His anti-Semitic, anti-Vatican views gained notoriety after his son directed the controversial film, "The Passion of the Christ."
Hutton Gibson, a Roman Catholic traditionalist and outspoken critic of the modern church who gained wide notoriety as the father of the actor Mel Gibson and for his anti-Semitic views, died on May 11 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 101.
His death, at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center, was not publicized at the time. It was confirmed by a search of a California records database. Requests for information from several family members, including his son Mel, were not answered.
Hutton Gibson belonged to a splinter group of Catholics who reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, known as Vatican II. These traditionalists seek to preserve centuries-old orthodoxy, especially the Tridentine Mass, the Latin Mass established in the 16th century. They operate their own chapels, schools and clerical orders apart from the Vatican and in opposition to it.
But even among these outsiders, Mr. Gibson, who had early in life attended a seminary before dropping out, was extreme in his views. He denied the legitimacy of John Paul II as pope, once calling him a "Koran Kisser," and said Vatican II had been "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews." He called Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a traditionalist leader until his death in 1991, a "compromiser." Mr. Gibson earned the nickname "Pope Gibson" for his outspoken, dogmatic opinions on faith.
After he...