Ngo Dinh Thuc

Pierre Martin Ngo Dinh Thuc ( born October 6, 1897 in Phu Cam, † December 13, 1984 in Carthage, Missouri, United States) was the first Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hue in Vietnam in 1960 newly created and one of the most famous representatives of sedevacantism.

Its name combines Western names Tradition ( Pierre Martin as a given name before the family name Ng ) with the Vietnamese ( Dinh Thuc as a personal name after the family name ).

His younger brother Ngo Dinh Diem was, President of South Vietnam ( January 3, 1901 *, † November 2, 1963 ).

Life

Training and work in Vietnam

At the age of 12 years Thuc entered the preparatory seminary in An Ninh, where he spent eight years. He then studied philosophy and theology at the Seminary of Hue and was ordained priest on 20 December 1925. After a short stay in Paris teaching Thuc studied until 1927 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned doctorates in philosophy, theology and canon law.

On 8 January 1938 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Vinh Long and Titular Bishop of Saesina and consecrated on May 4 by the Apostolic delegate for Indochina, Antonio Drapier OP as principal consecrator bishop. Co-consecrators were the Vicar Apostolic of Saigon, Isidore Marie Joseph Dumortier, as well as the Apostolic Vicar of Bui Chu, Ho Ngoc Cân Domingo.

On 15 March 1938 granted to him by Pope Pius XI. "Extraordinary authority " with the following document:

This Thuc was authorized in particular necessary to appoint bishops without prior consultation of the Holy See and to consecrate. This extraordinary power of attorney was of the successors of Pius XI. never revoked (this is especially for the assessment of the question whether the subsequent ordinations were permitted by Thuc [ see below ], of meaning).

Pope John XXIII. raised on 24 November 1960, the former Apostolic Vicariate of Hue to the archbishopric and appointed Archbishop Thuc first. During the third session of the 2nd Vatican Council in 1961, consecrated him bishop of Can Tho, Philippe Nguyen Kim Diên was appointed Titular Archbishop of Parium and added him as a coadjutor on September 30, 1964.

The way to sedevacantism

With amendments to the Council not agree, Thuc resigned as Archbishop of Hue on 17 February 1968. Due to the changed political situation in Vietnam (Vietnam War ) is a return to his homeland was excluded. Pope Paul VI. appointed Archbishop Thuc on the day of his resignation Titular Archbishop of Bulla Regia. In traditionalist circles, the assumption is expressed that the resignation is not voluntary happened, but was forced by the Vatican in view of a planned reorganization of the Catholic hierarchy in Vietnam.

Archbishop Thuc lived during the following years in poverty, first in Italy, then France. There he came through the mediation of the priest Maurice Revaz with Marian and traditionalist Palmar de Troya group by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez in contact. Revaz worked up about his decision to the group around Domínguez y Gómez as professor of canon law at the seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Ecône. These activities, he was forced to retire because of his support for Palmar de Troya, as Lefebvre himself always a staunch opponent of many recent " phenomena " was and warned against such. However, Lefebvre himself has given Revas the Council, to turn to Thuc.

Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc consecrated on 11 January 1976 lay Clemente Domínguez y Gómez and four of his followers (including two senior diocesan priest, a Benedictine and a layman ) without pontifical mandate to the bishops, which Thuc excommunication latae sententiae drew upon the. At the latest after the group had risen to Domínguez y Gómez 1978 for this " Pope ", Archbishop Thuc cut off all contacts from her and publicly stated that it is "Visions " by Clemente Domínguez y Gómez handle to false appearances in the. In the short term it seemed to come to a rapprochement with the Vatican, since 1977, Paul VI. the excommunication of Thuc canceled and completed it by ecclesiastical penalties. But this reconciliation attempt failed ultimately to the apparently irreconcilable differences in theological and liturgical questions.

Thuc moved to Toulon, where he served as confessor in the cathedral. Later he performed there more not approved by the Vatican episcopal ordinations:

  • Jean Laborie (1919-1996), bishop of the " Eglise catholique latine ", on February 8, 1977 ( Re - consecration "sub conditione " )
  • Jean -Marie Roger Kozik on October 19, 1978 ( re- consecration "sub conditione " )
  • Michel Guérard des Lauriers surgery on May 7, 1981
  • Moises Carmona and Adolfo Zamora on October 17, 1981
  • Luigi Boni and Jean -Gérard Roux on April 18, 1982
  • Christian Marie Datessen on September 25, 1982 ( re- consecration "sub conditione " )

Some other Bischofskonsekrationen are indeed claims to have not occurred with high probability.

On the day of the consecration of Datessen Ngô published in Munich, where he managed German sedevacantists to Reinhard Lauth, a "statement" in which he proclaimed the vacancy of the Holy See, the Chair of Peter and John Paul II described as illegitimate Pope.

At the invitation of Bishop Louis sedevacantists Vezelis Thuc traveled in late 1982 in the United States, where he died on 13 December 1984 under mysterious circumstances. On the part of the Vatican was declared in a press release about his death that Archbishop Thuc had renounced his sedisvakantistischen position at the end of his life. This, however, remains doubtful from the circumstances of the publication and analysis of the content of the (alleged) written revocation.

The validity of the ordinations

On the part of the Vatican authorities were against Archbishop Thuc one hand, the automatic penalty of excommunication pronounced (which the culpable commission of the act presupposes ) were, on the other hand, in ( semi-official ) statements of some persons the episcopal ordinations not as merely " unauthorized ", but even as a potentially "invalid " means as Archbishop Thuc as compos mentis non consecrator (ie: not in possession of his mental powers ) and was therefore lack of accountability, the sacrament is not valid was able to donate. If this were true, however, of excommunication, the basis would be withdrawn.

Since so far no standing in the consecration line of Archbishop Thuc bishop or priest has applied as such for admission to the clergy of the ( loyal to the Vatican ) Roman Catholic Church, but any re-entries were made only in the lay state, the issue of validity is yet allocated to a definitive decision been.

The accusation Archbishop Thuc was non compos mentis been at the time of unauthorized ordinations carried out by it, is ultimately very reason hardly tenable, since it then to a year-long (1976-1982) mental disorder would have had to act, but what is his in the reports acquaintances and other witnesses finds no support. At least in the case of the learned Guérard of Laurier, who was ordained by Bishop Thuc, is to assume that he would not have agreed to a consecration by a recognizable " irresponsible " dispenser with safety. Published after the death Thucs reports on its senility affect only his last months in which he made no more ordinations.

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