Sergio María Ginés Jesús Hernández y Martínez (born 1 July 1959), known by his religious name as Sergio María and by his papal name as Gregory XVIII, is the former Pope of the Palmarian Christian Church. Hernández was in office from 2011 until his 2016 abdication. Hernández is a former member of the Spanish Military. Hernández is a Carlist. Between 2005 and 2011, Hernández served as church secretary of state under pope Manuel Corral (Peter II). After Corral's death, Hernández succeeded Corral, on 16 July 2011, as pope at El Palmar de Troya and adopted the papal name Gregory XVIII. Hernández nominated his successor Joseph Odermatt from Switzerland. According to Professor Magnus Lundberg, of the University of Uppsala, Hernández abdicated from his papacy on 22 April 2016 and was succeeded on 23 April 2016 by Odermatt, who took Peter III as his papal name. Following his abdication, Hernández married Nieves Trivedi (a former Palmarian nun) and they both reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church. Controversy Criticism of the Church and excommunication Following his abdication, Hernández told El País that the Palmarian Christian Church "was all a hoax from the beginning" to profit from believers and supporters of the alleged apparitions of Our Lady of Palmar. His successor, Pope Peter III, published an encyclical letter in response, in which he accused Hernández of discrediting his former Church in his interview 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. In may 2016 Hernández gave an interview to El Español, in which he stated that he had left the Church not because he had fallen in love, but because he had lost faith in the Palmarian Norms; he also accused his former Church of many abuses, of which his predecessor Peter II was apparently aware of, though not paedophilia scandals, which he firmly denied. He also stated that he lost several friends after leaving the Palmarian Christian Church. In 2020 Hernández was again interviewed by El Confidencial: during the interview he accused the Palmarian Christian Church of possessing large quantities of cash money and even weapons; he also regretted not disbanding the Church while he was in charge, but predicted that it would soon collapse on its own.