Clemente Domínguez y Gómez

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez
Pope Gregory XVII
Church	Palmarian Catholic Church
Papacy began	6 August 1978
Papacy ended	22 March 2005
Predecessor	Paul VI
Successor	Peter II
Opposed to	John Paul I John Paul II
Personal details
Born	(1946-05-23)23 May 1946
Died	22 March 2005(2005-03-22) (aged 58)
Nationality	Spanish

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (23 May 1946 – 22 March 2005) was a self-proclaimed successor of Pope Paul VI, and was recognised as Pope Gregory XVII by supporters of the Palmarian Catholic Church breakway movement in 1978. His claim was not taken seriously by mainstream Roman Catholics, the vast majority of whom were unaware of his existence.

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez was born in Seville, Spain. He was known as la Voltio ("the she-volt") among the Seville gays. He became closely associated with the Palmar de Troya movement, which had its origins in an alleged apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 30 March 1968 in El Palmar de Troya, a little village near Utrera in the Province of Seville. He claimed to have experienced visions of the Virgin Mary from 30 September 1969. He claimed that the Virgin in her messages condemned heresy and what was called progressivism, namely the reform of the Catholic Church underway as a result of Vatican II. His followers claimed he possessed the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus after crucifixion, on his hands. However, the Catholic Church cast doubts on the legitimacy of the alleged visions and apparitions.

Clemente Domínguez' claim to be the Pope of the Catholic Church remains unaccepted by Roman Catholics, who accepted Pope John Paul I (1978) and Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) as the true successors of Pope Paul VI.

In December 1975, Clemente Domínguez founded his own religious order, The Carmelites of the Holy Face, allegedly upon instructions from the Blessed Virgin Mary in an apparition. Domínguez, who assumed the name Fr. Ferdinand, was ordained bishop by Roman Catholic Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục. Archbishop Thục was subsequently excommunicated for his ordinations, which were deemed valid but illicit. (Although Archbishop Thuc had the power to ordain he did not have the authority to do so from Pope Paul VI, which is a requirement for licit episcopal holy orders in Roman Catholicism.) The ordinations and the validity of Domínguez' "mission" were disputed by the Spanish Roman Catholic hierarchy.