Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga (born Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga on October 12, 1899 - died April 28, 1976) was a Mexican

Mexican people

Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

 Catholic

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...

 priest and theologian. Jesuit

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 from 1916 to 1952 he was later a harsh critic of 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...

 decisions and of the post-conciliar popes. He was declared excommunicated in 1972 by the Roman Catholic bishops' conference of Mexico

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...

. He is considered as the promoter of the 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...

 ideas.

Traditionalism

As a young man Sáenz Arriaga was brought up in the spirit of the Cristero pressure group, Miguel Pro

Miguel Pro

Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez , also known as Blessed Miguel Pro, was a Mexican Jesuit priest, executed without trial during the persecution of the Catholic Church under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles after trumped up charges of involvement in an assassination attempt against former President...

 and other Catholic martyrs who fought against the Freemasonic

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 and Communist government of Mexico in the 1920s, when some Catholics faced up to firing squads with the cry ¡Viva Cristo Rey! ("Long live Christ the King!").

Sáenz y Arriaga placed great emphasis on the Catholic doctrine of the "Kingship of Christ", which militates against secularism

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

 and the separation of church and state

Separation of church and state

The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....

. When the Vatican II reforms began to be implemented in Mexico and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, it was Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga who led the fight against the so-called 'neo-modernists

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...

'.

His uncompromising traditionalism

Traditionalism

Traditionalism may refer to:*The systematic emphasis on the value of Tradition*Traditionalism *Traditional values, those beliefs, moral codes, and mores that are passed down from generation to generation....

 led to a rejection of the "New Church" and he became the first to propound the doctrine of 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...

, which maintains that, since 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....

, there has been a sede vacante

Sede vacante

Sede vacante is an expression, used in the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, that refers to the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church...

in Rome because the following pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

s espoused the 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...

 teachings of 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...

.

Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga later incorporated these ideas in his books La nueva iglesia montiniana (The new Montinian Church) (1971), and Sede Vacante: Paulo VI no es Papa legítimo (Sede Vacante: Paul VI is no longer a legitimate Pope) (1973). In these books he stated that Paul VI had forfeited his papal authority through public, pertinacious and manifest heresy, a position which he had reportedly held for some time. He was a catalyzing influence on lay and clerical Catholic traditionalists who opposed the Vatican II reforms in Mexico and North America, persuading them to go independent, setting up independent chapels and churches and soliciting and procuring consecration

Consecration

Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...

s to create alternative lineages of bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

s.

Excommunication

In reaction to his activities, the Mexican Cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

 Miranda

Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez

Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez was a Mexican Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Mexico City from 1956 to 1977, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969.-Biography:...

 officially declared that Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga had incurred excommunication

Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...

. 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

Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement

The Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement or ORCM is a group of priests founded by Fr. Francis E. Fenton acting on the suggestions of Fr. Joaquin Sáenz y Arriaga, S.J., and was the U.S. organization parallel to the Mexican organization Unión Catolica Trento, founded by Fr. Saenz along with Frs. Moises...

.

Illness and death

According to his biographer, Antonio Rius-Facius, Fr. Sáenz died of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...

 on April 28, 1976.

In his last testament, written three days before his death, 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."

After his death, Sáenz y Arriaga's work was continued by Frs. Adolfo Zamora and Moisés Carmona in Mexico; by Fr. Francis E. Fenton and his associates in the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement, and Fr. Burton Fraser, S.J. in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In today's Mexico (2007), the Sáenz movement as a traditionalist Catholic movement, is dead. However, sedevacantists

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...

of the Unión Católica Trento still maintain several churches, chapels and one monastery.