True Catholic Church

The true Catholic Church (tCC) is a Roman Catholic conclavist group with a claimed membership of around 90 families worldwide. It regards the Roman Catholic Church as an apostate, un-Catholic organisation, and claims that it is the true and legitimate Catholic Church founded by Christ (the word "true", with a lower-case "t", is used in its title solely to distinguish it from the mainstream Roman Catholic Church). Roman Catholics regard it as a schismatic sect.

The tCC's leader, Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, resides in the United States, in Springdale, Washington. He claims the title of "Pope Pius XIII": the tCC's members believe that the papacy was vacant between the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958 and their election of Fr. Pulvermacher as pope in October 1998.

Election of pope
Pulvermacher's election as pope was the third such conclavist papal election to be held: the first took place in Kansas, USA in 1990, and elected David Bawden as Pope Michael, while the second took place in Assisi, Italy in 1994, and elected Fr. Victor von Pentz as Pope Linus II. The tCC rejects the first election on the basis that Bawden was elected by his parents, a lady friend and one other couple. The second election is rejected on the grounds that it allegedly involved non-Catholic electors.

The tCC claims that the papal throne was left vacant in 1958 because Angelo Roncalli, who emerged from the 1958 conclave as Pope John XXIII, was in fact ineligible for election to the papacy. It is claimed that he had become a Freemason in 1935 while serving as papal nuncio to Turkey: such an act would have earned him automatic excommunication under Catholic canon law. Mainstream Catholics do not take such claims seriously. The tCC maintains that none of John XXIII's successors (Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI) have been true Catholics, and that they have all hence been ineligible for the papacy.

In 2002, it was revealed that Fr. Pulvermacher has practiced pendulum divination since his time as a seminarian. He does not dispute this, but maintains that the practice is not occult in nature, but rather is a type of God-given natural science. Gordon Bateman, his principal collaborator and one of his cardinals, dissociated himself from the tCC as a result.

Beliefs of the tCC
The tCC holds to the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church as they existed prior to the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 ("Vatican II"). It vigorously denounces the changes within Catholicism associated with Vatican II, which it regards as invalid. It affirms that the acts and policies of the church leadership since Vatican II have violated fundamental principles of Catholicism.

A distinctive feature of the tCC's worship, which it shares with other, larger Traditionalist Catholic groups, is its continued use of the Latin-language Tridentine rite of Mass. In the Catholic Church, the Tridentine rite has been almost entirely superseded by a revised liturgy which was introduced in 1969 by Paul VI as part of the reform programme that followed Vatican II. The tCC holds that such action by Paul VI has no weight because Paul VI was never the pope, that the new rite is un-Catholic, and that the Liturgy of the Mass was locked in place by Pope Pius V in the 16th century.

Criticism
While a simple priest such as Fr. Pulvermacher (or, indeed, a layman) can be validly elected to the papacy under Catholic canon law, the tCC's critics claim that neither Pulvermacher nor any other members of the tCC possess episcopal orders. The tCC hence (it is claimed) has no connection to the historical episcopate and no means of transmitting holy orders to future generations of its membership. No bishop was found to consecrate Fr. Pulvermacher after his election, and so the latter, purporting to use the plenary powers of the papacy, granted himself authority to consecrate Gordon Bateman as a bishop, and Bateman subsequently consecrated him. Whether or not a pope has the power to grant a simple priest faculties to consecrate bishops is a disputed question, however.

Size of membership
The tCC claims a worldwide membership, though the available evidence suggests that its adherents are few in number. The number of people who participated in the 1998 papal election has never been disclosed, but the tCC states that more electors voted for Fr. Pulvermacher than had voted for Pius XII in the 1938 conclave in Rome; according to some reports, 61 cardinals cast their ballots for Pius XII. Fr. Pulvermacher's (alleged) consecration to the episcopate was attended by 28 people.

As of June 2006, the tCC has two priests, Fr. Pulvermacher/Pius XIII and an American named Robert Lyons whom he ordained in June 2000. Fr. Lyons is married, but it is acknowledged that the usual obligation of clerical celibacy derives only from church law rather than from divine law, and that some married priests exist in the "official" Catholic Church. Such married priests are primarily Eastern Catholics (who have never had any disciplinary requirement of celibacy for diocesan, "non-monastic" clergy) and married clergy who have converted from other Christian denominations. Regardless, married priests are barred from rising to the rank of Bishop while married (i.e. while their spouse remains living).

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