Siri Thesis

ber 26, 1958. White smoke indicates that a Pope has been
elected. Vatican Radio also concluded that a Pope had
been elected on the third ballot and announced it as such,
telling listeners, The smoke is white... There is absolutely no doubt. A Pope has been elected. However, no
Pope appeared, and at 6 PM the smoke changed to black,
signaling that no Pope had been elected.[5]
Two days later, the white smoke again rose from the Sistine Chapel, and Angelo Roncalli emerged to become
Pope John XXIII. Supporters of the Siri Thesis believe
that evidence indicates that Cardinal Siri was elected on
October 26 when the white smoke was seen but no Pope
emerged on the balcony, and that dire threats against the
Cardinals and the Vatican were made during this time,
emanating in part from the Kremlin. Some believe that
the pressures included a nuclear threat against the Vatican itself if Siri were not set aside and a more acceptable
candidate chosen.
This idea is founded on the outcry against Siris strong
anti-communist stance.
Malachi Martin later said that Siri had been elected as
Pope during the Papal conclave, October 1978. He said
in March 1997 on Paranet Continuum radio programme
Steel on Steel, hosted by John Loeler, that Siri had received a written note after his initial election threatening
him and his family with death should he accept.[6] Martin wrote of threats which involved the very existence
of the Vatican state during a conclave on pages 60010
of his book The Keys of this Blood. According to Martin, after such threats entered the conclave, progressive
factions amongst the cardinals in the conclave, particularly the French cardinals, pressured Siri to step aside,
claiming that his strong anti-Communist policies would
lead, among other things, to widespread persecution of
Catholics in Eastern Europe. Siri would then have accepted this suggestion and stepped aside, rather than having said that he would refuse to serve if elected.

Cardinal Siri in 1958, shortly before the conclave

The Siri Thesis is the belief that Cardinal Giuseppe Siri,

the long-serving and conservative Archbishop of Genoa,
was actually elected Pope in the 1958 papal conclave, but
that his election was then suppressed.[1]
By 2006, the Siri Thesis was a fringe belief, thought
to be held by hundreds, at most thousands of mostly
traditionalist Catholic people.[2] Cardinal Siri himself did
not associate himself with this belief.

Reasons for belief

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation allegedly claimed that Siri had indeed been elected on the
third ballot on October 26, 1958, according to the book
The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Maa by
Paul L. Williams on pages 9092, which cites an FBI document as reference; this document, allegedly declassied,
can no longer be found; Williams adamantly refused to
comment on why he included the alleged document and
reference number in his book, or why the document could
no longer be viewed.

The followers of the Siri Thesis claim that during the

papal conclave of 1958, Cardinal Siri, who was considered the leading conservative candidate, was elected Pope
on the rst day of the conclave, October 26, and took the
pontical name of Gregory XVII.[3] However, the pro-Siri
movement itself quoted Siri as making clear his intention
to refuse if elected. [4]

Newspapers the world over carried the Associated Press

picture of the white smoke emanating from the Sistine
According to some Siri theorists, if Siri had resigned, it
Chapel chimney from 5:55 PM until 6:00 PM on Octo1

would have been invalid according to Canon 185 of the

1917 Code of Canon Law, which states (Canon 188 in
the 1983 Code of Canon Law): Resignation made out
of grave fear that is inicted unjustly or out of malice,
substantial error, or simony is invalid by the law itself.[7]

Sedevacantism

A small group of traditional Catholics rejects the reforms

of the Second Vatican Council, and in some circles this
rejection extends even to the validity of the post-Council
Popes themselves; in their view, Pope Pius XII was the
last true Pope.[2]
A branch of sedevacantists, adherents of the thesis, who
are also known as Sirianists to adversaries of the Thesis,
also consider that John XXIII and the ocial popes are
antipopes, while Siri reigned as the suppressed head of
the Catholic Church until his death in 1989.[2] However,
unlike in historical antipope disputes, Siri never publicly
claimed to be Pope or questioned the validity of the papacies of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I or John Paul II.
The Sirianists hold that Siri was under constant surveillance and under a constant death threat and thus was
forced to remain silent for fear of his life.[8]

Sedeimpeditism

Sirianism appears to be a major feature in what has

been termed sedeimpeditism, which is distinguished from
sedevacantism in that sedeimpeditists do not believe that
the Holy See is vacant (sede vacante), but rather that a
real legitimate Pope existed, but that he was impeded by
outside forces (sede impedita) from taking his oce.

REFERENCES

Church). However, it may be asked whether Siri was truly

in exile, as he continued to serve as Archbishop of Genoa
and never questioned the validity of the known Popes.
Siri was also known to be friends with John XXIII, although he did reportedly loathe Paul VI.
Although some sedeimpeditists may not agree with the
Siri Thesis, or at least consider it as only one of a number
of possibilities, they are in overall agreement with sedevacantists that starting with (usually) John XXIII, the civil
structure of the Catholic Church has been controlled by
heretics who could not possibly be Popes, and that there
were enough modernist heretic cardinals to prevent real
Catholics from undoing the revolution.

4 Criticism
The authoritative biography of Cardinal Siri by
Raimondo Spiazzi and other Italian biographers do not
even mention the newspaper article.[11] Hutton Gibson,
who was a one time cautious supporter of the Siri Thesis,
rejected the belief and asserted it was based largely on a
mistranslation of an Italian newspaper article.[2][12] The
change of white to black smoke was recorded by Silvio
Negro for the evening edition of Corriere della Sera
(Milan, Italy) on 27 October.[2] However, Negro, Gibson
contends, was actually discussing an occurrence at the
1939 conclave in one key paragraph in the article.[2]
Gibsons assertion has been itself disputed by supporters
of the Thesis.[13][14][15]

The Siri thesis was rst promoted by Gary Giure in four

installments of 'Exile of the Pope Elect'. At that time it
was theorized that Siri was elected in the 1963 (not 1958)
conclave and in both 1978 conclaves. Giure alleges it
was revealed by Siri himself in Rome in June 1988 to a
traditional priest from Vietnam, that following the death
Because some sedeimpeditists are even today not sedeva- of Pius XII that he was elected at the October 26, 1958
cantists, some of them believe that, Gregory XVIII, a true conclave and chose the name Gregory XVII.
Pope in the Siri line still exists somewhere in the world today, and thus they are also distinguished from conclavists,
who are sedevacantists who took the next step and decided to elect their own Pope.[9] A number of groups have 5 See also
attempted this step, including a group in Kansas, USA,
who recognise David Bawden as Pope Michael I in 1990,
Sedevacantism
and a group around (the late) Elizabeth Gerstner. How Catholic Resistance
ever, even if the Siri Thesis were correct, these supposed
elections would still not be valid according to Canon Law,
which reserves the right to elect the Pope to the electors of
the College of Cardinals. Hence, sedeimpeditists believe 6 References
that the real papal succession would have to be preserved,
most likely by a network of underground cardinals and [1] Giur, Comments on the Eclipse of the Church and Ocbishops.
tober 26, 1958, Real news 24/7.
Sedeimpeditists who accept the Siri Thesis believe that
Giuseppe Siri was the Pope in Exile long prophesied
by Catholic saints[10] during what they view as the current Eclipse of the Church, as allegedly predicted by
Our Lady of La Salette in 1846 (a vision approved by the

[2] Moynihan 2006.

[3] Giur 2006.
[4] http://www.thepopeinred.com/

7.2

Against the Siri Thesis

[5] http://www.thepopeinred.com/
[6] Loeer, John (March 1997), The Wisdom of Malachi
Martin, Soquel: Radio Liberty.
[7] Code of Canon Law, The Holy See, 1983.
[8] The Pope in Red.
[9] In Todays Catholic World.
[10] Dupont, Yves (1971), Catholic Prophecy, Tan.
[11] Spiazzi, Raimondo (1990), Il Cardinale Giuseppe Siri,
Bologna: Studio Dominicani.
[12] Hutton 2006.
[13] Rebuttal I, Eclipse of the Church.
[14] Rebuttal II, Eclipse of the Church.
[15] Rebuttal III, Eclipse of the Church.

Bibliography

7.1

Promoting the Siri Thesis

The Pope In Red

Giur, Gary (2006) [1989], Cardinal Siri and the
Plot against the Pope: An examination of the hidden
history of the Catholic Church.
Eclipse of the Church

7.2

Against the Siri Thesis

Moynihan, Robert, ed. (February 2006), The Siri

Thesis Unravels, Inside the Vatican (Rome, IT),
ISSN 1068-8579, retrieved 2007-02-21.
Gibson, Hutton (January 2006), Gary Giur &
The 'Siri Thesis", The War is Now! (Yahoo! Geo
cities) (66), archived from the original on Oct 27,
2009.

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Siri Thesis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri%20Thesis?oldid=640300821 Contributors: Gentgeen, Everyking, Cb6, Oknazevad,

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8.2

Images

File:Edit-clear.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The

Tango! Desktop Project. Original artist:
The people from the Tango! project. And according to the meta-data in the le, specically: Andreas Nilsson, and Jakub Steiner (although
minimally).
File:Giuseppe_Siri,_1958.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Giuseppe_Siri%2C_1958.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: The original uploader was RiccardoP1983 at Italian Wikipedia

8.3

Content license

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