Odermatt was born in
Stans, Canton of Nidwalden, in Switzerland. He claims to be a descendant of Saint
Nicholas of Flüe. He joined the
Order of Carmelites of the Holy Face in 1985 and worked for eighteen years as a missionary in South America. He served as the order's secretary of state from 2011 until 2016. In 2016 he succeeded
Ginés Jesús Hernández as pope of the Palmarian Catholic Church, taking the papal name Peter III. He has his episcopal seat at the
Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar. Some months later he published an
encyclical letter, in which he accused his predecessor of discrediting his former church and of stealing two million euros from the
Palmarian Catholic Church, alongside several goods (including a
BMW X6): he subsequently declared him an
apostate,
excommunicated him and declared all of his acts to be
null and void. Hernández denies the charges of stealing. Odermatt disbanded the papal guard corps instituted by his predecessor, deeming it unnecessary for his security. In 2018 he travelled to the United States for the first time to participate at a "
Eucharistic,
Marian and
Josephine Congress". During his office, the Palmarian Catholic Church established an online presence for the first time, opening a website and accounts on
Facebook,
Instagram,
Twitter and
Pinterest and a channel on
YouTube. Mainstream Roman Catholics consider Odermatt to be an
Antipope and believe that the current head of the Catholic Church is
Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost), an American from Chicago. The inverse is believed by Palmarian Catholics: namely that Odermatt ("Pope Peter III") is the true Pope and Prevost ("Antipope Leo XIV") is an Antipope. ==Notes==