Hutton Gibson
Encyclopedia
Hutton Peter Gibson is an American writer on Sedevacantism
, World War II
veteran, the 1968 Jeopardy!
grand champion and the father of 11 children, one of whom is the actor and director Mel Gibson
.
Gibson is an outspoken critic, both of the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church
and of those Traditionalist Catholic
s, like the Society of Saint Pius X, who reject Sedevacantism
. Gibson is also a proponent of various conspiracy theories
. In a 2003 interview he questioned how the Nazis
could have disposed of six million bodies during the Holocaust and claimed that the September 11, 2001 attacks
were perpetrated by remote control. He has also been quoted as saying the Second Vatican Council
was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews".
. Gibson's place of birth has been reported as either Montclair, New Jersey
or Peekskill, New York
. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois. Gibson's mother died when he was two years old and his father died when he was fifteen. Gibson supported his younger brother, Alexis, who died in his early twenties. Gibson graduated from high school early, at age 15, and ranked third in his class.
According to Wensley Clarkson's biography of Mel Gibson
, Gibson studied for the priesthood in a Chicago seminary of the Society of the Divine Word
but left disgusted with the modernist theological
doctrines taught there. However, in 2003 Gibson stated that his actual reason for leaving was because he did not 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
. He also contributed to and edited the newsletter "The Pointer" while he worked in Wisconsin for the CCC
from 1938–1939.
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 a nursing home in 1944.
Gibson married Irish-born Anne Reilly on May 1, 1944, at the Catholic parish church of Our Lady of Good Counsel
in Brooklyn, New York. They had ten children and adopted another one after their arrival in Australia. As of 2003, Gibson had 48 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. His wife died in December 1990 and in 2001 he married a woman named Joy. Since early 2006, he resides in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
near Pittsburghhttp://www.wtae.com/r/9610978/detail.htmlhttp://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_416937.html after moving from Australia to Houston, Texas in 1999, and to Summersville, West Virginia
in 2003.
. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1964 he slipped off a steel platform covered in oil and snow and injured his back. A work injury lawsuit followed and it finally went to court on February 7, 1968. Seven days later, Gibson was awarded $145,000 by the jury. Gibson paid his debts and attorney's fees and that year relocated his family, first to Ireland, then to Australia. Hutton Gibson 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 Australian Vietnam War draft, unlike the American military. Because of his back injuries, Gibson sought retraining in a new career. He was encouraged to become a computer programmer after IQ testing placed him in the genius range.
After the promulgation of the reformed liturgy
of Paul VI, the Gibson family home in Sydney, Australia was used as a temporary chapel where the Tridentine Mass
was offered. Gibson also reportedly used the house to store statues and altar relics which had been discarded by parishes. Gibson was ousted as secretary of the Latin Mass Society of Australia
after becoming increasingly vocal about the See of Peter actually being vacant due to John XXIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council
, and subsequent popes being heretics
.
-hosted version of the game show Jeopardy!
as "...Red Gibson, a railroad brakeman from South Ozone Park, New York". Gibson won $4,680 and retired undefeated after five shows, per the show's rules then in force. He was invited back to appear in the 1968 Tournament of Champions
, where he became the year's grand champion, winning slightly over one thousand dollars more, as well as a two-person cruise to the West Indies. Art Fleming noted on the October 18, 1968, episode that the Jeopardy! staff had had difficulty informing Gibson about his invitation because Gibson had relocated his family to Tipperary
, Ireland
.
Gibson later participated in numerous Australian quiz shows, including Big Nine with Athol Guy
and Ford Superquiz with Bert Newton
. In 1986, The Sydney Morning Herald
reported that Gibson had recently won $100,000 and an automobile in a TV quiz program.
. He disseminates his views in a quarterly newsletter called The War is Now! and has self-published three collections of these periodicals: Is the Pope Catholic?, The Enemy is Here!, and The Enemy is Still Here!
Gibson believes that the Second Vatican Council
introduced explicitly heretical
and forbidden doctrines into the Catholic Church in order to destroy it from within. He also holds that every pope elected since John XXIII
, inclusively, has been an anti-pope
or illegitimate claimant to the papacy. This doctrine is called "Sedevacantism
", from the Latin words Sede ("seat") and vacante ("vacant"), and affirms that the Pope's seat is effectively vacant because those occupying it do not do so legitimately.
Gibson has been especially critical of the late Pope John Paul II
, whom he once described as "Garrulous Karolus the Koran Kisser". His allegation that the Pope kissed the Qur'an
is corroborated by a FIDES News Service report of June 1, 1999, which quotes the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Raphael I, as having confirmed to the news service that he was personally present when John Paul II kissed the text sacred to Muslims:
Gibson has also used his newsletter to argue against Feeneyism
.
At the January 2004 We The People
conference, Gibson advocated that the states secede from the Federal government of the United States
and that the United States public debt
be abolished.
Gibson provoked 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.
In his interview for the article, he dismissed historical accounts that six million Jews were exterminated: "Go and ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body," he said. "It takes one liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million?"
Across the table during the interview, his wife, Joye, who had been quiet for most of the visit, suddenly looked up and "cheerfully piped in 'There weren't even that many Jews in all of Europe,'"
"Anyway, there were more after the war than before," Gibson added.
"The entire catastrophe was manufactured, said Hutton, as part of an arrangement between Hitler and 'financiers' to move Jews out of Germany. Hitler 'had this deal where he was supposed to make it rough on them so they would all get out and migrate to Israel because they needed people there to fight the Arabs,' he said".
Gibson was further quoted as saying the Second Vatican Council
was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews" and that the September 11, 2001 attacks
were perpetrated by remote control: "Hutton flatly rejected that Al Qaeda hijackers had anything to do with the attacks. 'Anybody can put out a passenger list,' he said". Gibson publicly questioned the extent of the Holocaust. One week before Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
was released in American film theaters, he told radio talk show host Steve Feuerstein that the Holocaust was fabricated and "mostly fictional". He said that the Jews had simply emigrated to other countries rather than having been killed, a view which some observers described as Holocaust denial
. He claimed that census statistics prove there were more Jews
in Europe
after World War II
than before. Gibson said that certain Jews
advocate a global religion and one world government. Gibson’s family claimed that Steve Feuerstein misrepresented himself when he called Gibson and never revealed that he was being taped with the intent to broadcast his comments on his show, Speak Your Piece.
In the early 1990s, Gibson and Tom Costello hosted a video called Catholics, Where Has Our Church Gone? which is critical of the changes made to the Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council
and espouses the Siri Thesis that in 1958, after the death of Pope Pius XII
, the man originally elected pope was not Angelo Roncalli, but another cardinal, "probably Cardinal Siri of Genoa" (a staunch conservative candidate and first papabile). Gibson stated that the white smoke which emanated from a chimney in the Sistine Chapel
to announce a 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"? asked Gibson. He stated 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
. In 2006, Hutton Gibson reversed his position on the Siri Thesis, asserting that this theory was based on a mistranslation of an article written on October 27, 1958 by Silvio Negro for the evening edition of the Milan-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. 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
.
Gibson endorsed Ron Paul
for President in the 2008 United States Presidential Election. In January 2010, he made an appearance on the far-right-wing radio show, The Political Cesspool
, to promote his views. In August 2010, he made another appearance on The Political Cesspool during which he made a widely-discussed allegation that Pope Benedict XVI
is "homosexual" and that "half the people in the Vatican
are queer". During the same interview, he also claimed that the Pope was a Freemason.
sedevacantist
congregation called St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Chapel. The Reverend Leonard Bealko, purportedly a former Roman Catholic priest who had left the church voluntarily in 1986, was appointed pastor. By mid-2007 Gibson and his fellow congregants had dismissed Bealko and dissolved the congregation amid charges that Bealko had misrepresented his credentials and mishandled finances.
Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics who hold that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of either Pope Pius XII in 1958 or Pope John XXIII in 1963.Sedevacantists...
, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran, the 1968 Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
grand champion and the father of 11 children, one of whom is the actor and director Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
.
Gibson is an outspoken critic, both of the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and of those Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
s, like the Society of Saint Pius X, who reject Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics who hold that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of either Pope Pius XII in 1958 or Pope John XXIII in 1963.Sedevacantists...
. Gibson is also a proponent of various conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
. In a 2003 interview he questioned how the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
could have disposed of six million bodies during the Holocaust and claimed that the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
were perpetrated by remote control. He has also been quoted as saying the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews".
Early life and family
Hutton "Red" Gibson is the son of businessman John Hutton Gibson and Australian opera singer Eva MylottEva Mylott
Eva Mylott was an Australian contralto opera singer.Eva Mylott was born in Tuross Head, New South Wales, Australia. Her parents, Patrick Mylott, an importer of wine and spirits and his wife, Mary Heffernan , were immigrants from Ireland to Australia...
. Gibson's place of birth has been reported as either Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...
or Peekskill, New York
Peekskill, New York
Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point.This community was known to be an early American industrial center, primarily for its iron plow and stove products...
. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois. Gibson's mother died when he was two years old and his father died when he was fifteen. Gibson supported his younger brother, Alexis, who died in his early twenties. Gibson graduated from high school early, at age 15, and ranked third in his class.
According to Wensley Clarkson's biography of Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
, Gibson studied for the priesthood in a Chicago seminary of the Society of the Divine Word
Divine Word Missionaries
The Society of the Divine Word , popularly called the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a missionary religious congregation in the Latin Church, one of the 23 sui iuris churches which make up the Catholic Church. As of 2006 it consisted of 6,102 members composed...
but left disgusted with the modernist theological
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
doctrines taught there. However, in 2003 Gibson stated that his actual reason for leaving was because he did not want to be sent to New Guinea or the Philippines as a missionary. Instead, he found work with Western Union
Western Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...
and with the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
. He also contributed to and edited the newsletter "The Pointer" while he worked in Wisconsin for the CCC
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
from 1938–1939.
Gibson served as a first lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
in the Pacific Theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
after his September 30, 1941, graduation from the U.S. Army Signal Corps OCS
Officer Candidate School (U.S. Army)
The United States Army's Officer Candidate School , located at Fort Benning, Georgia, provides training to become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army...
program at Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth was an installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The post covers nearly of land, from the Shrewsbury...
, New Jersey. He was wounded by Japanese fire in action at the Battle of Guadalcanal and sent to a nursing home in 1944.
Gibson married Irish-born Anne Reilly on May 1, 1944, at the Catholic parish church of Our Lady of Good Counsel
Our Lady of Good Counsel
Our Lady of Good Counsel is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, after an allegedly miraculous painting now found in the thirteenth century Augustinian church at Genazzano, near Rome, Italy. Measuring 40 by 45 centimeters the image is a fresco executed on a thin layer of porcelain no thicker...
in Brooklyn, New York. They had ten children and adopted another one after their arrival in Australia. As of 2003, Gibson had 48 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. His wife died in December 1990 and in 2001 he married a woman named Joy. Since early 2006, he resides in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 369,993 people, 149,813 households, and 104,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 361 people per square mile . There were 161,058 housing units at an average density of 157 per square mile...
near Pittsburghhttp://www.wtae.com/r/9610978/detail.htmlhttp://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_416937.html after moving from Australia to Houston, Texas in 1999, and to Summersville, West Virginia
Summersville, West Virginia
Summersville is a town in Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,194 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Nicholas County.-Geography:...
in 2003.
Railroad lawsuit and move to Australia
In the 1960s Gibson worked for New York Central RailroadNew York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1964 he slipped off a steel platform covered in oil and snow and injured his back. A work injury lawsuit followed and it finally went to court on February 7, 1968. Seven days later, Gibson was awarded $145,000 by the jury. Gibson paid his debts and attorney's fees and that year relocated his family, first to Ireland, then to Australia. Hutton Gibson 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 Australian Vietnam War draft, unlike the American military. Because of his back injuries, Gibson sought retraining in a new career. He was encouraged to become a computer programmer after IQ testing placed him in the genius range.
After the promulgation of the reformed liturgy
Mass of Paul VI
The Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council...
of Paul VI, the Gibson family home in Sydney, Australia was used as a temporary chapel where the Tridentine Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
was offered. Gibson also reportedly used the house to store statues and altar relics which had been discarded by parishes. Gibson was ousted as secretary of the Latin Mass Society of Australia
Latin Mass Society of Australia
Latin Mass Society of Australia is an organisation currently led primarily by Romans Catholics adhering to the positions of the international Society of St. Pius X...
after becoming increasingly vocal about the See of Peter actually being vacant due to John XXIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, and subsequent popes being heretics
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
.
Quiz show contestant
In 1968, Gibson appeared on the Art FlemingArt Fleming
Art Fleming was an American television host, most notably the original host of the TV game show Jeopardy!.-Early life:...
-hosted version of the game show Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
as "...Red Gibson, a railroad brakeman from South Ozone Park, New York". Gibson won $4,680 and retired undefeated after five shows, per the show's rules then in force. He was invited back to appear in the 1968 Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament featuring the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming's tenure as host, and continued into the Alex Trebek era of...
, where he became the year's grand champion, winning slightly over one thousand dollars more, as well as a two-person cruise to the West Indies. Art Fleming noted on the October 18, 1968, episode that the Jeopardy! staff had had difficulty informing Gibson about his invitation because Gibson had relocated his family to Tipperary
Tipperary
Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....
, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Gibson later participated in numerous Australian quiz shows, including Big Nine with Athol Guy
Athol Guy
Athol Guy , is a member of the Australian pop music-folk music group The Seekers. Guy played the double bass. He was characterised by his wearing of black horn-rimmed glasses...
and Ford Superquiz with Bert Newton
Bert Newton
Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, AM, MBE is an Australian television personality, known for hosting television series such as In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 20 to 1. Newton has also hosted the Logie Awards on numerous occasions through his career.-Early life:Newton was born in...
. In 1986, The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
reported that Gibson had recently won $100,000 and an automobile in a TV quiz program.
Beliefs
Gibson is an outspoken critic of the modern post-conciliar Catholic Church and is a proponent of various conspiracy theoriesConspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
. He disseminates his views in a quarterly newsletter called The War is Now! and has self-published three collections of these periodicals: Is the Pope Catholic?, The Enemy is Here!, and The Enemy is Still Here!
Gibson believes that the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
introduced explicitly heretical
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
and forbidden doctrines into the Catholic Church in order to destroy it from within. He also holds that every pope elected since John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
, inclusively, has been an anti-pope
Antipope
An antipope is a person who opposes a legitimately elected or sitting Pope and makes a significantly accepted competing claim to be the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church. At times between the 3rd and mid-15th century, antipopes were typically those supported by a...
or illegitimate claimant to the papacy. This doctrine is called "Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics who hold that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of either Pope Pius XII in 1958 or Pope John XXIII in 1963.Sedevacantists...
", from the Latin words Sede ("seat") and vacante ("vacant"), and affirms that the Pope's seat is effectively vacant because those occupying it do not do so legitimately.
Gibson has been especially critical of the late Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, whom he once described as "Garrulous Karolus the Koran Kisser". His allegation that the Pope kissed the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
is corroborated by a FIDES News Service report of June 1, 1999, which quotes the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Raphael I, as having confirmed to the news service that he was personally present when John Paul II kissed the text sacred to Muslims:
Gibson has also used his newsletter to argue against Feeneyism
Feeneyism
Feeneyism is a term for the Roman Catholic theology associated with Leonard Feeney , a Jesuit priest and founder of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Fr. Feeney favoured a strict interpretation of the doctrine extra Ecclesiam nulla salus .-Fr. Leonard Feeney:Fr...
.
At the January 2004 We The People
We the People Foundation
We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc. also known as We the People Foundation is a non-profit education and research organization in Queensbury, New York with the declared mission "to protect and defend individual Rights as guaranteed by the Constitutions of the United States."...
conference, Gibson advocated that the states secede from the Federal government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
and that the United States public debt
United States public debt
The United States public debt is the money borrowed by the federal government of the United States at any one time through the issue of securities by the Treasury and other federal government agencies...
be abolished.
Gibson provoked widespread outrage when remarks questioning how the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
could have disposed of six million bodies during the Holocaust were printed in a March 2003 New York Times Magazine article.
In his interview for the article, he dismissed historical accounts that six million Jews were exterminated: "Go and ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body," he said. "It takes one liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million?"
Across the table during the interview, his wife, Joye, who had been quiet for most of the visit, suddenly looked up and "cheerfully piped in 'There weren't even that many Jews in all of Europe,'"
"Anyway, there were more after the war than before," Gibson added.
"The entire catastrophe was manufactured, said Hutton, as part of an arrangement between Hitler and 'financiers' to move Jews out of Germany. Hitler 'had this deal where he was supposed to make it rough on them so they would all get out and migrate to Israel because they needed people there to fight the Arabs,' he said".
Gibson was further quoted as saying the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews" and that the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
were perpetrated by remote control: "Hutton flatly rejected that Al Qaeda hijackers had anything to do with the attacks. 'Anybody can put out a passenger list,' he said". Gibson publicly questioned the extent of the Holocaust. One week before Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...
was released in American film theaters, he told radio talk show host Steve Feuerstein that the Holocaust was fabricated and "mostly fictional". He said that the Jews had simply emigrated to other countries rather than having been killed, a view which some observers described as Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. He claimed that census statistics prove there were more Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
than before. Gibson said that certain Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
advocate a global religion and one world government. Gibson’s family claimed that Steve Feuerstein misrepresented himself when he called Gibson and never revealed that he was being taped with the intent to broadcast his comments on his show, Speak Your Piece.
In the early 1990s, Gibson and Tom Costello hosted a video called Catholics, Where Has Our Church Gone? which is critical of the changes made to the Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
and espouses the Siri Thesis that in 1958, after the death of Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, the man originally elected pope was not Angelo Roncalli, but another cardinal, "probably Cardinal Siri of Genoa" (a staunch conservative candidate and first papabile). Gibson stated that the white smoke which emanated from a chimney in the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
to announce a 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"? asked Gibson. He stated 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
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
convened the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. In 2006, Hutton Gibson reversed his position on the Siri Thesis, asserting that this theory was based on a mistranslation of an article written on October 27, 1958 by Silvio Negro for the evening edition of the Milan-based Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
. A similar event also happened in 1939; in that case a confusing mixture of white and black smoke emanated from the Sistine Chapel chimney. In a note to Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican.Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave , medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. The Jesuit Order has been charged with the management of Vatican...
, the secretary of the Papal conclave
Papal conclave
A papal conclave is a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a Bishop of Rome, who then becomes the Pope during a period of vacancy in the papal office. The Pope is considered by Roman Catholics to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church...
at the time, a monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
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
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
.
Gibson endorsed Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
for President in the 2008 United States Presidential Election. In January 2010, he made an appearance on the far-right-wing radio show, The Political Cesspool
The Political Cesspool
The Political Cesspool is a weekly talk radio show founded by James Edwards, and syndicated by Liberty News Radio Network and Accent Radio Network in the United States...
, to promote his views. In August 2010, he made another appearance on The Political Cesspool during which he made a widely-discussed allegation that Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
is "homosexual" and that "half the people in the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
are queer". During the same interview, he also claimed that the Pope was a Freemason.
Local congregation support
In 2006 Gibson's foundation, The World Faith Foundation of California, which is funded by Mel Gibson, purchased an existing church structure in the Pittsburgh suburb of Unity, Pennsylvania, and established there a TridentineTridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
sedevacantist
Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics who hold that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of either Pope Pius XII in 1958 or Pope John XXIII in 1963.Sedevacantists...
congregation called St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Chapel. The Reverend Leonard Bealko, purportedly a former Roman Catholic priest who had left the church voluntarily in 1986, was appointed pastor. By mid-2007 Gibson and his fellow congregants had dismissed Bealko and dissolved the congregation amid charges that Bealko had misrepresented his credentials and mishandled finances.
Quotations
Books
- Is the Pope Catholic?: Paul VI's Legacy: Catholicism? (1978)
- Time Out of Mind (1983)
- The Enemy is Here! (1994)
- The Enemy is Still Here! (2003)