With its
particular view of the Church, the Old Catholic theology
joins those theologians who see the
Eucharist
as the core of being a Church. From that point the church is
a communion of believers. All are in communion with one
another around the surrender of life by
Jesus Christ,
as the highest expression of the love of God. Therefore in
the celebration of the Eucharist is the faithful experience
of how the Lord prevailed by the surrender of his life to
sin. Sin is that power that divides life in all of its
dimensions. The defeat of sin consists in bringing together
that which is divided.[5]
Through
communion, discrepancies between people are reconciled, what
was scattered brought together. As communion belongs to the
core of human life, so we can see in the relation of Jesus
with all men and women the restoration of human community.
Therefore the Eucharist can be seen as a symbol which
prefigures the total restoration of all creation in a new
covenant with God. It prefigures the reconciliation of all
that and who have been broken in one or another way.
In the Old
Catholic theology, “Church” means reconciliation. “Church”
means the restoration of broken relations between God and
men and men with each other. It is the leading to a new
communion in which the old differences and discriminations
between people are removed. Distinctions in position and
places are there to manifest the unity in differences and
reflect in that way the being of the triune God.
The Old
Catholic Church does not consider communion as uniformity,
but unity in diversity. Communion aims at personal human
well being, so that reciprocally individual persons enrich
the community at large. And what is said of believers is
true for churches as well. Individual churches are too
restrained to reflect the richness of Gods love, therefore
it is necessary that they are also in communion with one
another. It is the communion of churches that can reflect –
unified as they are in diversity – the creativity of the
Lord’s care about humanity.
That this
ecclesiological opinion, then, can be carried back to
orthodox theologians and to the Church fathers, is recently
more and more elaborated by Old Catholic theologians as the
special mark of Old Catholic ecclesiology. Old Catholics
usually refer to the Church Father
St. Vincent of Lerins
in his saying: "We must hold fast to that faith which has
been believed everywhere, always, and by all the Faithful."[6]
History
Independent
bishopric
Four
disputes set the stage for an independent Bishopric of
Utrecht: the
Concordat of Worms,
the
First Lateran Council
and
Fourth Lateran Council,
and the concession of
Pope Leo X.
In the 12th century, there was a great
Investiture Controversy
where the
Holy Roman Emperor
and the
Pope
fought over who could appoint Bishops. In 1122, the
Concordat of Worms[7]
was signed making peace. The Emperor renounced the right to
invest ecclesiastics with ring and crosier, the symbols of
their spiritual power, and guaranteed election by the canons
of cathedral or abbey and free consecration. The Emperor
Henry V
and
Pope Calixtus II
ended the feud by granting one another peace. The Concordat
was confirmed by the
First Council of the Lateran[8]
in 1123.
The
Fourth Lateran Council[9]
in 1215 re-enforced the right of all Cathedral Chapters to
elect their bishops.
Philip of Burgundy,
57th Bishop of Utrecht (1517–1524), through a family
connection with
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor,
secured a significant concession from
Pope Leo X,
granting internal autonomy in both church and temporal
affairs for himself and his successors without interference
from outside their jurisdictional region. This greatly
promoted the independence of the
See of Utrecht,
so that no clergy or laity from Utrecht would ever be tried
by a Roman tribunal.
Three periods
Old
Catholicism originated when various Catholic churches
separated from Roman Catholicism over the issue of Papal
authority after the Protestant Reformation. The initial
separation from Rome occurred in The Netherlands in 1724
which formed the first Old Catholic Church. The churches of
Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland created the
Union of Utrecht after Vatican I (1871) over the Dogma of
Papal Infallibility. In the early 1900s the movement
included England, Canada, Croatia, France, Denmark, Italy,
North America, the Philippines, China, and Hungry. The Union
of Utrecht has not welcomed any non-continental European
community to join the Union with the exception of the Polish
National Catholic Church.
Post Reformation The Netherlands - first period
During the
Reformation the Catholic Church was persecuted and the Dutch
dioceses north of the Rhine and Waal were suspended
by the Holy See. Protestants occupied most church
buildings, and those remaining were confiscated by the
government of the Dutch Republic of Seven Provinces, which
favoured Calvinism.[10]
In 1580,
the Protestant Reformation occurred in The Netherlands and
the institutionalized Catholic Church was persecuted. The
Dutch Reform Church
confiscated Church property, forced Religious Sisters and
Brothers out of convents and monasteries, and made it
illegal to receive the Sacraments of the Church.[11]
However, the Church did not die, rather priests and
communities went underground. Groups would meet for the
sacraments in the attics of private homes at the risk of
arrest.[12]
Priests identified themselves by wearing all black
clothing with very simple collars. (This was
the beginning of what we know today as the clerical collar.)
At the same time as there were local underground priests and
bishops, the Pope considered the Catholic Church in The
Netherlands to be mission territory and no longer the
traditional Bishopric of Utrecht. The Holy See suspended the
Dutch dioceses north of the Rhine and Waal.[13]
Protestants occupied most church buildings, and those
remaining were confiscated by the government of the Dutch
Republic of Seven Provinces, which favoured
Calvinism.As
part of the
Counter Reformation,
there were attempts to "re-Romanize" the Dutch Church.[14]
The Dutch resisted strongly. Contrary to prior guarantees,
Papal forces intervened on the side of the
Counter-reformists (Jesuits).
The Pope sent Roman priests to reestablish the Church in The
Netherlands. The Catholics persecution in the 17th century,
was exacerbated by theological disputes which divided the
Church. One of the contentious issues was, whether the
Catholic Church in the Netherlands after the Reformation was
a continuous church or a mission of Rome and governed by the
Pope. If The Netherlands were no longer a continuous Church,
the
Concordat of Worms
and the concession of
Pope Leo X
were no longer applicable. The popes took advantage of the
failure of Utrecht, and the person named as
apostolic vicar
was called by Rome the Archbishop of Utrecht in partibus
infidelium (i.e., archbishop in the land of
unbelievers). As countries and dioceses collapsed across
Europe since the 4th century, Rome had bailed out the
communities but as a result, the Churches became subject to
Roman jurisdiction. Many clergy and lay people of Utrecht
did not want to become one more formerly autonomous
jurisdiction now under Roman control, however, many did.
In 1691,
the
Jesuits
accused
Petrus Codde,
the then
apostolic vicar,
of favouring the
Jansenist
heresy.[15]
Pope Innocent XII
appointed a commission of
cardinals
to investigate the accusations - apparently violating the
exemption granted in 1520. The commission concluded that the
accusations were groundless.[16]
In 1700 a
new
pope,
Clement XI,
summoned
Codde
to Rome in order to participate in the Jubilee Year,
whereupon a second commission was appointed to try Codde.[17]
The result of this second proceeding was again acquittal.
However, in 1701
Clement XI
decided to suspend Codde and appoint a successor. The Church
in Utrecht refused to accept the replacement and Codde
continued in office until 1703, when he resigned.[18]
After
Codde's resignation, the Diocese of Utrecht elected
Cornelius van Steenoven
as bishop.[19]
After consultation with both canon lawyers and theologians
in France and Germany.
Dominique Marie Varlet
(1678–1742), a Roman Catholic Bishop of the French Oratorian
Society of Foreign Missions, ordained Bishop Steenoven.[20]
What had been de jure autonomous became de facto an
independent Catholic Church. Van Steenoven appointed and
ordained bishops to the sees of
Deventer,
Haarlem
and
Groningen.[21]
Although the pope was duly notified of all proceedings, the
Holy See
still regarded these dioceses as vacant due to papal
permission not being sought. The pope, therefore, continued
to appoint apostolic vicars for the Netherlands.[22]
Van Steenoven and the other bishops were excommunicated and
thus began the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands.[22]
Most Dutch
Catholics remained in
full communion
with the
pope
and with the apostolic vicars appointed by him. However, due
to prevailing
anti-papal
feeling among the powerful Dutch
Calvinists,
the Church of Utrecht was tolerated and even praised by the
government of the
Dutch Republic.[23]
In 1853
Pope Pius IX
received guarantees of religious freedom from the Dutch King
Willem II
and established a Catholic
[24]
hierarchy, loyal to the pope, in the
Netherlands.
This existed alongside that of the Old Catholic See of
Utrecht. Thereafter in the Netherlands the Utrecht hierarchy
was referred to as the 'Old Catholic Church' to distinguish
it from those in union with the pope. In the mind of the
Holy See, the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht had maintained
apostolic succession
and its clergy thus celebrated valid sacraments in every
respect.[25]
The Diocese of Utrecht was considered schismatic but not in
heresy.
Impact
of the First Vatican Council - second period
After the
First Vatican Council
(1869–1870), several groups of
Austrian,
German
and
Swiss
Catholics rejected the solemn declaration concerning papal
infallibility in matters of faith and morals and left to
form their own churches.[26]
These were supported by the Old Catholic
Archbishop of Utrecht,
who ordained priests and bishops for them. Later the Dutch
were united more formally with many of these groups under
the name "Utrecht
Union of Churches."[27]
In the
spring of 1871 a convention in
Munich
attracted several hundred participants, including
Church of England
and Protestant observers.[1]
The most notable leader of the movement, though maintaining
a certain distance from the Old Catholic Church as an
institution, was the renowned church historian and priest
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
(1799–1890), who had been excommunicated by the pope because
of his support for the affair.[28]
The
convention decided to form the "Old Catholic Church" in
order to distinguish its members from what they saw as the
novel teaching of papal infallibility in the
Catholic Church.
Although it had continued to use the
Roman Rite,
from the middle of the 18th century, the Dutch Old Catholic
See of Utrecht had increasingly used the
vernacular
instead of Latin. The churches which broke from the Holy See
in 1870 and subsequently entered into union with the Old
Catholic See of Utrecht gradually introduced the vernacular
into the
Liturgy
until it completely replaced Latin in 1877.[29]
In 1874 Old Catholics removed the requirement of
clerical celibacy.[30]
The Old
Catholic Church in Germany received some support from the
new German Empire of
Otto von Bismarck,
whose policy was increasingly hostile towards the Catholic
Church in the 1870s and 1880s.[31]
In
Austrian
territories, pan-Germanic nationalist groups, like those of
Georg Ritter von Schönerer,
promoted the conversion to Old Catholicism or Lutheranism of
those Catholics loyal to the Holy See.[32]
United States - third period
The
Archbishop of Utrecht
Gerardus Gul,
consecrated Father
Arnold Harris Mathew,
a former Roman Catholic priest, as Regionary Bishop for
England.[33]
His mission was to establish a community for
Anglo-Catholics
and
Roman Catholics.
In 1913, Bishop Mathew with permission of the Continental
Old Catholic bishops consecrated
Rudolph Edward de Landen Berghes
as a bishop to work among the Scottish.[14]
Bishop de
Berghes was frequently called "the Prince".[14]
He was of noble birth but had never claimed the title for
himself. The title of "Prince" was rightfully that of his
older brother who had died. When Bishop de Berghes became
eligible to inherit he was in a religious community and
could not accept the title.[14]
At the beginning of
World War I,
Bishop de Berghes went to the United States at the
suggestion of the
Archbishop of Canterbury
(Anglican). Bishop Mathew later declared his autonomy from
the Union of Utrecht, finding them too "protestant
oriented".[34]
Mathew
sent missionaries to the United States, including the
theosophist
Bishop J. I. Wedgwood
(1892–1950) and
Bishop Rudolph de Landas Berghes et de
Rache (1873–1920).[35]
De Berghes arrived in the United States on 7 November 1914,
hoping to unite the various independent Old Catholic
jurisdictions under Archbishop Mathew.[36]
Bishop de Berghes, in spite of his isolation, was able to
plant the seed of Old Catholicism in the Americas. He
consecrated a Capuchin Franciscan priest as bishop:
Carmel Henry Carfora.[37]
From this the Old Catholic Church in the United States
evolved into local and regional self-governing dioceses and
provinces along the design of St. Ignatius of Antioch - a
network of Communities.[14]
In the
area of
Green Bay, Wisconsin,
Joseph René Vilatte
began working with Catholics of Belgian ancestry, who tended
to be isolated influence due to their geographical position.
Vilatte was ordained a deacon on 6 June 1885 and priest on 7
June 1885 by the Most Rev.
Eduard Herzog,
bishop of the Old Catholic Church of Switzerland.[38]
Vilatte's work provided the only sacramental presence in
that particular part of rural Wisconsin.
In time,
Vilatte asked the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht to be
ordained a bishop so that he might confirm, but his petition
was not granted. Vilatte sought opportunities for
consecration in the
Eastern Orthodox
and
Oriental Orthodox Churches.
He was ordained a bishop in India on the 28 May 1892 under
the jurisdiction of the
Syriac Orthodox
Patriarch of Antioch.[38]
Over the years, literally hundreds of people in the United
States have come to claim apostolic succession from Vilatte;
none are in communion with, nor recognised by, the Old
Catholic See of Utrecht.
Polish National Catholic Church
The
Polish National Catholic Church
(PNCC) is no longer in communion with any other body,
and it is the largest of the Old Catholic communities in the
United States.[39]
The Polish National Catholic Church began in the late 19th
century over issues concerning the ownership of church
property and the domination of the U.S. hierarchy by Irish
prelates. The church traces its apostolic succession
directly to the Utrecht Union and thus possesses orders and
sacraments which are recognised by the Holy See. In 2003 the
church withdrew from the Utrecht Union due to
Utrecht's acceptance of the ordination of women and open
attitude towards homosexuality, both of which the Polish
Church rejects.[40]
Conference of North American Old Catholic Bishops
With the
PNCC no longer a member of the Union of Utrecht, the Union's
International Bishops Conference (IBC) asked the Episcopal
Church - its ecumenical partner in the United States - to
initiate discussions among various groups identifying as Old
Catholics. The purpose was to find out how they identify as
Old Catholics, their understanding of Old Catholic
ecclesiology, and whether they ordain women.
The
Episcopal Church, after having gathered this information,
reported to the IBC the summary of the various experiences
of those Old Catholic churches that responded. The report
was given at the annual meeting of the IBC in August 2005.
The IBC then asked the Episcopal Church to host a
consultation of these American bishops. That consultation
took place in May 2006, in Queens Village, New York. In
attendance to the consultation were observers from the Union
of Utrecht. One result of this consultation was the
formation of the Conference of North American Old Catholic
Bishops, a group dedicated to the formation of organic,
tangible unity among American Old Catholics. The Episcopal
bishop of West Virginia, liaison to the International
Bishops Conference and who also attended the consultation,
without an open dialogue with the Conference members or
other viable Old Catholic jurisdictions, declared that there
was not enough interest to form an American Old Catholic
Church which could be a member of the Union of Utrecht. Many
jurisdictions within the United States would like the Union
to reconsider their decision but there is also a valid
belief that given the different nature of our charisms,
union might not be feasible.[41]
Ecumenism
Immediately after forming the
Union of Utrect,
the Old Catholic theologians dedicated themselves to a
reunion of the Christian churches. The Conferences of
Reunion in Bonn in 1874 and 1875 convoked by
Johann von Döllinger
who was the source of inspiration and a guide of the Old
Catholic Movement, are famous. Representatives of the
Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran Churches were invited. The
aim was to discuss the denominational differences in view of
a theological consensus as the ground for restoring the
church communion. The participants choose another way to
restore the Catholic Church communion as Rome has done: it
influenced the climate. The Conferences did not have an
immediate measurable effect, but still set the course for
the later Old Catholic involvement in ecumenical affairs.
The basic assumptions for participation were the following
principles: The acceptance of the Christological dogmata's
of
Nicea
and
Chalcedon;
Christ's foundation of the Church; the Holy Bible, the
doctrine of the undivided Church and the Church fathers of
the first ten centuries as the genuine sources of belief;
and as criterion the famous sentence of
St. Vincentius of Lerins:
"id teneamus, quod ubique, semper et ab omnibus creditum
est"[6]
(The true faith is what everywhere, always and by everybody
has been believed.) as a preferred method for historical
research. Reunion of the Churches had to be based on a
re-actualization of the decisions of faith made by the
undivided Church. One may conclude that this option implies
a hermeneutical theological approach by which the
fundamental decisions of the Councils and the early Church
structure are accepted in their importance for the actual
situation. In that way the original unity of the Church
could be made visible again. According to these principles
the later bishops and theologians of the Old Catholic
Churches stayed in contact with (Russian) Orthodox and
Anglican representatives in order to restore Church union.[42]
Old
Catholic involvement in the multilateral ecumenical movement
formally began with the participation of two bishops, from
the Netherlands and Switzerland, at the Lausanne Faith and
Order (F&O) conference (1927). This side of ecumenism has
always remained a major interest for Old Catholics, who have
never missed an F&O conference. Old Catholics also
participate in other activities of the WCC and of national
councils of churches. The OCC believes the unity which the
ecumenical movement seeks for the churches is one which
needs to exist as a reconciled diversity of all, rooted in
the common faith and order of the early church of the first
centuries. To the ongoing study process of Faith and Order
Christendom owes a number of initiatives that could lead to
a breakthrough of stalemates. By its active participation in
the ecumenical movement since its very beginning then, the
OCC demonstrates its belief in the necessity of the
continuation of this work.[42]
Apostolic succession
Besides
being catholic in terms of communion in space, one of the
marks of the Church is its apostolicity as connectedness in
time. In the Old Catholic belief this mark is guaranteed by
the apostolic succession. What do the Old Catholics
understand as such? Not only the uninterrupted laying on of
hands by bishops as such, making it seem as if the
succession was merely dependent on this consecration. The
apostolic succession contains more: it deals with the
continuation of the whole life of the church community by
word and sacrament through the years and ages. So they
consider the apostolic succession as the process of the
handing over of belief in which the whole Church is
involved. In this process the ministry has a special
responsibility and task, caring for the continuation in time
of the mission of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.[5]
A reference to the Old Catholic Movement from:
1978 Our Sunday Visitor Catholic magazine
Old
Catholic-several groups, including: (1) the Church of
Utrecht, which severed relations with Rome in 1724; (2) The
National Polish Church in the U.S., which has its origin
near the end of the 19th century; (3) German, Austrian and
Swiss Old Catholics, who broke away from union with Rome
following the First Vatican Council in 1870 because they
objected to the dogma of papal infallibility.
The
formation of the Old Catholic communion of Germans,
Austrians and Swiss began in 1870 at a public meeting held
in Nuremberg under the leadership of A. Döllinger. Four
years later Episcopal succession was established with
ordination of an Old Catholic German bishop by a prelate of
the Church of Utrecht. In line with the "Declaration of
Utrecht" of 1889, they accept the first seven ecumenical
councils and doctrine formulated before 1054, but reject
communion with the pope and a number of other Roman Catholic
doctrines and practices. They have a valid priesthood and
valid sacraments. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church notes that they have recognized Anglican ordinations
since 1925, that they have full communion with the Church of
England since 1932, and have taken part in ordination of
Anglican Bishops.[43]
Doctrine
The Old
Catholic Church shares most of the same doctrine and
liturgy with the
Roman Catholic Church,
Orthodox Christianity,
and
High Church
Protestants.
Old Catholics hold an open approach to most issues,
including the role of women in the Church, the role of
married people within ordained ministry, the morality of
same sex relationships, the use of one's conscience when
deciding to use artificial contraception, and liturgical
reforms such as open communion. Its liturgy has not
significantly departed from the
Tridentine Mass,
as is shown in the
English translation of the German
Altarbook (missal).*
In 1994 the German bishops decided to ordain women as
priests, and put this into practice on 27 May 1996; similar
decisions and practices followed in Austria, Switzerland and
the Netherlands.[44]
The Utrecht Union allows those who are divorced to have a
new religious marriage and upholds no teaching on birth
control, leaving such decisions to the married couple.[45]
An active
contributor to The Declaration of the Catholic Congress,
Munich, 1871 and all later assemblies for organization was
Johann Friedrich von Schulte,
the professor of dogma at
Prague.
Von Schulte summed up the results of the congress as
follows:
-
adherence to the ancient Catholic faith;
-
maintenance of the rights of Catholics as such;
-
rejection of the new dogmas,
-
adherence to the constitutions of the ancient Church
with repudiation of every dogma of faith not in
harmony with the actual consciousness of the Church;
-
reform
of the Church with constitutional participation of the
laity;
-
preparation of the way for reunion of the Christian
confessions;
-
reform
of the training and position of the clergy;
-
adherence to the State against the attacks of
Ultramontanism;
-
rejection of the
Society of Jesus;
-
solemn
assertion of the claims of Catholics as such to the real
property of the Church and to the title to it.[46]
the Celtic
Christian Church
