Category: Palmarian Catholic Church

The Palmarian Church and the End of the World: Apocalypse Soon

The Palmarian Church and the End of the World: Apocalypse Soon

In the last days, the Palmarian church has been in the center of attention. The news about pope Gregory XVIII leaving the church and the coronation of this sucessor Peter III have received ample coverage, at least in Spanish media. See my contributions Unexpected Changes in the Palmarian Church  and The Palmarian Pope Has Resigned and is Succeeded by Peter III

The question is what is going to happen to the church now. Will there be a large exodus of members? Will the church even attract new ones? Will there be splinter groups, who claim that they are the true followers of the messages of Palmar de Troya. It is very hard to know. What can be studied, however, are the official Palmarian teachings about the future and the end of the world, i.e. the world of Palmarian apocalyptics

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The Palmarian Pope Has Resigned and is Succeeded by Peter III

The Palmarian Pope Has Resigned and is Succeeded by Peter III

Today, on 22 April 2016, the Palmarian pope Gregory XVIII (2011-2016) resigned. According to my sources of information, he abandoned the church compound without out making a declaration to the faithful. Nevertheless, he left a letter, stating that he “had lost the faith”.

Tomorrow, 23 April the name of the new pope will be announced. In all likelihood, Gregory XVIII will be succeeded by his former Secretary of State, Bishop Eliseo María, a Swiss. See my contribution Unexpected Changes in the Palmarian Church

To be continued …

Habemus Papam! Today, on 23 April 2016, a new pope pope was installed in the Palmarian Church.  As expected it is Eliseo María, a Swiss bishop, originally called Markus Josef Odermatt. He has taken the papal name Peter III. According to my informants, he will probably continue the relaxation of the rules, which Gregory XVIII began during the last part of his papacy. This is quite interesting. A Palmarian revolution might be on it’s way.

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Unexpected Changes in the Palmarian Church

Unexpected Changes in the Palmarian Church

For many years I have devoted much time to research about the Palmarian Church, a traditionalist group with its centre in southern Spain that has roots in the Catholic Church, but which developed increasingly different teachings built on private revelations. For a detailed study, see my research report (2015).

In the last months, there have been unexpected and great changes in this very closed group. The extremely strict dress code for members has been liberalized and there are even reports that nuns, who used to be entirely covered, are not using veils anymore. A truly remarkable development (See documents below).

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Testimony by a former Palmarian nun

Testimony by a former Palmarian nun

Maria Hall

Reparation: A Spiritual Journey

Haven Pablishing, 2015

Maria Hall is from Auckland, New Zealand. After some time in a Roman Catholic order in the late 1970s, she spent eight years as a nun in the  Palmarian Church, a religious group which by that time had its hadquarters in Seville and Palmar de Troya in Spanish Andalusia. It is a very closed group with roots in the Roman Catholic Church, which has its own pope and has developed increasingly different teachings. Maria Hall left the Palmarians in 1990. She tells her life story in her new book Reparation: A Spritual Journey, which is the first longer text, written by a former Palmarian nun.

Having read the book, I wrote a message to her, parts of which I publish here:

“I was deeply moved when reading your book: Reparation, a spiritual journey. It is very interesting to see how life can turn out with or without our active choices.

Reading about your time in the Roman Catholic convent, I, of course, recognize the Catholic culture of silence and secrecy, and how relatively little women religious are valued by church authorities.

—

The life in Palmar, as you describe it, feels so claustrophobic. There seemed to be very little charity within the order and a lot of focus on suffering and reparation. Sleep-deprivation, too much or too little food, very hard work, and the enormous amount of prayers and other pious practices make for a very tough life. I also note the almost total invisibility of Pope Gregory, and that Father Isidoro María really was the puppet master Continue reading “Testimony by a former Palmarian nun” →

Bibliography on the Palmarian Church

Here is a select bibliography of published works on the Palmarian Catholic Church.

Alonso, Javier & Rafael Canales. 1976. El Palmar de Troya: Festival del integrismo. Madrid: Sedmay Ediciones.

Barrios, Manuel & María Teresa Garrido Conde. 1976. El apasionante misterio del Palmar de Troya. Barcelona: Planeta.

Beltrán y Bachero, José Carlos. 1989. “Unerlaubte bzw. ungültige Priester und Bischofsweihen in El Palmar de Troya.” Pp. 419-433 in Ius et historia: Festgabe für Rudolf Weigand zu seinem 60 Geburtstag. Würzburg: Echter.

Cadoret-Abeles, Anne. 1981. “Les apparitions du Palmar de Troya: Analyse antropologique d’un phénomène religieux.” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 17, 369-378.

Cebolla López, Fermín. 1976. El vidente ciego: Cisma sin teólogos en El Palmar de Troya. Bilbao: Editorial CLA.

Garrido Vázquez, Moisés. 2004. “El Palmar de Troya: 35 años de cisma.” Chapter 6 in El negocio de la Virgen, Madrid: Ediciones Nowtilus.

Garrido Vázquez, Moisés. 2008. “El Palmar de Troya: Cuatro décadas de integrismo mariano”, Misterios y fenómenos insólitos 84, 4-12. Accessed from on 12 August 2015

Gómez Burón, Joaquín & Antonio Martín Alonso 1976. El enigma de El Palmar de Troya, Barcelona: Editorial Personas.

Hall, Maria. 2015. Reparation: A Spiritual Journey, Haven Publishing, 2015.

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The Palmarian Church

The Palmarian Church

Apart from my main research area (colonial Latin America) for many years I have done research on the Palmarian Catholic Church, a Spanish dissenter group or, if one prefers, a new religious movement. The church has a basis in purported apparitions of Christ, the Virgin Mary and many other saints at Andalusian Palmar de Troya from the late 1960s onwards. Through the 1970, the group around the leaders Clemente Domínguez and Manuel Alonso. A new religious order was founded, clerics were ordained and consecrated and in 1978, at the death of Pope Paul VI, Clemente Domínguez claimed that he was divinely elected pope. The church of Rome had apostatisized and the Holy See was moved to Palmar de Troya. I have published two articles on the church, its organization and beliefs. One is a briefer profile, while the other is a 60-page article. They can be consulted here: Articles about the Palmarian Church

Here is another article about the Palmarians, published in Nova Religio in 2013.