a new pope was elected. According to those present, the event ended a forty-year interregnum when the Catholic Church lacked a true leader. To them, there had been imposters on the Holy See ever since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958.

The pope elected in Montana was the Capuchin priest Lucian Pulvermacher (1918–2009), who had left the ‘Novus Ordo church’ in 1976, becoming a sedevacantist. He took Pius XIII as his papal name, leading the true Catholic Church. Officially, ‘true’ should always be written in lowercase, as the Church Pius XIII led was nothing but the one Catholic Church, now in exile. Over fifty persons participated in the conclave. Apart from Pulvermacher, they were all laypeople, and most electors were not present but called or sent in their ballots.

For the research report

For a collection of papal documents, see

On June 29, 1994, a dozen people met in Assisi, Italy, to pursue a papal election, as they were convinced that John Paul II and his three predecessors were heretics and anti-popes and that the Holy See was vacant since Pius XII died in 1958. They held the theological position known as sedevacantism. As they claimed that no orthodox cardinals remained in the era of general apostasy, an ordinary conclave was out of the question. Still, the Holy See could not remain perpetually vacant, as St. Peter would always have successors until the end of time. Thus, they argued that it was lawful and, indeed, a duty for the faithful remnant–clergy, and laypeople–to restore the papacy and re-establish papal jurisdiction. This position is called conclavism. The participants in the Assisi conclave elected 41-year-old South African priest Victor Von Pentz (1953–2021), who took Linus II as his papal name.

See my research report:

On 29 July 2023, Archbishop Rogelio del Rosario Martinez Jr (b. 1970) was elected the successor of Pope Michael (David Bawden) and took Michael II as his papal name.

In February 2023, I wrote a substantial piece on Pope Michael for the World Religions and Spirituality Project. Pope Michael (David Bawden, 1959-2022) was elected in a small conclave in Kansas in 1990 and, for the last decade, based in Topeka. He claimed the papacy from his Vatican in Exile until his death on 2 August 2022.

From the time of his passing away, his group of adherents declared the Holy See vacant and began planning for a new conclave. Until recently, no date was fixed, but the group officially announced it in the June 2023 issue of the Olive Tree newsletter.

Continue reading “Habemus Papam!: Michael II” →

The Alternative Pope Project I initiated in 2015 analyzes twentieth and twenty-first-century papal claimants. My focus is on persons who have claimed that they, not the vastly more recognized Roman pontiff, are the Catholic Church’s leader. For example, I don’t include the leaders of the Coptic Church, often called popes, as they do not claim to be successors of St. Peter. Neither do I include the Caodaist popes. Caodaism is a Vietnamese religion led by a pontiff and a college of cardinals. Though Catholic practices influence Caodaism, it is closer to Buddhist, Daoist, and Western Spiritist teachings.

Reformer Jean Calvin and Evangelist Billy Graham have sometimes more or less ironically been called the Protestant Pope, but of course, they did refer to themselves as such. However, leaders of a few groups of Protestant origin in the broadest sense of the word have declared themselves popes. One example is Guyanese Philbert London, televangelist and the leader of the Beacon Ministries and the House of Majesty, an independent Christian community influenced by prosperity theology. He claimed that God elected him pope and was publicly installed in 2016, taking Emanuel as his papal name. Another example is South African Tsietsi Makiti, leader of the Gabola Church.