A document called a ''notification" signed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the excommunication was ordered "by special mandate" of Pope John Paul because of Archbishop Thuc’s illicit ordinations (sic - consecrations) of bishops and preists and his statement last year that the Holy See is vacant. The Archbishop had been excommunicated in 1976 for ordaining bishops in Spain without the authorization of Pope Paul VI. The excommunication was lifted the next year by the Vatican after Archbishop Thuc asked pardon from Jose Cardinal Bueno y Monreale of Seville, Spain, for the "immense damage suffered by the Church, since its unity was placed in danger."

One of the Spaniards illicitly ordained a bishop in 1976 was Clemente Dominguez Gomez, now 37, who declared himself "Pope Gregory XVII" after Pope Paul’s death in 1978 and continues to insist that the current pope is not a valid successor of Peter.

The excommunication of Archbishop Thuc centers on the 1981 episcopal ordinations (sic) of French Dominican Guerard des Lauries and two Mexicans, Noise (sic - Moises) Carmona and Adolpho Zamora. Carmona in turn ordained two Mexicans and an American, George Musey, to the priesthood.

Archbishop Thuc comes from a once prominent Vietnamese family which was politically powerful in South Vietnam during the early years after the 1954 split of the country into North and South. His brother, Ngo Dinh Diem, ruled South Vietnam from 1955 until 1963 when Diem and another brother were killed during a coup.

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