He was elected by a group of six lay sedevacantists, which included himself and his parents, to fill the vacancy they consider to have been caused by the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Unlike other papal claimants, David Bawden's election did not involve any previously ordained clergy from the Catholic Church. Although Bawden attended two seminaries run by the Society of Saint Pius X, he was dismissed without cause from the second seminary and was never ordained as a priest and has therefore never offered a Mass.