THE STRANGE CASE OF CANON REVAZ, THE SSPX AND THE THUCites
One final example of "Flat-earthism": Mr Terrence Boyle has provided a wonderful service to the Church and to those who are interested in Church history. On one particular web-page he outlines the history of the THUCite line - truly a multitude of "bishops" - a veritable diabolic "legion"! He traces the commencement of the line to Econe (41): "The second complex lineage case is that of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin, a brother of Ngo Dinh Diem Jean Baptiste, the first President of the Republic of Viet Nam, who was murdered in November 1963.
"In the mid-1970s, the lonely, depressed and impoverished Msgr. Ngo was befriended by Rev. Maurice Revaz, a Swiss priest who, at that time, was teaching canon law at the traditionalist seminary of the Sacerdotal Society of St. Pius X that Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus Marcel Lefebvre has established in Econe, Switzerland."
"Throughout the 1970s many traditionalist clergy and laity in Europe and America were expressing impatience over Msgr. Lefebvre's then reluctance to consecrate traditionalist bishops."
"Canon Revaz, for his part, had even become convinced that the real Pope Paul VI was being held prisoner in a Vatican dungeon, with an imposter playing his role as Pope."
"Around 1976 Canon Revaz heard there was a lay group near Seville, Spain, that was also convinced that Paul VI was a prisoner in the Vatican. He began corresponding with its two leaders, Clemente Dominguez Gomez and Manuel Alonso Corral, who both for several years had been saying that they were receiving visions of Our Lord and Our Lady."
"Canon Revaz, after a trip to Rome and an unsuccessful attempt to find, and liberate, the imprisoned Pope Paul VI, left the Econe seminary permanently, and went to Spain along with two companions, an Irish woman visionary who claimed to be receiving visions from the incarcerated Pope, and a German nun, Sr. Cherubina, who for some time had been working at the SSPX seminary."
"Canon Revaz had gotten to know Msgr. Ngo, both from making many visits to Rome, where the exiled Archbishop had been living since 1963, and from a trip that Msgr. Ngo had once made to the seminary in Econe. Revaz convinced the Archbishop to go to Spain and to consecrate priests and bishops for the Dominguez/Alonso group."
"There are reports, from sources very hostile to Msgr. Ngo, that Canon Revaz and his companions persuaded Msgr. Ngo to perform the ordinations and consecrations by convincing him that a bi-locating Pope Paul VI (the real, imprisoned, one, not the imposter) had appeared in Spain and approved the idea."
"At any event, within days of the ordinations and the consecrations that Msgr. Ngo performed in Spain, the Vatican announced publicly that Archbishop Ngo had been automatically excommunicated for attempting to consecrate bishops without a Papal mandate. Msgr. Ngo, however, quickly expressed regret for his actions in Spain and sought forgiveness from the Vatican. The excommunication was then lifted."
"The Dominguez/Alonso group, however, went on without him. Its newly made bishops within weeks started ordaining priests and consecrating bishops and, at the death of Paul VI in 1978, they declared themselves the Holy Palmarian Church (the 'Iglesia Una, Santa, Catholica, Apostolica y Palmariana'). And, right after the lifting of his excommunication, Archbishop Ngo was again back to consecrating independent bishops. This time, the consecrations were for a wide variety of groups, including sedevacantists loosely grouped under the name Tridentine Latin Rite Church."
"Finally, some years before his death, Msgr. Ngo agreed also to perform a number of consecrations for a wide assortment of splinter groups, some of them not even Roman Catholic. Excommunicated a second time for these later consecrations, Msgr. Ngo moved to Rochester, NY, where for a few years he lived with an independent bishop (who had been consecrated by one of the bishops whom Msgr. Ngo had earlier consecrated for the Tridentine Latin Rite Church). While he was living in upstate New York, Msgr. Ngo was invited to New York City to attend a conference of exiled Vietnamese. While there, he was persuaded to join (some say, was kidnapped by) some emigre Vietnamese who were living in a monastery in Missouri and loyal to the Vatican. Shortly after arriving there, Msgr. Ngo died. Upon his death, the Vatican released a statement saying that he had recently asked for, and had received, John Paul II's forgiveness."
"Msgr. Ngo's lineage includes the broadest conceivable spectrum of theologies likely ever to be held by men all claiming to possess valid 'Catholic' priestly and episcopal orders derived from a single prelate alive in their lifetimes. The spectrum ranges from the head of a French Satanist sect all the way to the strictest of Traditional Roman Catholics. Needless to say, there are critics of both the liceity and validity of the various 'Thuc lineage' episcopal consecrations. This web address contains an (42) essay denying validity." ( http://www.tboyle.net/Catholicism/Thuc_Consecrations.html )
END QUOTE FROM TERRY BOYLE
As could be expected, Canon Revas was consecrated a bishop of the Holy Palmarian Church, and the much vaunted writer of The Ottaviani Intervention, Fr. Michel Louis Gurard des Lauriers, O.P., was also consecrated a bishop by the senile Archbishop Ngo-Dinh-Thuc; furthermore, upon the death of Pope Paul VI, Clemente Dominguez Gomez had himself proclaimed Pope Gregory XVII.
CONCLUSION
"What is to be learned from all this? It appears to me that 'traditionalism' takes on the appearances of Catholicism - it has all of the bells and smells that we knew and appreciated as being ostensibly Catholic. But the practical infidelity of the 'traditionalists' to the Holy See portrays a basic unbelief in Christ's promises; in effect they say that Christ's words should have been amended to something like this: 'And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it - that is, not until the days of Vatican Council II, when the gates of hell shall so prevail. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven - save and except that subsequent to Vatican Council II all such power shall be invested in Marcel Lefebvre and his successors. In the event, however, of a believer or group of believers not adhering to the above named Marcel Lefebvre or his successors, then the believer may select an alternative 'Independent' bishop or priest of the believer's choice in which to vest the above mentioned authority."
One could go on and on! We can only pray that the truth of the situation penetrate the souls of all who are no longer in full communion with the See of Peter, and that it is sooner rather than later.
F. John Loughnan jloughnan@hotmail.com July 30, 1999