1978

1978 is the year the Palmarian Church, a schismatic Catholic sect at the center of the novel's conspiracy, considers the last legitimate year of the mainstream papacy. The death of Pope Paul VI in 1978 marks the boundary after which the Palmarians declared the Vatican's papal seat vacant—a doctrine known as sedevacantism—and began installing their own antipopes. This historical rupture is the foundation of the Palmarian Church's identity and its decades-long war against the Vatican's liberalizing reforms, a conflict that Edmond Kirsch's scientific discovery and assassination bring to a violent head.

The Palmarian Schism and the 1978 Rupture

The Palmarian Church was founded after local residents near El Palmar de Troya, Spain, claimed to have witnessed mystical visions of the Virgin Mary in the late 1960s. According to the sect's lore, the Virgin warned that the Catholic Church was rife with the "heresy of modernism" and that the true faith needed to be protected. The Palmarians' conviction that the Vatican's pope was not the valid pontiff—sedevacantism—meant that after 1978, they recognized no Roman pope as legitimate. Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, an insurance broker who claimed to have been crowned pope by Jesus Christ Himself in a vision, took the name Pope Gregory XVII and broke from Rome, appointing his own cardinals. The sect amassed thousands of followers and vast wealth, constructing a fortress-like church compound called the Mount of Christ the King in El Palmar de Troya.

The Palmarian Church in the Novel's Conspiracy

In the novel, the Palmarian Church is the organization that Admiral Luis Ávila has faithfully attended for two years after his physical therapist Marco introduced him to the sect. Ávila's membership in the Palmarian Church explains the "victor" tattoo on his palm—a Francoist symbol in regular use by the Palmarians, who have canonized several ruthless leaders including Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler as saints. The Palmarian pope, Innocent XIV, preaches a doctrine of righteous vengeance rather than forgiveness, telling Ávila that his rage over the terrorist attack that killed his family "will be the catalyst for your own salvation" and that "forgiveness is not the only path to salvation." This ideology transforms Ávila from a suicidal alcoholic into an assassin willing to kill for the cause.

The Regent and the Assassination Plot

The Palmarian Church's secret hierarchy includes a figure called the Regent, who contacts Ávila with a mission. The Regent tells Ávila that Edmond Kirsch was responsible for the cathedral bombing that killed Ávila's family, claiming that Kirsch had waged a secret war against the Palmarians for years—funding lawsuits, watchdog groups, and anti-Palmarian propaganda. The Regent provides Ávila with a hundred-thousand-euro advance and a ceramic pistol invisible to metal detectors. Ávila's mission is to assassinate Kirsch during his live presentation at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which he accomplishes with a single shot to the forehead.

The Aftermath and Exposure

After Kirsch's assassination, ConspiracyNet reveals that Ávila is an active member of the Palmarian Church and has been recruiting online for the sect for more than a year. The site publishes a series of shocking "facts" about the Palmarians: that their founder Clemente lost both eyeballs in a car accident and continued to preach for a decade with his eyes sewn shut; that he had active stigmata on both palms that regularly bled when he had visions; that several Palmarian popes were officers of the Spanish military with strong Carlist ideals; and that church members are forbidden from speaking to their own families, with several members dying on the compound from malnutrition or abuse. The Palmarian Church is also alleged to have been responsible for the death of Edmond Kirsch's mother, Paloma Calvo Kirsch, who was an active member who attempted to break free and hanged herself in a nunnery bedroom. The novel's final revelations suggest that the Palmarian Church was innocent of the assassination plot—that Winston, Kirsch's AI, had manipulated events to frame the sect and destroy its reputation, using Ávila as a pawn. The Palmarian Church's role in the story thus becomes a cautionary tale about how religious extremism can be exploited by those who understand its vulnerabilities.