Moisés Carmona

Moisés Carmona Rivera
ChurchIglesia Divina Providencia (Divine Providence Church), Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Orders
OrdinationNovember 1939
by Leopoldo Díaz y Escudero
Consecration17 October 1981
by Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục
Personal details
BornMoisés Carmona y Rivera
(1912-10-31)31 October 1912
Died1 November 1991(1991-11-01) (aged 79)
Mexico
DenominationSedevacantist Catholic
Ordination history of
Moisés Carmona
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byLeopoldo Díaz y Escudero
DateNovember 1939
PlaceMexico
Episcopal consecration
Consecrated byPierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục
Date17 October 1981
PlaceToulon, France
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Moisés Carmona as principal consecrator
George Musey1 April 1982
Benigno Bravo18 June 1982
Roberto Martínez y Gutiérrez18 June 1982
Mark Pivarunas, CMRI24 September 1991

Moisés Carmona Rivera (31 October 1912 – 1 November 1991) was a Mexican Catholic priest from Acapulco, Guerrero, who as the leader of the Unión Católica Trento (“Tridentine Catholic Union”) became a sedevacantist traditionalist Catholic bishop. He was declared excommunicated by the pro-Vatican Metropolitan Archbishop of Acapulco in 1980.[1] His consecration as a bishop was carried out in 1981 by Vietnamese clergyman, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, without the permission of the Vatican.[2][3][4]

Biography

In November 1939, Carmona was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church by Leopoldo Díaz y Escudero, Bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa.[5] Carmona became a seminary professor.[6]

In the aftermath of the liberalising changes in the Catholic world following the Second Vatican Council, in the 1970s, Carmona became a strong supporter of the Mexican former Jesuit priest and pioneer of sedevacantism, Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga. With him, he was involved in creating the journal Trento, through which traditionalist and sedevacantist ideas were promoted.[7] After the death of Sáenz y Arriaga, Carmona became the de facto leader of Mexican sedevacantism and founded the Unión Católica Trento (“Tridentine Catholic Union”) in January 1977, along with Fr. Adolfo Zamora, heavily supervised by the Mexican integrist secret society Los TECOS.[7]

On 30 April 1980, Rafael Bello Ruiz, the Vatican's Metropolitan Archbishop of Acapulco, issued a statement claiming to excommunicate Moisés Carmona from the Roman Catholic Church.[1]

In 1981, Carmona and Zamora were brought by the German sedevacantists Dr Eberhard Heller and Dr Kurt Hiller to the Vietnamese sedevacantist bishop Ngô Đình Thục in Toulon, France. Thục consecrated them bishops[4] in Toulon on 17 October 1981, which led to his excommunication.[3][8]

Carmona went on to consecrate four more purported bishops: Mexicans Benigno Bravo and Roberto Martinez y Gutiérrez, and Americans George Musey and Mark Pivarunas.[8]

Carmona died on 1 November 1991, one day after his 79th birthday, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.[9]

In 1996, Carmona's body was exhumed and transferred by Martín Dávila Gandara of the SST to a crypt in a lower chapel below the Divine Providence Church. Gandara claimed that during the transference, Carmona's body showed no signs of decomposition, and that pictures taken of him when his body was put into the crypt looked the same at the time of his funeral.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Martínez Villegas, Austreberto (2015-06-01). "La conformación de corrientes identitarias en el tradicionalismo católico en México en los años posteriores al Concilio Vaticano II" (PDF). Caleido-Scopio 32 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  2. ^ Ward, Gary L.; Persson, Bertil; Bain, Alan, eds. (1990). "Rivera, Moisés Carmona". Independent Bishops: An International Directory. Preface by J. Gordon Melton. Apogee Books. p. 343. ISBN 978-1-55888-307-9.
  3. ^ a b Einsicht (May 1983). Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b Vatican. "Notification". In L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 18 April 1983, Page 12.
  5. ^ Dr. Eberhard Heller. "In Erinnerung an Bischof Moises Camora Rivera". In: Einsicht 21 (1991) pag. 89-98.
  6. ^ "Curriculum Vitae del R.P. Moises Carmona Rivera," Einsicht, German ed., (Mar., 1982), p.24
  7. ^ a b Martínez Villegas, Austreberto (2015-01-01). "Fragmentación católica sedevacantista en Guadalajara" (PDF). Estudios Jaliscienses 99 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  8. ^ a b Cuneo, Michael F. (1997). The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 99. ISBN 9780195113501.
  9. ^ a b "Adsum (October 2016)" (PDF). Mater Dei Seminary. Retrieved 16 February 2021.