Hutton Gibson

Hutton Peter Gibson (born August 26, 1918), is a writer on religion, a staunch sedevacantist Traditional Catholic, and the father of eleven children, one of which is actor/director Mel Gibson.

Gibson's place of birth is a matter of debate; he has been alternately reported as being born in either Montclair, New Jersey or Peekskill, New York. [ [http://www.wargs.com/other/gibson.html Ancestry of Mel Gibson ] ] He was raised in Chicago, Illinois, the son of businessman John Hutton Gibson and wife, married at New York in 1917, Australian opera singer Eva Mylott. He currently resides in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14140675/ Mel Gibson's Father Has Local Home, Church] ] after living many years in Houston, Texas and, for a time, in Summersville, West Virginia. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5566-2004Feb25.html Mel Gibson's Father Buys Home in West Virginia] ]

Early life

Hutton Gibson's mother, Eva Mylott, died when he was two years old, and his father, John Hutton Gibson, died when Hutton was fifteen. Hutton supported his younger brother Alexis, who died in his early twenties. [cite web | url=http://www.rd.com/content/mel-gibson/| title=Keeping the Faith: Face to Face With Mel Gibson| author=Peggy Noonan| publisher=Reader’s Digest | accessdate=2007-09-20] Hutton graduated from high school at the age of only fifteen, ranking third in his class.cite web | url=http://www.dallasobserver.com/2003-07-31/news/is-the-pope-catholic/| title=Is the Pope Catholic?| author=Wendy Grossman | publisher=Dallas Observer | accessdate=2007-09-20]

According to Wensley Clarkson's biography of Mel Gibson, the elder Gibson studied for the priesthood in a Chicago seminary of the Society of the Divine Word, and he left the seminary disgusted with the modernist theological doctrines taught there. However, Gibson debunked that in 2003, stated that theological modernism was not yet rampant inside the Society of the Divine Word at that time at all, and stated the actual reason for leaving was because he didn't want to be sent to New Guinea or the Philippines as a missionary. Instead, he found work with Western Union and with the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Hutton Gibson served as a first lieutenant in the Pacific Theater during World War II after his September 30, 1941 graduation from the U.S. Army Signal Corps OCS program at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He was wounded by Japanese fire in action at the Battle of Guadalcanal and sent to an invalid home in 1944.

He married Irish-born Anne Reilly on May 1, 1944 at the Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Brooklyn, New York. They had ten children and adopted another one after their arrival in Australia. Anne died in December 1990. Hutton has since remarried to a woman named Joy.

"Jeopardy!"

In 1968, Hutton Gibson appeared on the Art Fleming-hosted version of the game show "Jeopardy!" (as "Red Gibson, a railroad brakeman from South Ozone Park, New York"), winning $4,680 [As the clue dollar values on "Jeopardy!" have increased twentyfold since 1968, Gibson's 5-day winnings of $4,680 is equivalent to winnings of $93,600 today.] over the course of five games and retiring undefeated per the rules of the show at that time. He was invited back to appear in the 1968 Tournament of Champions, where he became the year's Grand Champion, [A listing of "Jeopardy!" Grand Champions, 1968–1974, may be found in cite book | last=Fabe | first=Maxene | title=TV Game Shows | year=1979 | publisher=Doubleday & Company | location=Garden City, New York | pages=13 | isbn=0-385-13052-X ] winning a little over a thousand dollars more, as well as a 2-person cruise to the West Indies.cite book | last = Clarkson | first = Wensley | authorlink = Wensley Clarkson | title = Mel Gibson: Living Dangerously | publisher = Thunder's Mouth Press | year = 1999 | pages = 27-30] [cite news | url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/15/1076779837879.html| title = Where Mad Max found faith | publisher = Sydney Morning Herald | date = 2004-02-16 | accessdate = 2007-11-07 ] [ [http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/16:580/1/Mel_Gibson.htm Mel Gibson Biography] [Most episodes from the Art Fleming era of "Jeopardy!" do not survive, so there is no video record of Gibson's appearances; paper records indicating Gibson's appearances may be found in the NBC Master Books daily broadcast log, available on microfilm at the Library of Congress Motion Picture and Television Reading Room. A summary of those records may be found [http://boards.sonypictures.com/boards/showthread.php?t=35065 here] .] Art Fleming noted on the show aired October 18, 1968 that "Jeopardy!" had difficulty informing Gibson about his Tournament of Champions invitation because Gibson had relocated his family of 10 children to Tipperary in Ireland.

Railroad lawsuit

In the 1960s Gibson worked for New York Central Railroad. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1964 he slipped on some spilled oil and injured his back. A work injury lawsuit followed and it finally went to court on February 7, 1968. Seven days later, on Valentine's Day, Gibson was awarded $145,000 by the jury.Fact|date=November 2007 What remained of this money after paying off debts and lawyers was still a substantial sum, and with that he relocated his family to Australia that same year.

Move to Australia

Hutton said in 2003 that the move to his mother's native country was undertaken because he believed the Australian military would reject his oldest son for the Vietnam War draft, unlike the American military. On moving to Australia, Gibson retrained as a computer programmer and participated in numerous Australian quiz shows, including "Big Nine" with Athol Guy and "Ford Superquiz" with Patti Newton.

After the promulgation of the reformed liturgy of Paul VI, the Gibson family home in Sydney, Australia was used as an unofficial chapel where the Tridentine Mass was offered. Also, Hutton used the house to store statues and altar relics which were being discarded in a rush of radical reform by Catholic parishes at the time.

Hutton was the secretary of the Latin Mass Society of Australia, but was ousted after becoming increasingly vocal about his belief that the See of Peter is vacant due to the popes becoming heretics.

Notable beliefs

Hutton Gibson is an outspoken critic of the modern, post-conciliar Catholic Church and is a proponent of various conspiracy theories. Gibson disseminates his views in a quarterly newsletter called "The War is Now!" and has self-published two collections of these periodicals: "The Enemy is Here!" and "Is the Pope Catholic?"

Gibson believes that the Second Vatican Council introduced explicitly heretical and forbidden doctrines into the Roman Catholic Church in order to destroy it from within, and he holds that every pope elected since John XXIII has been an anti-pope or illegitimate claimant to the papacy. He has been especially critical of the late Pope John Paul II, whom he once sneeringly referred to as " Karolus the Koran Kisser". [cite news | first=Tom | last=Heinen | title=Words of Mel's dad find a home | publisher=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | date=May 23 2004 | url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=231187]

Gibson has also used his newsletter to argue against Feeneyism. [http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/Hutton_Gibson.html]

At the January 2004 We The People conference, Gibson advocated that the states secede from the federal government and that the national debt be abolished. [http://www.givemeliberty.org/wtp-tv/default.htm]

Hutton Gibson garnered widespread outrage when remarks questioning how the Nazis could have disposed of six million bodies during the Holocaust were printed in a March 2003 "New York Times Magazine" article. He was further quoted as saying the Second Vatican Council was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews'" [ [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=396 Catholics and Conspiracies] ] and that the September 11, 2001 attacks were perpetrated by remote control. [cite news | url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E4D61F3CF93AA35750C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
title=Is the Pope Catholic…Enough?| author=Christopher Noxon | publisher=New York Times Magazine | date=March 9, 2004| accessdate=2007-09-21]

Hutton Gibson publicly questioned the extent of the Holocaust, though not the Shoah itself, for a second time on “Speak Your Piece” radio to Steve Feuerstein a week before The Passion of the Christ was released in American theaters. [http://www.moviecitynews.com/notepad/2004/040303_npd.html Partial Transcript Of The Steve Feuerstein Radio Interview With Hutton Gibson] ; Movie City News; March 3 2004] He claimed that census statistics prove there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before.cite news |first=David |last=Halbfinger |pages=|title=Mel Gibson Developing Holocaust Mini-Series |date=December 7 2005 |publisher=The New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/arts/television/07gibson.html?ei=5089&en=08b7f9b4e7da92fe&ex=1291611600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1143961571-S4jDv9qaiinC+w4xBtn+ww] Gibson said that certain Jews advocate a one world religion and one world government.empty] Hutton Gibson’s family claimed Feuerstein misrepresented himself when he called Gibson and never told him he was being taped for the radio. [ http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/20/125718.shtml Gibson's Family: Father Tricked Into Interview, Friday, Feb. 20, 2004]

In the early 1990's, Hutton Gibson and a man named Tom Costello hosted a video called "Catholics, Where Has Our Church Gone?" [ [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=589471486663092555 Video 'Catholics, Where Has Our Church Gone?" - Google Video] ] which is critical of the radical changes made to the Roman Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council and espouses a theory that in 1958, after the death of Pope Pius XII, the man originally elected pope was not Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, but another cardinal, "probably Cardinal Siri of Genoa" (a staunch conservative candidate and first papabile) who chose "Gregory XVII" as his papal name. But, Gibson states, the white smoke created (which emanates from a chimney in the Sistine Chapel) to announce the new pope's election was done in error; black smoke signifying that the papacy was still vacant was quickly created and the public was not informed of the reason for the initial white smoke. A still photograph of a newspaper story about this event is shown. "Had our church gone up in smoke"? asks Gibson. He states that the new pope was forced to resign under duress and two days later, the "modernist Roncalli" was elected pope and took the name "John XXIII". In 1962, Roncalli, as Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council.

However, Gibson has recently backed off on this claim, saying the theory he espoused was based on a mistranslation of an article written on October 27, 1958 by Silvio Negro for the evening edition of the Milan, Italy-based "Corriere della Sera". A similar event also happened in 1939; in that case a confusing mixture of white and black smoke emanated from the Sistine Chapel chimney. However, in a note to Vatican Radio, the secretary of the Papal conclave at the time, a Monsignor named Santoro said that a new pope, Eugenio Pacelli, had been properly elected regardless of the color of the smoke. Pacelli took the name Pius XII. [ [http://www.insidethevatican.com/articles/siri-thesis.htm The "Siri Thesis" Unravels] ]

Local congregation support

Hutton Gibson has been trying to buy a suitable church building for a sedevacantist congregation called "St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Chapel". He and Mel have tried to buy land and a former Methodist church to turn them into a pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic church centre. [ [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_416937.html Mel Gibson, dad back church] ] "Hutton buying Greensburg area church for traditional Catholic services." Rumors have been spread throughout and by the media that he and the Catholic priest of the congregation, the Rev. Fr. Leonard Bealko, are anti-Semitic. However critics of the group and of Fr. Bealko and Hutton, stated that, while being critical of them because of other reasons, they know nothing about any form of anti-Semitism present among the group. [ [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06218/711234-59.stm Post Gazette] Methodist church bid raises concern.]

Quotes

* "We feel like hunted Christians in the catacombs - merely because we want to celebrate the Latin Rite which the [Roman] Church has used from time immemorial." Hutton speaking to his local newspaper in 1975 about what life was like for Traditionalist Catholics in the years immediately following Vatican II. Quoted in Wensley Clarkson's "Mel Gibson: Living Dangerously," page 43.

* "The greatest benefit anyone can have is to be a Catholic. You have the lifelong satisfaction of being right. But we can't go to Mass, there are no sacraments and I feel cheated." Excerpted from Wensley Clarkson's "Mel Gibson: Living Dangerously," page 44.

* "I entered the battle to preserve our faith actively in 1971, over heresy taught in religion classes in Australian Catholic schools. I soon read the decrees and documents of Vatican II, and branched out. I hate being robbed, especially by those charged with guarding the treasury." Quoted from a 1997 letter. [ [http://www.geocities.com/prakashjm45/rmc/rmchugi1.html Comments on Vatican II] ]

Books

* "The Enemy is Here!" - On the alleged subversion of the Catholic Church
* "Is the Pope Catholic?" (1978) - Defending sedevacantism

ee also

References

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/huttongibson Hutton Gibson's MySpace Profile]
* [http://www.huttongibson.com/ Hutton Gibson's Personal Homepage]