Early life

Born on April 20, 1918, in Rock, Wisconsin, near Marshfield, Earl Pulvermacher was one of nine children of a farm family.^[4] His three brothers (Robert, Omer, and Gerald) also became priests in the Capuchin Order.^{[5] [6]}

Capuchin friar

In 1942, at the age of 24, he joined the Capuchin Order, taking the religious name Lucian. He was subsequently ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1946.^[7] At first he was posted to a parish in Milwaukee, but in 1948 he was sent to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.^[8][9] He spent the greater part of his career as a Capuchin (from 1948 to 1970) in the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa. In 1970, he was transferred from Japan to Queensland in Australia, where he continued his missionary work until his disillusionment with the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965.^[10]

Traditionalist ministry

In January 1976 he left the Capuchin Order and returned to the United States to join forces with traditionalist priest Conrad Altenbach in Milwaukee. "I was without money," he later remembered, "without a home or anything. The few things I brought along with me I could carry in two bags." He left what he called "the Novus Ordo, bogus Council Vatican II Church" and began to collaborate with the Society of Saint Pius X, which rejected Vatican II, until he distanced himself from them as he adopted more extreme sedevacantist views. He later wrote that he had spent eight months "with the general Latin Mass traditionalists until I saw there was no unity. Hence, I am alone on the job here in the States since August 1976."^{[1][9][10][11]} In other words, all of the world's 1.36 billion Catholics were out of step except for him.

From 1976 on, Pulvermacher lived with his parents in Pittsville, Wisconsin, celebrating Mass in the traditional rite in private chapels, until 1992, when he moved his ministry to Antigo, Wisconsin. By 1995 he had adopted conclavist views. In 1998 he moved to Kalispell, Montana, invited to say Mass in a chapel there.^[9]

In October 1998 a group of sedevacantist lay Catholics met in Kalispell, constituting a conclave for a papal election. They elected him, and he adopted the title of "Pope Pius XIII".^[1][12] From Montana he issued statements, appointed advisors as cardinals, and performed ordination rites. After 2005, he made no more public statements as his health declined.^[9]

Pulvermacher died on November 30, 2009.^[13][14]