The Palmarian Catholic Church (One Holy Catholic Apostolic and Palmarian Church) is a schismatic Catholic sect with its own pope, Peter II. He is a rival pope, or antipope, to Pope Benedict XVI, who is generally regarded as the legitimate pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Palmarian Church was established in 1975 by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, an insurance broker from Seville, Spain, who claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to him at a shrine outside the small village of El Palmar de Troya in Andalucia with instructions to rid the Roman Catholic Church of "heresy and progressivism."

He set up his own Holy See in Seville in 1978 claiming he had been mystically crowned Pope by Jesus Christ in a vision. He took the name Pope Gregory XVII and named his own cardinals. Uniquely, the Popes of the Palmarian Church do not claim to be the titular Bishop of Rome. Rather, they claim that Jesus mystically transferred the position of Patriarch of the West and Supreme Pontiff to the episcopal see of Palmar de Troya. This is a departure from traditional Catholic doctrine, which holds that personal revelations are not universally binding on the whole Church.

The Palmarian Church claims to have 60 priests (all of whom are bishops), 70 nuns and 2,000

Palmarian Pope Gregory XVII called the body generally recognized as the Catholic Church a false church, saying "John Paul is seated on Rome's seven hills and holds in his hand the golden cup of filth and fornication." He excommunicated Pope John Paul II. He also canonized Francisco Franco and Christopher Columbus as saints.

Upon Domínguez' death in March 2005, Manuel Alonso Corral succeeded him as the Palmarian Pope Peter II. According to the Prophecy of the Popes (controversially accredited to St. Malachy of Ireland and deemed a forgery by many Catholics and secular scholars alike), "Petrus Romanus" (Peter the Roman) would be the final Pope.

Popes of the Palmarian Catholic Church

• Pope Gregory XVII (Clemente Domínguez y Gómez) - Reigned August 1978 to March 2005
• Pope Peter II (Manuel Alonso Corral) - Reigning Palmarian Pontiff, reign began April 2005

(until the death of Pope Paul VI, Palmarian Catholics generally accept the conventional succession of Roman Pontiffs as valid)

Notes

The original version of this article was adapted from "A million gather for Pope's 'last words' to Spain" by Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid.

Also of note, in The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, a professor at Jordan College is the Palmarian Professor. Palmarianisch-Katholische Kirche Kościół Palmariański