David Bawden

David Allen Bawden (born September 22, 1959), is an American citizen who was elected "Pope Michael I" by a very small group of Conclavist or post-Sedevacantist Catholics to fill the vacancy they consider to have been caused by the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. He is one of a group of self-proclaimed papal pretenders (or antipopes), including Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher (proclaimed Pius XIII) in Montana and the late Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (proclaimed Gregory XVII) in Spain.

Bawden's claim to the papacy

Bawden's supporters argue that the elections of Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI were invalid because they are all modernists. Pope Pius X had in Lamentabili Sane, condemned the heresy of Modernism. This Index was Supplementary to the general Syllabus of Condemned Errors issued by Pope Pius IX.

In 1907 Pope Pius X had issued Praestantia Scriptura where he imposed automatic excommunication upon all remaining Modernists who remained within the Church. He stated:

We declare and determine that if anyone, which may God forbid, should go forward so brazenly as to defend any proposition reprobated in either of these documents, by that fact itself, he incurs excommunication reserved to the Roman Pontiff.
The claim that Pius XII's successors are modernists as conceived by Pope Pius X is dismissed as factually inaccurate by the vast majority of Catholics, who point out that to date every Ecumenical Council has seen some controversy, especially councils which perform major revision and reform work such as the Council of Trent which codified the Tridentine Mass and numerous other reforms in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Claims against popes

Michael Bawden's supporters accuse Pope John XXIII of "modernistic heresy". They also condemn Pope John Paul II's supposed association with pornography, specifically the appearance of "immodestly clad" acrobats at a performance in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican and the presence of "half-naked natives" at some of Pope John Paul II's Masses in Papua New Guinea.

Justification for electing a pope

According to Catholic theology, the Church possesses popes in perpetuity (First Vatican Council, 1870), and it has always the right to supply itself with the Pope. The official process of election, through a papal conclave of the College of Cardinals is not a divinely ordered process for selection but a method created by the Church to replace earlier methods. Sedevacantists argue that if the College of Cardinals will not or cannot elect a valid pope, ordinary Catholics can do so, under the principle of "Epikeia" (Equity).

According to sedevacanists, none of the appointments made since 1958 to the College of Cardinals is valid, as the popes who made them were themselves invalid. As there are no surviving members of the pre-1958 College of Cardinals, according to their theory there is no college to do the electing, necessitating a new interim procedure to elect a new pope who would then fill the vacancies and so create a valid College of Cardinals.

Process for his election

Acting on the basis of this, David Bawden was elected Pope by six people (including himself, his parents Mr. Kennett Bawden and Mrs. Clara Bawden, a Mr. & Mrs. Robert Hunt, and a Mrs. Teresa Stanfill-Benns, who had been the main motivator of the Election) on July 16, 1990 in Belvue, Kansas in the United States in a store owned by the Bawden family.

Mrs. Benns and Mr. David Bawden, who together summoned the assembly to elect the Pope in 1990, claim to have invited all orthodox Catholics to join, but receive only six respondents. They then formed the assembly which elected Bawden, who took the reign name Michael. He said that his motivation Pope Leo XIII's decision to institute the Invocation of St. Michael Archangel, and to add it to every Tridentine Mass.

That invocation was deleted following the Second Vatican Council by Paul VI.

No clerical involvement

Unlike other papal pretenders, David Bawden's election did not involve any previously ordained clergy from the Catholic Church. As he is not and has never been ordained a Priest, David Bawden has never offered a Mass as "Pope."

Supporters of 'Pope Michael'

The movement to elect a Pope in opposition to the Pope in Rome began in the mid 1970s with Fr. Saenz Arriaga of Mexico, who wrote a book 'Sede Vacante'. There were rumors that he desired Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to be elected. He visisted Lefebvre in Houston, Texas in 1976, possibly to discuss a Papal Election. He died two months later in Houston. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Dryden took up the cause, writing several articles to promote such an election and circulating them privately. Influenced by the rumors of a Papal Election in the early 1980s Teresa Benns wrote an article asking all Catholics to join together to hold such an election, which was published in a small "Traditionalist" newsletter. In 1987 Daniel Leonardi sent a letter to people throughout the world asking them to gather and promote and hold a Papal Election. At the same time David Bawden became convinced of the necessity of a Papal Election and began working with Benns, Leonardi and several others to accomplish this project for the good of the Church. In 1990 Benns and Bawden published 'Will the Catholic Church Survive the Twentieth Century' in order to state their claim that a Papal Election was necessary, as well as to refute the many heresies they ascribed to Traditionalists. On July 16, 1990 a group of six, including Bawden, his parents and Benns, gathered and held their election, which elected David Bawden as Pope Michael.

His claim to the papacy is generally ignored by the world at large and apart from a few articles and a single television interview, his presence has not spread beyond the Internet.

Sedevacantist criticism of 'Pope Michael'

Some sedevacanists criticised the method of election of "Pope Michael" because three of the six 'electors', including David Bawden himself, belonged to his family, and a fourth was his friend Teresa Benns, requiring only one other elector to vote for him. Other critics have noted that the Bawden family are themselves the publishers and authors of sedevacantist books, with the implication being that the proclamation of a member of the family as a 'pope' provided a higher profile and so enabled the promotion of their books. The family deny the allegation.

Thomas Frank interviewed Bawden for his 2004 book, What's the Matter with Kansas?, and devoted a chapter to him.

The Vatican-In-Exile

Michaelinum - The Catholic Resistance to the Modernist Apostasy

Orthopapism

Truth Is One, Michaelite assertion of David Bawden's claim to the Papacy

Article from the Columbia Daily Tribunenl:Tegenpaus Michael I