Category: Palmar de Troya

Su Santidad El Papa Gregorio XVII (texto completo de la edición de 2003)

Su Santidad El Papa Gregorio XVII (texto completo de la edición de 2003)

En los últimos años, he puesto a disposición en este sitio web versiones escaneadas de documentos oficiales publicados por la Iglesia Católica Palmariana. En esta ocasión, los lectores encontrarán una versión escaneada de un folleto llamado Su Santidad El Papa Gregorio XVII (edición de 2003).

Este folleto se distribuía principalmente a personas ajenas a la Iglesia palmariana que visitaban la basílica de El Palmar de Troya o que solicitaban información básica sobre la iglesia. Además de una hagiografía del papa Gregorio XVII, contiene documentos que describen su elección al papado en 1978, así como algunos decretos papales posteriores y mensajes celestiales que él afirmaba haber recibido.

Su Santidad El Papa Gregorio XVIIDownload

Documentos Pontificios Palmarianos del Papa Gregorio XVII (Texto completo de la edición de 2002)

Documentos Pontificios Palmarianos del Papa Gregorio XVII (Texto completo de la edición de 2002)

En los últimos años, he puesto a disposición en este sitio web versiones escaneadas de documentos oficiales publicados por la Iglesia Católica Palmariana. En esta ocasión, los lectores encontrarán una versión escaneada de la edición revisada de los Documentos Pontificios, publicada en 2002.

Los Documentos Pontificios son una colección de 49 textos dogmáticos promulgados por el primer papa palmariano, Gregorio XVII, entre 1978 y 1980. En 1978 fue elegido papa y en 1980 se inauguró el Primer Concilio Palmariano. Por consiguiente, dichos documentos constituyen fuentes importantes para el desarrollo de la doctrina palmariana durante los primeros años de la iglesia.

Tras la promulgación de la Biblia Palmariana en 2001, la Iglesia publicó una versión revisada titulada Extracto actualizado de los Documentos Pontificios de Su Santidad el Papa Gregorio XVII a la luz de la Historia Sagrada o Santa Biblia Palmariana (2002)

Documentos Pontificios 2002Download

El Tratado de la Misa de la Iglesia Palmariana (Texto Completo de la edición de 2002)

El Tratado de la Misa de la Iglesia Palmariana (Texto Completo de la edición de 2002)

En los últimos años, he puesto a disposición en este sitio web versiones escaneadas de documentos oficiales publicados por la Iglesia Católica Palmariana. He incluido versiones en inglés, castellano y alemán. En esta ocasión, los lectores encontrarán una versión escaneada de la edición revisada de El Tratado de la Misa, que la Iglesia publicó en 2002.

Es necesario ofrecer algunos antecedentes para situar esta obra en su contexto histórico. En 1980, el Papa Gregorio XVII convocó el Primer Concilio Palmariano, el cual se prolongaría hasta 1992. El objetivo era establecer la doctrina católica palmariana.

El principal resultado del Primer Concilio Palmariano fue El Tratado de la Misa. Esta voluminosa obra se publicó inicialmente en 25 entregas y, finalmente, en 1992, como un único volumen. Ante todo, “El Tratado” constituye una interpretación alegórica de textos bíblicos desde la perspectiva del Sacrificio de la Misa.

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Update of the WRSP Profile on the Palmarian Church

Update of the WRSP Profile on the Palmarian Church

A decade ago, I wrote a group profile on the Palmarian Catholic Church for the World Religions and Spirituality Project (WRSP), led by Professor David G. Bromley. The project website is a very useful resource for those looking for reliable information about a wide range of religious groups, both large and small. It includes a growing number of “group profiles” as well as many other resources.

As readers of this website will know, there have been dramatic changes in the Palmarian Church in the last ten years. Among many other things, Pope Gregory XVIII left the papacy and the church, and, to some degree, the church has opened up to the outside world. They have a website, are active on social media, and invite non-Palmarians to their religious activities. In short, it was necessary to update the profile.

You find the new text here.

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 six monographs, four 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.

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The 50th Anniversary of the Order of the Carmelites of the Holy Face

The 50th Anniversary of the Order of the Carmelites of the Holy Face

Today, December 23, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the Order of the Carmelites of the Holy Face, the congregation that today forms part of the Palmarian Catholic Church, based at El Palmar de Troya, an apparition site in Spanish Andalusia. The Church was founded in 1978, when the superior of the Orden, Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (1946-2005) proclaimed that he was true pope of the Catholic Church and the Holy See was transferred to El Palmar de Troya/Seville. Still, the foundation of the Order was an important step.

Throughout the last decade, I have published much about the Palmarian Church, and the following is an extract from my book A Pope of their Own: El Palmar de Troya and the Palmarian Church (1st edition 2017, 2nd edition 2020)

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New Edition of My Book on the Palmarian Church

New Edition of My Book on the Palmarian Church

I published the first edition of A Pope of their Own: El Palmar de Troya and the Palmarian Church in May 2017. By then, Palmarian Pope Gregory XVIII–Ginés Hernández–had left the papacy and the church and married a former nun. These events made El Palmar de Troya known again. It had been four decades since the Spanish press devoted this much interest to the Palmarian Church.

Since then, the Palmarians have attracted even more attention. They became front-page news in Spain as the ex-pope and his wife were tried for the armed robbery of the Basilica in Palmar de Troya. The interest in the Palmarian Church was also sparked by best-seller writer Dan Brown’s Origin (2017) that included it in the plot. That made the existence of the church known to many outside of Spain, too. As my book was the only recent monograph on the Palmarians, it has been downloaded tens of thousands of times. To reach such a vast readership was undoubtedly an unusual experience for me.

Taken into account the rapid development during the last three years, I decided to write an enlarged version of A Pope of their Own, which follows the Palmarian Church until today. The updated parts are mainly found in chapter 9 (pp. 189–200), covering the current papacy of Peter III. However, I have also included some new sections about earlier history and about rituals (see pp. 20–22, 99–102, 112–113, 118–119, and 226–229).

The second edition of A Pope of their Own is available here (free of charge).Download

New Interview with the Palmarian ex-Pope

New Interview with the Palmarian ex-Pope

On February 19, 2020, the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial published a long interview with Ginés Jesús Hernández. Between 2011 and 2016 he was Gregory XVIII, the pope of the Palmarian Catholic Church. In April 2016, he left the papacy and the church and moved to his girlfriend Nieves Triviño, whom he later married. Shortly after leaving El Palmar, he publicly claimed that the church was a hoax (see my summary of the events).

In June 2018, once again the couple made front-page news when the Spanish press reported that they had climbed over the high wall of the church compound in an attempt to rob the very centre of the Palmarian Church: the Basilica in El Palmar de Troya. In a subsequent fight, both two Palmarian bishops and the couple were wounded. Ginés Hernández was very severely injured, being stabbed in the chest. Still, he recovered and both he and his wife were prosecuted for armed robbery. In May 2019, they were sentenced to prison for six and five years respectively, but directly released on probation (see my summary of the events).

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New Documentary on El Palmar de Troya

New Documentary on El Palmar de Troya

There are several TV-documentaries about El Palmar de Troya and the Palmarian Church, but by far the most ambitious and well-researched is the new series, “El Palmar de Troya” that is broadcasted in February 2020 on the Spanish Moviestar+ Cero Channel. The series is produced by Movistar+ in collaboration with 100 Balas (The Mediapro Studio) and 93 Metros  directed by Israel del Santo and with Daniel Boluda in charge of the research.

“El Palmar de Troya” includes four 55-minute episodes following the Palmarian phenomenon from the beginning in 1968 until today. It includes testimonies by former church members including ex-Pope Gregory XVIII (Ginés Hernández) and his wife Nieves Triviño, who used to be a Palmarian nun. But there are also testimonies by other ex-bishops and ex-nuns as well as former lay members. Apart from them, some outsiders, including me, talk about El Palmar and the Palmarian Church.

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Palmarian Internet Presence

Palmarian Internet Presence

Until very recently the Palmarian Catholic Church had no official internet presence at all. Even for those actively searching, it has been difficult if not impossible to find a phone number or an email address. This was highly unusual even in the world of Catholic traditionalism. Still, in the 1990s, the church maintained a very rudimentary internet site, but it was not updated and eventually disappeared.

In December 2018, however, the Palmarians suddenly launched a professionally looking multilingual website: www.palmarianchurch.org. The site includes basic information about the Palmarian Church, the Order of the Carmelites of the Holy Face and pope Peter III. On the site, one finds a lot of images and films, mainly documenting important religious feast and the basilica in El Palmar de Troya.  There is also a growing number of texts: general overviews of the church’s history and teachings, apparition messages, extracts from official documents (including the catechism and the Palmarian Bible) and hagiographies as well as diatribes against the media and people considered enemies of the church.

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