Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga


Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga was a Mexican Catholic priest and theologian. Jesuit from 1916 to 1952 he was later a harsh critic of the Second Vatican Council decisions and of the post-conciliar Pope Paul VI. In 1972, he was declared excommunicated by the Roman Catholic bishops' conference of Mexico. He is considered as the promoter of the sedevacantist ideas.

Traditionalism

As a young man Sáenz Arriaga was brought up in the spirit of the Cristero movement, Miguel Pro and other Catholics who fought against the government of Mexico in the 1920s.
Sáenz y Arriaga placed great emphasis on the Catholic doctrine of the "Kingship of Christ". When the Vatican II reforms began to be implemented in Mexico and North America, it was Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga who led the fight against them.
His uncompromising traditionalism led to a rejection of the new Conciliar Church, and he became the first to propound the doctrine of sedevacantism, which maintains that, since the death of Pope Pius XII, there has been a sede vacante in Rome because the following so-called popes espoused the heretical teachings of the sham Second Vatican Council.
Fr. Sáenz y Arriaga later incorporated these ideas in his books La nueva iglesia montiniana , and Sede Vacante: Paulo VI no es Papa legítimo . 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 Vatican II in Mexico and North America, persuading them to defend and maintain the "True Faith", setting up independent chapels and churches and soliciting and procuring consecrations to create alternative lineages of bishops.

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 Sociedad Sacerdotal 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.
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 by Fr. Burton Fraser, S.J., in the United States. In today's Mexico, sedevacantists of the Unión Católica Trento continue to maintain several churches, chapels and one monastery.