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{{Short description|Mexican priest and theologian (1899–1976)}}
{{Short description|Mexican priest and theologian (1899–1976)}}
{{Proposed deletion/dated
|concern = There is nothing in the article that indicates this person is notable. There is an enormous amount about his biography, but nothing indicates he fulfills notability requirements. The highest it can be put is that he founded an organisation called Union Catolica Trento, an organisation which returns very few Google results and there is only one cited source in the article for and it is a seemingly self-published book without an ISBN. Also, he was "connected" with Los TECOS, but the nature of the connection is completely unarticulated so there is no way to know whether that might in some way make him notable. There is also reference to his excommunication but the only detail about that is a quote from someone saying that his excommunication was outrageous (this is in marked contradistinction to the detail about his family life, which is copious, for some reason). This strongly tends to suggest the article is not written from a neutral point of view. More generally, the only sources are extremely obscure ones, and many of the main ones it is impossible to verify if they actually exist (see in particular "Rius Facius").
|timestamp = 20250805034808
|nom = CountryLad
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{{Infobox Christian leader
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = priest
| type = priest

Revision as of 03:48, 5 August 2025

Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga
Orders
Ordination30 April 1930
by Francisco Orozco y Jiménez, Templo de San Felipe de Jesús, Mexico City
Personal details
Born12 October 1899
Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico[1]
Died28 April 1976 (aged 76)
Mexico City
BuriedPanteón Francés de la Piedad
NationalityMexican
ParentsRafael Sáenz y Arriaga & Magdalena Arriaga Burgos de Sáenz
ProfessionPriest, writer, theologian
EducationTheology, philosophy, canon law
Alma materPontifical Gregorian University

Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga (12 October 1899 – 28 April 1976) was a Mexican Catholic priest and theologian sedevacantist who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He was associated with the secret society Los TECOS.[2][3][4][5]

He died of prostate cancer on 28 April 1976.[6]

Biography

Background

Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga was born on 12 October 1899 to Rafael Sáenz Arciga (born 1863) and Magdalena Arriaga Burgos de Sáenz (born 1862) in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.[1] His parents were both of Spanish ancestry and Old Christian heritage.[7] Part of a large Catholic family, Joaquín was the tenth child of thirteen. The brother of his grandmother was José Ignacio Arciga, Metropolitan Archbishop of Michoacán in the mid-19th century.[7]

As a child, Joaquín showed an interest in a priestly vocation from a young age. At the age of ten in his Morelia home, he had a small altar erected where he would "play priest" with his brothers Luis and Pablo, who would "serve" as his acolytes during simulations of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.[1] This included sermons to his brothers and friends. His religious piety and knowledge of Catholic doctrine was influenced greatly by his mother.[1] For school, he attended the Scientific Institute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ran by Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and achieved a diploma.[8]

Society of Jesus

Intending to join the Carthusians as a teenager, as he was drawn to the life of quiet contemplation, he was convinced instead by the local ordinary Leopoldo Ruiz y Flóres, the Archbishop of Michoacán, that his talents were more suited as a "soldier for Christ" in the Society of Jesus.[8] He set sail to Spain in 1916 and after visiting the Sanctuary of Loyola at the birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola, he entered the Jesuit seminary at Santander.[8] His brother Luis Sáenz y Arriaga had been ordained a priest in 1911 after having studied at the Pontifical Latin American College (though he died in 1917 after contracting typhus while aiding needy patients).[9]

As was usual for a Jesuit seminarian, he moved around to different cities in Spain, spending the years from 1918 to 1922 in Granada, Andalusia. Here he studied Literature, Humanities and Philosophy. While in Granada he made his perpetual vows of poverty, obedience and chastity in the Society of Jesus on 16 September 1918. He moved again in 1923 to Sarrià, Barcelona, Catalonia attending the St. Ignatius College, Barcelona, where he studied Rhetoric and continued his studies in Philosophy.[10]

Sáenz as a young seminarian in Barcelona, Spain, 1923

Along with another seminarian, José Bravo, he was sent to Granada, Nicaragua, where he was assigned to teach at the Central American School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, where he taught primary school children, as well as assisting the perfect (a role he would eventually fill). He was in Nicaragua from 1924 until early March 1926, where he was sent to visit the Jesuit seminary at La Libertad, El Salvador, as he had a growing reputation for his intellectual prowesss. However, a personality clash with the Father Superior of the Jesuit seminary in El Salvador saw him continue on to his home nation of Mexico at Puebla.[11] He would return back to Spain to complete his studies in Theology at the St. Ignatius College, Barcelona. He was visited by Mexicans here, such as future politician Miguel Estrada Iturbide and was kept informed of the difficulties of the Catholic Church in Mexico due to rising government persecution.[11]

For his second and third years of Theology studies, in 1927 he was sent to the Jesuit seminary of Woodstock College in Woodstock, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore, in the United States. Here he earned diplomas in Theology, Philosophy and Canon law, which bore the signatures of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Wlodimir Ledóchowski) and the Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Giuseppe Gianfranceschi).[12] Back in his homeland of Mexico at this time the situation had radicalised for Catholics with the ascent to power of Plutarco Elías Calles, an anticlerical Freemason, who had brought in the so-called Calles Law which targeted Catholicism; a rebellion against these anticlerical and secularist measures known as the Cristero War was taking place. Sáenz y Arriaga attempted to aid the Cristeros by lobbying ecclesiastical authorities in the United States, relaying news and information from his peer on the ground Leopoldo Lara y Torres, the Bishop of Tacámbaro. With an official end to the militant aspect of the rebellion, Mexican religious living abroad were permitted to return home and so Sáenz y Arriaga returned to Mexico in July 1929 having completed his studies.[13]

The Jesuit St. Andrew-on-Hudson Novitiate, Poughkeepsie, New York. Sáenz y Arriaga taught Ignatian spiritual expercises here in the early 1930s.

Upon his return to Mexico, he was assigned to teach English at the Colegio de San José in Guadalajara, Jalisco.[13] It was while living in this city, that he was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church on 30 April 1930 at the Church of St. Philip of Jesus.[13] He was ordained by the local ordinary, Francisco Orozco y Jiménez, Archbishop of Guadalajara and the apostolic witness was his old friend Leopoldo Lara y Torres, Bishop of Tacámbaro. His uncle, Canon Rafael Sáenz Arciga, was also in attendance. At the same church, he celebrated his first public Holy Mass on 2 May 1930.[13]

Soon after, he returned to the United States for two years, completing a fourth year of Theology study at the Woodstock College, Maryland before moving on to Poughkeepsie, New York, at the St. Andrew-on-Hudson Novitiate, where he delivered Ignatian spiritual exercises.[14] While in New York, he also visited Columbia University, becoming familiar with Fr. George Barry Ford, an American Catholic priest and chaplain to the Newman Club there.[14] During this time, the Americans were beginning to experiment with ecumenism and Ford’s connections brought Sáenz y Arriaga into discussions with representatives of the Union Theological Seminary. This left him with a distinctly negative perception of Protestantism and a belief that it played merely a polite social function in American life rather than being based on genuine belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ.[14]

Excommunication

In response to Sáenz's excommunication, Father Moisés Carmona, Sáenz's associate and disciple, wrote:

They excommunicated you for your fidelity to Christ, His teachings and His Church. Blessed excommunication! As long as it is for this reason, may all [such] excommunications come upon me![a]

Unión Católica Trento

In the 1970s, Sáenz, together with Carmona and Father Adolfo Zamora, founded the Unión Católica Trento (Tridentine Catholic Union).[16]

Death

In his last testament, written on 25 April 1976, Sáenz wrote:

My life and all that is most precious to me I have sacrificed for Christ, for the Church, and for the Papacy [...].[b]

and he added:

May the last cry of my soul be that of our Mexican martyrs: Long live Christ the King, Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe![c]

He died of prostate cancer, three days after, on 28 April 1976.[18]

Works

  • 1966: Con Cristo o contra Cristo ("With Christ or Against Christ")
  • 1971: La nueva iglesia montiniana ("The New Montinian Church")
  • 1972: ¿Por qué me Excomulgaron?: ¿Cisma o Fe? ("Why Was I Excommunicated?: Schism or Faith?")
  • 1973: Sede Vacante: Paolo VI no es Papa legítimo ("Sede Vacante: Paul VI is Not a Legitimate Pope")

Notes

  1. ^ "A usted lo excomulgaron por su fidelidad a Cristo, a sus enseñanzas, a su iglesia. ¡Bendita excomunión! Como sea por eso, que me vengan todas las excomuniones"[15]
  2. ^ "Mi vida y todo lo más precioso que ella pudiera tener para mí la he sacrificado por Cristo, por la Iglesia y por el Papado [...]."[17]
  3. ^ "Que el último suspiro de mi alma sea el de nuestros Mártires mexicanos: Viva Cristo Rey, Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!"[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rius Facius 1980, p. 29
  2. ^ Yáñez Delgado, Alfonso (2023-03-14). "Los caminos de la extrema derecha". Enlace Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  3. ^ Sánchez, Francisco (2016-11-19). "La ultraderecha avanza ante la apatía de los jóvenes: Dávila Peralta". Intolerancia Diario (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  4. ^ González, Fernando M (2015). "Jesuitas y laicos: diversas maneras de encarar los "arreglos" de 1929" (PDF). Estudios Jaliscienses 99, Febrero de 2015 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  5. ^ González, Fernando M (2007). "Algunos grupos radicales de izquierda y de derecha con influencia católica en México (1965-1975)" (PDF). Historia y Grafía, núm. 29, 2007, pp. 57-93 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  6. ^ Rius Facius 1980, p. 180
  7. ^ a b Rius Facius 1980, p. 28
  8. ^ a b c Rius Facius 1980, p. 31
  9. ^ Rius Facius 1980, p. 33
  10. ^ Rius Facius 1980, p. 34
  11. ^ a b Rius Facius 1980, p. 35
  12. ^ Rius Facius 1980, p. 36
  13. ^ a b c d Rius Facius 1980, p. 38
  14. ^ a b c Rius Facius 1980, p. 39
  15. ^ Rius Facius, Antonio (1980). ¡Excomulgado! [Excommunicated! - trajectory and thought of presbyter Dr. Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga]; México: Costa Amic Editores (endnotes are taken from the 1983 edition), p. 155.
  16. ^ Gary L. Ward, Bertil Persson, and Alain Bain, eds., Independent Bishops: An International Directory [Detroit, MI: Apogee Books, 1990].
  17. ^ a b Rius Facius, Antonio (1980). ¡Excomulgado! [Excommunicated! - trajectory and thought of presbyter Dr. Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga]; México: Costa Amic Editores (endnotes are taken from the 1983 edition), p. 185.
  18. ^ Rius Facius, Antonio (1980). ¡Excomulgado! [Excommunicated! - trajectory and thought of presbyter Dr. Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga]; México: Costa Amic Editores (endnotes are taken from the 1983 edition), pp. 180-89.

Bibliography

  • Anderson, Scott (1986). Inside the League: The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League. Dodd, Mead & Co. ISBN 9780396085171.
  • Rius Facius, Antonio (1980). Excomulgado!: trayectoria y pensamiento del Pbro. Dr. Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga. Mexico City: Costa-Amic. ISBN 9684001665.
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