WEBVTT - The Thrift-Shop Pope 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.360 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:21.840 On April twentieth, twenty twenty three, Elon Musk unverified the Pope. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.360 I bet that was a sentence you never thought you'd 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:30.120 hear on this podcast. Musk, the eccentric billionaire who bought 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.440 the website formerly known as Twitter seemingly for the Lafts, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:40.400 had changed his policy on verification. Previously, verification had been 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:45.879 subject to a rigorous evaluation to verify the accounts of 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.760 public figures and organizations, but now the coveted blue check 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.600 was available to anyone with eight dollars a month to spare. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.280 The end result was that, at least temporarily, a blue 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:04.080 check mark or public figures and organizations no longer conferred 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.800 any meaningful marker of identity. Those unwilling to pay for it, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:15.760 like Pope Francis, were simply unceremoniously stripped of their blue check. 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.360 If you were, like me, someone who often found yourself 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.959 on the history nerd side of Twitter, you might have 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.760 noticed a couple of odd terms trending as the verification 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:35.679 mayhem unfolded, namely, Auvignon and Western Chisholm. In the early 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:40.399 fourteenth century, Pope Clement the fifth had moved his court 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.080 from Rome to Avignon in what is now France. The 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.840 papacy would remain there unchallenged for over seventy years and 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:53.480 through six more popes, until Gregory the eleventh moved his 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:58.000 court back to Rome in thirteen seventy six. What does 0:01:58.040 --> 0:01:59.840 this have to do with Elon Musk. 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:00.000 You asked. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:06.080 The answer lies in a third trending term, antipope. When 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.200 Gregory the eleventh died in thirteen seventy eight, the College 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.760 of Cardinals in Rome set about their usual business of 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.440 electing a new pope, which they did Urban the sixth, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.160 But some cardinals opposed the move from Avignon back to Rome, 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.200 so they elected a pope of their own in Avignon, 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.799 who would become known as the anti Pope, Clement the seventh, 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.440 though they just called him Pope Clement the seventh. A 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:39.280 total of three antipopes would be elected and reign from 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:44.280 Avignon and two more from Pisa. From June fourteen o 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:49.040 nine to May fourteen fifteen. There were popes in all 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:54.880 three cities, each believing wholeheartedly that he alone was the 0:02:54.919 --> 0:03:02.080 world's singular direct line to God. Twitter story argued mostly jokingly, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:07.680 that Musk's decision to unverify Pope Francis was akin to 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.600 a modern day Western chism, With the Pope in Rome 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.240 stripped of the mark that made it clear he was 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.640 the one and only Pope, Musk was leaving the door 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:22.600 open for someone else to claim the papal throne, at 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:28.120 least on Twitter. The brief verification of Pope Francis was 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:33.720 many things, a technological oversight, a notable day in Twitter's 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:38.600 slow downfall, an opportunity to laugh, perhaps nervously, at the 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:43.120 idea of Elon Musk accidentally taking control of the Catholic Church. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.280 But it was not, in fact a crisis in the Vatican. 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.520 The papalexperts of Twitter dot com, however, were quick to 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:56.200 point out that a Twitter verification schism, funny as it was, 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.840 would not have even given us the first modern antipope. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.120 In the last sixty or so years, at least ten 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:09.440 men have claimed the Holy See, each girded by a 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:14.240 variable number of followers but an equally fervent belief in 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:19.320 the righteousness of their pontificate. Most of these were clergy 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.160 associated with specific offshoots of the Catholic Church before they 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:28.039 claimed an appointment to the papal throne. But Twitter that 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:33.320 day was almost entirely focused on a man named David Bowden, 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:40.039 a former real estate agent and furniture maker originally from Oklahoma, who, 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:44.080 in the Year of Our Lord nineteen ninety decided that 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.599 he was the only one who could lead the church 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:52.279 in the right direction. I'm Danas Schwartz, and this is 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.640 noble blood. 0:04:57.880 --> 0:04:58.800 In order for. 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.960 Any religious organisation to endure, it has to strike a delicate, 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.520 mysterious balance between holding on to its central tenets and 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:13.200 traditions and updating itself as the world around it inevitably changes. 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.760 In January nineteen fifty nine, when Pope John the twenty 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:22.400 third announced his intention to convene a Second Vatican Council, 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.240 the world had been irrevocably changed by the horrors of 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:31.320 the world wars, by the trepidation of the rebuilding and 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.839 globalization that followed, and by the tension that came with 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.560 the brewing Cold War. We're about to get into some 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.560 complicated religious bureaucracy. So before we get any further, I 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.520 figure it would be helpful to explain some terms. The 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:53.240 Second Vatican Council, or Vatican two as it often called, 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.360 was an ecumenical council, which is the term they used 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.960 to describe a gathering of all bishops and other church 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:07.120 authorities during which they consider and rule on questions of doctrine, administration, 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:12.640 church practice, and the like. Despite its name, Vatican two 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:17.200 was not the second ever ecumenical council, just the second 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.560 to take place in the Vatican City. There have been 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.480 twenty seven ecumenical councils in total, dating all the way 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:30.080 back to the fourth century CE, with different sects of 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:35.080 Christianity accepting the conclusions of some and not others as 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.800 they saw fit. The Catholic Church accepts twenty one of them. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.400 When Pope John called the Ecumenical Council that would be 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.400 known as Vatican two, there had not been an ecumenical 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:52.320 council in nearly one hundred years since the First Vatican 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:58.400 Council had concluded in eighteen seventy. It took roughly three 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.840 years to prepare for the Second Vatican Council. Before putting 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.640 together the council, the Vatican first needed to conduct an 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.200 evaluation of the Catholic world, from bishops to the faculty 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:17.360 of Catholic universities. Thousands of individuals and institutions replied with 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:21.280 their wishes for the future of the Church, and immediately 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.960 the conflict was clear. This Ecumenical Council would be divided, 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:29.680 which we those who believed it was the duty of 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.680 the Church to remain steadfast to resist change, because to 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.360 change would be to give in to the pressure from 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:42.560 an increasingly secularized world, and those who believed equally strongly 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.960 that change was necessary for the Church to continue to 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:52.480 thrive in that world. The Council opened on October eleventh, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:57.040 nineteen sixty two, and met in four sessions over the 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.800 course of a little over three years. Pope John the 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.800 twenty third died in nineteen sixty three, so the final 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:09.080 three sessions were overseen by his successor, Paul sixth. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:10.680 He closed the. 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:18.040 Council on December eighth, nineteen sixty five. Vatican two is 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.680 remembered as the most significant event in the history of 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:26.560 the Catholic Church since the Reformation. It enacted change to 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.560 an extent unseen in the Church's history and on a 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:35.480 global scale not possible in prior centuries. To read out 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.640 and explain every change would take too much of our time, 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.200 but some changes that might stand out. This was the 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.600 moment the Church stopped conducting liturgy in Latin, and when 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.439 priests began to be allowed to preach facing the congregation 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.960 for the first time in hundreds of years. Lay people 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:59.640 were widely allowed to take communion under both kinds, that is, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.920 they could receive both consecrated bread and the wine that 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:08.280 previously had been limited to members of the clergy. Of course, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.480 these were only a few of many changes, some of 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.440 which went to matters of much greater importance to the 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.360 doctrine than did the issue of in which direction a 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:23.479 priest could stand. But it's hard to understate how important 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.240 a shift Vatican two was for the Catholic world and 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:33.240 how divisive. The conclusion of the Second Vatican Council and 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.120 all the change that accompanied it did little to quell 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.439 the dissension that had been bubbling over the past several years, 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:47.359 if not longer. Many people, both lay and clergy, continue 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:53.600 to believe steadfastly in traditionalist Catholicism, and some went so 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.560 far as to espouse the belief that by changing the 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:03.480 Church and its practices, hope John the thirteenth committed heresies 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:09.439 that effectively nullified his nineteen fifty eight appointment to the papacy. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.600 This belief became known as set of a Cantism, coming 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.920 from the Latin phrase set of a cante, meaning with 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:21.520 the seat being empty. The phrase was generally used to 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:26.160 indicate the interregnal periods of the papacy after one pope 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.800 had died but before a new one was elected. The 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.480 set of a Cantist's adoption of the term went to 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:38.360 their central claim that the nullification of Pope John's appointment 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.960 meant that, in fact, the Holy See had remained vacant 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.760 since nineteen fifty eight. But what do you do when 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.840 you believe the Holy See to be vacant but the 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:55.199 Vatican doesn't agree? Some set of a Cantists saw an 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:59.120 obvious solution to the problem of the empty papal throne 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.520 to take matters into their own hands and elect a 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:12.559 pope themselves. David Bowden's life started out about as unremarkably 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.560 as a life can start out for someone who would 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:20.000 later claim to be the rightful pope for decades. David 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.760 was born in nineteen fifty nine, the very year Pope 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:29.560 John the thirteenth called for an ecumenical council in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:34.440 His parents, Kennett and Clara, also known as Ticky Bowden, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:41.000 were devout Conservative Catholics, and Vatican Two, which concluded when 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:45.160 David was only six years old, felt like a betrayal 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:50.120 of their faith. The result was a traditionalist upbringing for 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.160 David and his brother Brian that sowed the seeds of 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:59.760 set of Acantism. Eventually, the Boden family became involved with 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:04.760 the Society of Saint Pius the tenth, an international fraternity 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:10.080 of traditionalist Catholic priests, which was founded in nineteen seventy 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.880 by Archbishop Marcel Lefevre, who had been one of the 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:20.960 leading clerical voices of opposition during Vatican Two. The Society 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.920 acknowledged the Pope in Rome, but took enough issue with 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.439 the reforms of Vatican Two that it was still considered 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:34.320 schismatic by the Vatican. David Baden entered the Society's seminary 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:39.400 in nineteen seventy seven, moving to Eccombe, Switzerland to begin 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:44.199 his spiritual training, before transferring to a location in Michigan 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:49.559 later that year. By the time David was dismissed from 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.480 the seminary in nineteen seventy eight. It's possible he had 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:58.800 heard of someone named Clemente Domingazigomes, known to his followers 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:04.600 as Pope Gregory. The seventeenth Gomez, was a controversial Spanish 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.320 bishop who proclaimed that Christ had come to him in 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.680 a series of visions, promising that he would be pope 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:18.120 and return the church to its former glory. Gomez cobbled 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.120 together his own college of cardinals and crowned himself on 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:27.360 August fifteenth, nineteen seventy eight, in Seville, Spain, founding what 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:33.520 would become known as the Palmarian Christian Church. David Bowden 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:39.040 couldn't have been particularly satisfied by that papal alternative. The 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:43.440 Palmrian Christian Church has long been widely considered something of 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.320 a cult, but that would have been the first significant 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:53.319 example in David's lifetime of some kind of conclavist adjacent movement. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.480 A little bit more messy theology, there are several different 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:03.560 distinct kinds of antipopes, and the differences really boil down 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:08.680 to how those antipopes came into their claims. Many modern 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.880 antipopes simply claim that God told them that they were pope. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.640 Such was the case in the Apostles of Infinite Love, 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.200 an early traditionalist Catholic movement that began in the thirties 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.960 but picked up some momentum following Vatican Two. Its first 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:30.160 two popes claimed that they had been mystically made so 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:36.200 without any need for an election or outside consideration. That's 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.960 not entirely dissimilar to what Domengezi Gomez did, and that 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.000 would become clear that he didn't actually care much for 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.920 the practice of electing a pope by conclave when in 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.520 nineteen ninety five he suppressed the cardinalate and single handedly 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:58.720 appointed his own successor. But in the decades since Vatican Two, 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.760 many had to genuinely believe that although the throne of 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.280 Saint Peter was vacant, the process by which a pope 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:12.960 was chosen was still important. One needed a conclave to 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.520 elect a new head of church. These people became known 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:21.720 as Conclavists, espousing the belief that not only was a 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:27.360 conclave important, but that one could or even should, convene 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.840 their own conclave to elect a rightful pope outside of 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:37.960 the Vatican. Despite David's dismissal from the Seminary, which he 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:42.280 maintained was due to infighting in the institution rather than 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:47.440 any wrongdoing on his part. David Bodden initially remained loyal 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.840 to the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth. The Boden 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:56.680 family moved to Saint Mary's, Kansas, where the society ran 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:03.000 Saint Mary's Academy and Collegevid's brother Brian Bodden, attended school there, 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:07.520 and David took a job, hoping to prove himself worthy 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.720 of readmission to the Seminary, but in nineteen eighty one, 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:18.440 several years and a failed seminary application later, David became 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.800 dissolutioned by the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth and 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.160 he struck out on his own, with his family quickly 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:34.120 following suit. Over the next few years, the Boddends became 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.080 drawn to the set of vacantist movement, and soon they 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:43.040 believed firmly that every pope after Pious the twelfth was 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:48.280 a heretic unfit for the papal throne, because the Society 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:53.200 of Saint Pius the Tenth, though traditionalist, still acknowledged the 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.880 Pope in Rome, who by this time was John Paul 0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:01.600 the Second. The Bodens deemed that society heretical too. As 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.399 David continued to study under his own guidance and become 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.399 more deeply involved with the set of a Cantist movement, 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.639 or at least as involved as one could be without 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:16.520 being ordained, he began to reach a new conclusion that 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.840 perhaps there was a solution to the problem of the 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:26.400 empty papal throne, and before long another conclusion that perhaps 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:31.720 he was the one to fill it. In nineteen eighty seven, 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:36.600 David began campaigning for lack of a better word. According 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.760 to his writings, which he uploaded to the online ebook 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.600 service script, it was in September of that year that 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.560 he received a letter that would solidify his conviction that 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:53.360 a new pope must be elected. The letter was otherwise unspecified, 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.399 but he claimed that it included a quote from what 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.840 he described as the only Vatican Council, that is, the 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:06.040 first Vatican Council, which stated that Saint Peter quote would 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.639 have perpetual successors in the papacy until the end of 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:15.800 time end quote. Apparently from that letter, David immediately knew 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.879 that a new pope must somehow be elected, and he 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:21.280 decided to take. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:22.560 Up the cause personally. 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:28.159 Around this time, David connected with Teresa stanfill Ben's, a 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.560 Denver based woman who shared his convictions around the state 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:37.480 of the Catholic Church and the need to call a conclave. Together, 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:42.080 the two of them wrote a book straightforwardly titled Will 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:47.000 the Catholic Church Survive the Twentieth Century. The book laid 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.040 out numerous objections to Vatican two and their thoughts on 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:55.600 how the Church might be saved. One such thought stands 0:18:55.640 --> 0:19:00.600 out because the actual college remained faithful to someone who 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:06.000 they believed was a false pope. David and Theresa championed 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.760 and apparent precedent within the Catholic Church for the election 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:14.800 of a pope by quote true Catholics, that is, laypeople, 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:20.320 instead of the usual College of Cardinals, which generally consists 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:25.480 of senior clerical officials in the Vatican. With the path 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:31.400 forward finally clear, David began planning to hold a papal election. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.359 He reportedly sent over two hundred copies of his and 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.719 Theesa's book to every set of a Cantist priest and 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.919 set of a Cantist publication he could get a hold of, 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.640 hoping to inflate the number of voters at the election 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.720 and thereby its legitimacy. He was hopeful that at least 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:57.360 one ordained priest would come and vote in his homespun 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:02.840 papal election. A few, he said, expressed interest, but ultimately, 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:09.800 in the end none came. After months of planning and 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:14.080 a handful of delays, putting together a papal election on 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.760 your own is a logistical challenge, after all, the big 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:23.679 day finally rolled around on July sixteenth, nineteen ninety, a 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:28.200 day which David would later note was serendipitously also the 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:32.480 Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a liturgical feast 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.520 which had come under some scrutiny from the Vatican following 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.719 Vatican two. With no perish or church to speak of, 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.159 David Bowden convened the conclave in the thrift store his 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:50.720 family owned in Bellevue, Kansas. Out of second hand furniture, 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.040 the conclave made the best approximation they could of a chapel, 0:20:55.680 --> 0:21:01.840 homemade pews padded with leopard print cushions, papal throne all 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:07.399 atop some classic nineties shag carpeting. The conclave was composed 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:12.679 of six lay believers, including Teresa Stanfill Ben's Kennett and 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:17.600 Tickie Bowden, David's parents, and David himself, along with a 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.440 couple who traveled from Michigan for the occasion. It only 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.040 took one round of voting by secret ballad before it 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:30.280 was decided David Bowden would fill the papal throne that had, 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:35.720 according to the conclave, been vacant for over thirty years 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.399 since Pius the twelfth died the year before David's birth. 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:44.760 The newly crowned pope chose the name Michael first, after 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.440 Saint Michael, the archangel, who was said to have battled 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:53.399 the devil himself and defended the faith against heresy. In 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:57.600 a statigy shaky blurry video taken on the day of 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:04.320 the election, the videographer, presumably David's father, shows David kneeling 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.439 before their homemade altar in a white skull cap, a 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.840 white stole with crosses on it, and a robe that 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.520 looked like it may have once been a tablecloth. In 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:20.919 a charming, somewhat mid Atlantic accent, David's father, Kenneth declares, 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.800 abay moose Popham, we have a pope, and then, like 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.800 all proud dads have done since the invention of the 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.439 video camera, he struggles to figure out how to zoom 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:41.280 in on the new leader of his faith. A farmhouse 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:45.560 for a palace, an attic for a chapel, a pickup 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:51.240 truck for a popemobile. In twenty eleven, an independent documentary 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:55.000 was made about Pope Michael, detailing his rise to the 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:59.240 thrift shop throne and the small but fervent movement that 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:03.800 he had gathered around him. The film offers an intimate 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:07.800 portrait of Pope Michael that one could never dream of 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:12.399 getting for, say, Pope Francis. We see him eating dinner 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.760 at home in Kansas with his mother Ticky, and his 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:20.680 seminarian and papal secretary, Phil Friedel, a young man from 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:25.200 Chicago who had left a girlfriend and an engineering education 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:30.639 behind after corresponding with Pope Michael and feeling called to 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:34.720 his church. We see the Christmas lights Michael used to 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:39.679 decorate his workspace, slash chapel in his mother's attic, the 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.199 old computer he used to email with his followers and 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:48.119 update his website, and the aviator Sonny's off white trench 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:52.760 coat combo he wore when he ran errands. We also 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:56.760 hear about the struggles Pope Michael has faced over the years. 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:01.080 A primary problem was that he was unknown ordained for 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:04.879 the first twenty one years of his reign. He never 0:24:04.960 --> 0:24:09.280 did gain acceptance to a seminary after his dismissal in 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.000 nineteen seventy eight, and he couldn't very well do so 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:17.440 while both rejecting the Vatican and claiming. 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:18.639 To already be pope. 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:23.359 But his technically lay status meant that he could not 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.640 perform any of the traditional duties of a pope or 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:31.760 a priest for that matter. That meant, among other things, 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:35.560 that he could not offer Mass. So in order to 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:40.040 preach his gospel and grow his following pope, Michael turned 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:44.760 to the newly minted Internet and started a blog, which 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:49.320 he called Vatican in Exile. He used it to maintain 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:53.919 contact with his followers, who remained small in number but 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:57.320 who were based around the world. He also used it 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:01.760 to solicit new followers, to criticiz size the Vatican, and 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:06.280 to try to combat those who would seek to delegitimize 0:25:06.280 --> 0:25:11.120 his reign. For the entirety of Michael's reign, his blog 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:15.119 and the Internet in general would be the primary. 0:25:14.640 --> 0:25:16.040 Tool of the papacy. 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:19.280 I feel like I need to mention now if you 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:24.720 found yourself charmed by David's quirky underdog story. We cannot 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:30.760 forget that Pope Michael fancied himself a traditionalist Catholic pope. 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:34.439 His blog, along with his other writings, was full of 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:38.840 vitriol against queer and trans people. It was full of 0:25:38.880 --> 0:25:46.040 anti choice tirades, and, particularly after COVID hit anti vaccine misinformation. 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:51.360 In twenty eleven, Pope Michael claimed to finally have been 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:57.240 ordained and consecrated as a bishop by Bishop Robert b Arneson, 0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:01.880 who was part of the quote independent Catholic movement that 0:26:01.960 --> 0:26:06.119 saw clergy and laity break away from Rome and ordain 0:26:06.280 --> 0:26:11.720 and consecrate clergy without Vatican approval. It was an ordination 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:15.480 that would never have stood up to scrutiny by Church officials, 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:18.479 but it should be clear by now how little that 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:22.840 would have mattered to Michael. Soon after, Michael wrote and 0:26:23.040 --> 0:26:27.320 published another book titled fifty four Years That Changed the 0:26:27.359 --> 0:26:32.040 Catholic Church nineteen fifty eight to twenty twelve, in which 0:26:32.080 --> 0:26:35.960 he retold his own story and espoused his beliefs on 0:26:36.160 --> 0:26:40.439 a wide range of doctrinal issues and perceived heresies and 0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:44.320 sins by the Church in the Vatican not to mention 0:26:44.440 --> 0:26:52.119 the secular world at large. The other great struggle of 0:26:52.200 --> 0:26:58.480 Pope Michael's reign, perhaps unsurprisingly, was near constant criticism. He 0:26:58.560 --> 0:27:02.320 dealt with pushback not only from modern Catholics, but also 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:06.399 from his fellow set of Accantists, and even from former 0:27:06.520 --> 0:27:11.280 supporters and members of his own family. Teresa Stanfill Bens, 0:27:11.320 --> 0:27:14.800 who had made up one sixth of Michael's papal conclave, 0:27:15.400 --> 0:27:20.360 had denounced his papacy as a cult of personality several 0:27:20.480 --> 0:27:25.359 years prior to the twenty eleven documentary, including him on 0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:30.399 her list of anti popes on her blog. David's own brother, 0:27:30.680 --> 0:27:35.239 Brian Bawden, had been shocked by the election itself, and 0:27:35.480 --> 0:27:39.719 was quoted in the Miami Herald shortly after the election saying, 0:27:40.400 --> 0:27:43.399 oh my god, no, I don't know what to think. 0:27:43.800 --> 0:27:46.480 I don't follow the church in Rome. I don't go 0:27:46.560 --> 0:27:51.400 around electing popes either. We don't hear much about Brian 0:27:51.760 --> 0:27:57.439 after Pope Michael's election. From outside his circle, Pope Michael 0:27:57.600 --> 0:28:03.639 received ridicule from pro Vatican Catholics, from non Catholics, and 0:28:03.800 --> 0:28:07.760 of course from supporters of other anti popes. From a 0:28:07.920 --> 0:28:12.439 mixture of these, he received his many nicknames, the junk 0:28:12.480 --> 0:28:17.439 store Pope, the second hand Pope, and the thrift shop Pope, 0:28:18.000 --> 0:28:22.480 among others. He also claimed to have received many threats 0:28:22.600 --> 0:28:27.480 over the years, with one particularly colorful one promising to 0:28:27.600 --> 0:28:31.119 cut out his tongue and ship it to then Pope 0:28:31.240 --> 0:28:35.160 John Paul the Second. The ridicule never seemed to bother 0:28:35.359 --> 0:28:39.800 Michael much. In one interview, he equipped quote they called 0:28:39.960 --> 0:28:43.960 Jesus a kook too, though he did file a police 0:28:44.000 --> 0:28:50.240 report after that tongue threat. In July twenty twenty two, 0:28:50.520 --> 0:28:54.840 the Vatican in Exile Twitter account shared that Pope Michael 0:28:54.960 --> 0:28:58.320 had been admitted to a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, 0:28:58.760 --> 0:29:02.560 for emergency surch injury and was in a coma. He 0:29:02.640 --> 0:29:07.120 never recovered and died on August second, twenty twenty two, 0:29:07.600 --> 0:29:11.520 at the age of sixty three. In another interview released 0:29:11.600 --> 0:29:16.080 shortly after his death, he claimed that his constant efforts 0:29:16.080 --> 0:29:21.840 online had earned his church over one hundred loyal members. 0:29:23.080 --> 0:29:26.760 David Bodden's death did not make the waves one might 0:29:26.880 --> 0:29:31.080 expect from the death of a pope. His obituary is 0:29:31.200 --> 0:29:36.440 a curious testament to the precariousness of his position. He 0:29:36.560 --> 0:29:41.360 was named only as father David Bowden, and his obituary 0:29:41.480 --> 0:29:45.840 never explicitly mentioned his claim to the papacy, naming him 0:29:45.880 --> 0:29:50.120 instead as a member of the Saint Helen's Catholic Mission 0:29:50.200 --> 0:29:54.960 Church in Topeka. It also gave him the titles of 0:29:55.200 --> 0:30:00.280 President of the Oakland Neighborhood Improvement Association and memor member 0:30:00.360 --> 0:30:06.120 of the Citizen Advisory Committee. Nevertheless, the obituary did note 0:30:06.400 --> 0:30:09.800 that he would be lying in state at Saint Helen's 0:30:09.840 --> 0:30:14.000 in honor not afforded to just anyone, not even regular 0:30:14.200 --> 0:30:19.760 quote unquote priests. In death, as in life, David embodied 0:30:19.880 --> 0:30:24.840 many of the tensions and contradictions that defined the Catholic 0:30:24.880 --> 0:30:29.440 world after Vatican Two. The papacy in the Vatican, as 0:30:29.480 --> 0:30:34.160 we all know, continued on after Pope Michael's death, with 0:30:34.320 --> 0:30:38.360 Francis and the cardinals and the bishops and most of 0:30:38.400 --> 0:30:42.400 the world ignoring him as they always had, But in 0:30:42.440 --> 0:30:47.000 the eyes of somewhere between thirty and one hundred believers, 0:30:47.560 --> 0:30:50.680