Ngô Đình Thục
The Most Reverend Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (chữ nôm: 吴廷俶) (approximately pronounced "Ngoh Din Took" ) (October 6, 1897–December 13, 1984), Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế, Vietnam, was born in Huế, on October 6, 1897, of affluent Catholic parents. His younger brother, Ngô Đình Diệm, was president of South Vietnam. Cardinal François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (1928 - 2002) was Thuc's nephew. Thuc was the principal consecrator of Bishops Antoine Nguyên Van Thien (born 1906) and Michel Nguyên Khác Ngu (born 1909), who are currently the oldest still living Roman Catholic bishops in Vietnam. [1]
Early Ecclesiastical Career
His episcopal motto was: "Miles Christi", soldier of Christ.
Thuc entered the junior seminary in An Ninh at the age of 12. He spent eight years there before going on to study philosophy at the major seminary in Huế. After his ordination to the priesthood on December 20, 1925, he taught at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was then selected to study theology in Rome and returned to Vietnam in 1927 after being awarded three doctorates from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in philosophy, theology, and Canon law.
He then became a professor at the College of Vietnamese Brothers in Huế, a professor at the major seminary in Huế, and Dean of the College of Providence.
In 1938, at the age of 41, Father Thuc was chosen by Rome to direct the Apostolic Vicariate at Vinhlong. He was consecrated bishop on May 4, 1938, being the third Vietnamese priest raised to the rank of bishop. In 1957 Bishop Thuc founded the Dalat University. On November 24, 1960, Pope John XXIII named Bishop Thuc Archbishop of Huế.
Thuc's brother, Ngô Đình Khoi, was buried alive because of his refusal to become a minister in the first communist government. Thuc's three other brothers, Ngô Đình Diệm, president of South Vietnam, Ngô Đình Nhu and Ngô Đình Can, his close collaborators, were all assassinated. President Diệm was assassinated on November 1, 1963. Of all his siblings, only Thuc and Luyen escaped assassination. Luyen was serving as ambassador in London and Thuc had been summoned to Rome for the Second Vatican Council. After the Council (1962-1965), for political reasons and, later on, to evade execution by the communist government of Vietnam, Archbishop Thuc was not allowed to return to his duties at home and thus began his life in exile, initially in Rome, later on in Toulouse, France.
Palmar de Troya
Palmar de Troya, Spain, a town just outside of Seville, was the site of supposed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The Virgin was said to have appeared to little girls and to one adult, male visionary. The visionary and founder of the Palmar movement, Clemente Domínguez y Gómez staged ecstasies and supposedly received the stigmata. Archbishop Thuc traveled to Spain due to the intervention of Roman Catholic Canon of Grand-Saint-Bernard Rev. Maurice Revaz, who until he became convinced of the Palmar de Troya apparitions, had taught Canon Law at the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) seminary of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Ecône, Switzerland. Revaz left the SSPX for the Palmar de Troya group. Archbishop Lefebvre himself did not believe in the apparitions of Palmar de Troya and often warned his faithful of the many recent apparitions being reported; even more after Professor Rev. Revaz had left Lefebvre's traditionalist Roman Catholic seminary for "this fraudulent group in Palmar".
Archbishop Thuc however did believe the apparitions initially and agreed to provide the Palmar de Troya-based Carmelite Order of the Holy Face with Holy Orders. On January 11, 1976 Archbishop Thuc consecrated Dominguez Gomez and four others to the episcopate, after having earlier ordained two of them to the priesthood. Three of the men consecrated by Thuc had already been Roman Catholic priests for a long time: among them two diocesan priests and a Benedictine father. Since the consecrations were not done with the Pope's approval, Pope Paul VI excommunicated Archbishop Thuc.
Archbishop Thuc promptly broke with Palmar de Troya - not directly because of Paul VI's objections, but rather because he came to conclude that the Palmarian movement was deviant and illegitimate, and that the apparitions were fraudulent. He asked for the excommunication to be lifted and to receive absolution of all ecclesial penalties, to which Pope Paul VI immediately agreed.
Dominguez Gomez and his followers however proceeded to say mass, ordain their own priests and consecrate bishops for their initially vagant religious Congregation of supposed Carmelites, however in the end effectively setting up a parallel church in opposition to the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church. Upon the death of Pope Paul VI in mid 1978, Dominguez Gomez claimed to have been mystically crowned pope in a jail, only hours after the death news reached him, founding the Palmarian Catholic Church.
Sedevacantism
Archbishop Thuc then moved to Toulon in southern France, where he had been assigned a confessional in the cathedral and once even concelebrated the Mass of Paul VI (the New rite of Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969), until about 1981. Thuc lived in a poorly maintained apartment in relative poverty. Being convinced of a severe crisis devastating the Roman Catholic Church and being under increasing influence of sedevacantist activists, Archbishop Thuc proceeded to consecrate several bishops without papal mandate. On May 7, 1981 he consecrated a Dominican priest, theologian, confessor to Pius XII and former professor at the Pontifical Lateran University, Guérard des Lauriers. On October 17, 1981, he consecrated two Mexican priests and former seminary professors, Moises Carmona of Acapulco and Adolfo Zamora. Both of these priests were by then convinced, that the Papal See of Rome was vacant and the successors of Pope Pius XII were all heretical usurpators of Papal power (see Sedevacantism). In February 1982, in Munich (Sankt Michael church), Archbishop Thuc issued his declaration declaring the Holy See of Peter in Rome vacant. In his declaration he intimated he desired a restoration of the hierarchy to end the vacancy, but his newly consecrated bishops instead became a fragmented group. Nevertheless a good portion of them however did limit themselves to essential sacramental ministry and did not consecrate many other bishops.
On September 25, 1982 Thuc conditionally consecrated the formerly Old Catholic bishop, Christian Datessen. It is also alleged that during this period, Archbishop Thuc consecrated various individuals of dubious character and of independent Catholic and Old Catholic tendency, allegations which were however never substantiated by proof. Many of the dubious persons claimed to have built up and "collected" many lines of apostolic succession, from several churches and sects, both Catholic, Jacobite and Eastern Orthodox. The claims by these supposedly consecrated individuals were refuted by many sources close to Archbishop Thuc, going as far as to say those questionable persons claiming to have been consecrated by Thuc, especially a certain "bishop Roux", made up stories and falsely claimed being consecrated by Archbishop Thuc[2]. Yet other persons close to Thuc say, that on the dates of the supposed consecrations, which were only claimed after Thuc had died in 1984, Thuc had been with them in a different foreign country and not where the alleged consecration by Thuc supposedly had taken place on the same day.
Left to right: Bishop Alfredo Zamora, Archbishop Thuc, Bishop Moises Carmona-Rivera
In total, apart from the bishops consecrated by Thuc with papal mandates in Vietnam, Thuc consecrated five bishops at Palmar de Troya, three sedevacantists in 1981, and provided an episcopal ordination sub conditione to three clerics, who presented themselves to Thuc as formerly Old Catholic clerics intended on joining the Roman Catholic Church in its traditionalist faction. This makes a total of eleven. These eleven bishops consecrated by Thuc rapidly proceeded to consecrate other bishops for all kinds of Roman Catholic splinter groups, a large portion of them Sedevacantists.
Shortly after the Datessen consecration, Archbishop Thuc departed for the United States at the invitation of Bishop Louis Vezelis O.F.M., a Franciscan former missionary priest who had agreed to receive episcopal consecration by a Thuc line bishop; in Vezelis' New York State friary Thuc took up residence.
It is alleged (by the Vezelis group in particular) that Archbishop Thuc was "abducted" by a group of Vietnamese priests while in New York and was taken to a Vietnamese monastery, recognized by the Roman Catholic diocese, in Missouri and hidden away from the contact of his (sedevacantist) friends. There he was subsequently held incommunicado. A range of wild conspiracy theories exist as to Thuc's "disappearing" from the publicly sedevacantist movement. It is however equally possible for Thuc to have joined his Vietnamese confrères after coming to the conclusion that his engagement in sedevacantism was not licit after all, or just for nostalgic reasons. It is a fact though, that Thuc posed in clerical garment with more conservative Vietnamese "Novus Ordo" clerics (priests and one bishop) during this period (1982 - 1984) [3]. His Vietnamese Catholic countrymen in exile continued, despite the illicit episcopal consecrations and despite his (formerly) open sedevacantism, to view Thuc with the greatest respect and to honour him as a brave prelate. This veneration might be linked also to the assassination of his brother-president in 1963. An ethnically Vietnamese website exists honouring Thuc, but mentions no word about the illicit episcopal consecrations [4].
It is possible he returned to union with John Paul II and abjured his former position of Sedevacantism although there is no confirmation one way or the other. Under these uncertain circumstances in the United States, Archbishop Thuc died on December 13, 1984, at Carthage, Missouri, USA.
Controversy
Some opponents of Thuc and even some sedevacantists claim that the Thuc-line episcopal consecrations might have been invalid because they allege Archbishop Thuc was no longer in mental capacity. This opposition however was sufficiently refuted by several authors. [5] Pio Cardinal Laghi, Vatican diplomat and papal nuncio to the United States, said the episcopal consecrations and subsequent ordinations and consecrations are "illicit, but valid". The Holy See itself recognized and regularized Thuc-line priest and bishop Alfred Seiwert-Fleige, who was reconciled by John Paul II. Seiwert-Fleige was allowed to function publicly as a priest, though was ordered to lay down his episcopal dignity. His Holy Orders were recognized as entirely valid. Seiwert-Fleige publicly concelebrated at a papal Mass of John Paul II at St. Peter's Square (Vatican City) in 2001. Ngo Dinh Thuc was also in mental capacity during his consecrations, as the excommunication decrees issued against Ngo Dinh Thuc and consecrated clergymen attest to this, because these do not question the sacramental validity of the Holy Orders conferred. By information of other sources it is also alleged, that the Vatican curial dicasteries have kept registries of all the Thuc-line bishops as valid episcopi vagantes. This is a logical procedure of the Vatican, as Roman Catholic doctrine requires only a valid bishop, a valid Catholic rite (Thuc used the old form of the Latin Roman Pontifical for episcopal consecrations), and imposition of hands. If these three conditions are fulfilled, a sacrament is to be considered as valid, unless the celebrant himself openly and publicly claimed of having an intention contrary to what the Church intends the rite to mean and confer.
In addition to the consecrations above, Archbishop Thuc conditionally re-consecrated the following bishops who formerly belonged to the Old Catholic Church; Jean Laborie on February 8, 1977, and Christian Datessen on September 25, 1982. Laborie and Datessen founded their own missions. Reportedly, Archbishop Thuc conditionally re-consecrated Michel Fernandez and Jean-Marie Roger Kozik, both formerly of the Palmarian Carmelites of the Holy Face (they left when the Palmar leader declared himself "pope"), on October 19, 1978 and who returned to more or less traditionalist Roman Catholicism as episcopi vagantes. Kozik and Fernandez had been ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood by Thuc at Palmar in 1975.
It has been reported, but remains unconfirmed that Archbishop Thuc also consecrated Labat d'Arnoux on July 10, 1976, Claude Nanta de Torrini on March 19, 1977. Probably these consecrations did not take place.
Finally, there is the case of the episcopus vagans Jean Gerard Roux. Roux alleges that he was consecrated by Archbishop Thuc on April 18, 1982. However, it is reported that he was consecrated earlier and later by other vagant bishops. There remains a cloud of doubt concerning the circumstances of Roux's ordination and consecration. As a vagus who is known for having been engaged in other ways of fraudulently asserting titles and honours, Roux should be considered as not consecrated, especially given the reports under oath, that Thuc was not with Roux on the date given by Roux as his supposed consecration. Archbishop Thuc was with the Heller family in Munich on the given date (April 18th) and therefore could not have consecrated a man on the very same day in Nice.[6] Because of Thuc having ordained several bishops without apostolic mandate of the Pope, and because of him being a well-known, doubtlessly valid, Roman Catholic bishop, many vagant bishops and others posing as clergy, claim succession from him as well as from many other Roman Catholic bishops, without in reality having been ordained in his apostolic succession.
References
- ^ Van Thien - Roman Catholic Hierarchy; Khac Ngu - Roman Catholic Hierarchy
- ^ Anthony Chadwick on Jean-Gérard Roux: 'A pathological Liar'
- ^ Photo of Thuc with Vietnamese clerics I; Photo of Thuc with Vietnamese clerics II
- ^ Website in Vietnamese on Archbishop Ngô dinh Thuc
- ^ On the validity of the Ngô Dinh Thuc consecrations. By Rev. Anthony Cekada.
- ^ Einsicht - Röm.-Kath. Zeitschrift, Dr. E. Heller, December 1993, page 95. "Da sich der Erzbischof, den ich am 29. Januar 1982 in Nizza mit dem Flugzeug abgeholt hatte, zu diesem Zeitpunkt in München befand- er flog erst am 1. Mai 1982 wieder von München nach Nizza (Abflug: 15 Uhr 35, Ankunft: 17 Uhr 05), wo er von Herrn Norrant mit dem Auto abgeholt wurde -, kann eine Weihe zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht erfolgt sein."
External links
- In Memoriam Monsigneur Peter Martin Ngo-Dinh-Thuc by M.L. Guerard des Lauriers, O.P.
- The Thuc consecrations' history and backgrounds - Please note: some of this website's claims about supposed occultism of subsequently consecrated priests, are grossly exaggerated or simply incorrect, along with some other commentaries. The names of the "churches" below each consecrated male, are mostly vagant congregations not erected as separate churches.
- Sedevacantist Declaration of Archbishop Thuc
- PDF Document of Einsicht, 1982 - Includes Photographic Documentation of most of Archbishop Thuc's consecrations
- A critical evaluation of the validity of the episcopal consecrations conferred by Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, according to Roman Catholic standards.
- "Archbishop Thuc: a brief defense by sedevacantist bishop Daniel Dolan.
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