My Grandpa, The Pope: From Sedevacantist Sect to the Catholic Church - A Memoir

by Tony Mack, Andrew Mioni (Editor)

We believed the Catholic Church had been destroyed after Vatican II.
We believed that our group received messages directly from the Blessed Mother.
We believed it was our mission to make the world see its evil before God destroyed it.

We were the new Church.
I was a priest.
My grandma was the Last Prophet.
And my grandpa was the pope.

This memoir recounts the spiritual journey of one man's life in a sedevacantist sect in the 1980s and 1990s. Living in fear of persecution and chastisements as a child, wrestling with faith and atheism as a teenager, and then fully devoting himself as a young man to his family's sect known simply as "The Group," Tony pursued God through spiritual fog and ultimately discovered true faith.

154 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2025

Reviews

[Isak]

1) This is by no means a great piece of literature.

2) That doesn't really matter. Someone grievously wounded by his experience with a sedevacantist cult is relaying his experience as he now understands it. That's valuable.

3) I recommend this to Catholics interested in the extremes of the radical traditional Catholic world. These extremes, the fringes, help us understand the relatively more moderate groups, as well as the norms of the wider Church experience.

[alaina.maine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Grandpa, The Pope is a compelling and gripping read. The reader can feel a strong sense of connection to Tony, as his emotions and thoughts were captured and portrayed so beautifully. His words reached deep and hit hard. The reader cried for the little boy, and cheered for the man that overcame it all. While there is deep tragedy, there is also a parallel of hope, devotion, healing, and triumph. As in the St. Francis prayer; where there is darkness, there is light. We see generational cycles broken, vicious wounds healed, and peace restored. I strongly encourage everyone to give this book a a thorough read.