Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga

Fr. Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, S.J. (born Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga on October 12, 1899 - died April 28 1976) was a Mexican Jesuit and Catholic theologian. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1916 in Barcelona, Spain and left it in 1952 in Mexico, at fifty three. Because of his continuous attacks against the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar popes he was declared excommunicated in 1972 by the Roman Catholic bishops' conference of Mexico. He is known for being the spiritual father of sedevacantism.

Traditionalism

As a young man Sáenz Arriaga was brought up in the spirit of the Cristero pressure group, Miguel Pro and other Catholic martyrs who fought against the Mexican anti-Catholic movement of the 1920s, when some Catholics faced up to firing squads with the cry "¡Viva Cristo Rey!" ("Long live Christ the King!").

Like Fr. Denis Fahey, Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga placed great emphasis on the Catholic doctrine of the "Kingship of Christ", which militates against secularism and the separation of church and state. When the Vatican II reforms began to be implemented in Mexico and North America, it was Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga who led the reaction against the neo-modernists.

His uncompromising traditionalism led to a rejection of the "New Church" and he became the first to propound the doctrine of Sedevacantism, the idea that the Vatican II reforms demonstrated that the Roman Catholic Church was hijacked by Modernist "infiltrators", had become apostate and ceased to be the true Catholic Church, and that there has been a Sede vacante in Rome since the death of the last orthodox Catholic Pope Pius XII in October 1958.

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Excommunication

In reaction to his activities, the Mexican Cardinal Miranda officially declared that Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga had incurred excommunication. In response, Fr. Moisés Carmona, his associate and disciple wrote:

In the 1970s Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga founded, together with Frs. Adolfo Zamora and Moisés Carmona, the "Unión Católica Trento" during which time he also advised American Catholic traditionalist recusants to form their own organizations, which resulted in the conservative Fr. Francis E. Fenton's founding of the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement.

Illness and death

According to his biographer, Antonio Rius-Facius, Fr. Sáenz died of prostate cancer on April 28, 1976. [See Rius-Facius, pp. 180-89.]

In his last testament, written three days before his death, Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga wrote: "My life and all that is most precious to me I have sacrificed for Christ, for the Church, and for the Papacy" 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." ["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 [...] . Que el último suspiro de mi alma sea el de nuestros Mártires mexicanos: Viva Cristo Rey, Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!" - quoted in Rius-Facius, p. 185.]

After his death, Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga's work was picked up by Frs. Adolfo Zamora and Moisés Carmona in Mexico; by Fr. Francis E. Fenton and his associates in the so-called Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement, and Fr. Burton Fraser, S.J. in the United States. In today's Mexico (2007), the Sáenz movement as a challenging traditionalist Catholic movement, is essentially dead. However, sedevacantists of the "Unión Católica Trento" still maintain several churches, chapels and one monastery.

ee also

* Sedevacantism

References

* 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).

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