American Catholic Church (1915)
Though no longer in existence, many groups have made claims to its lineage through the consecrations of Paolo Miraglia-Gulotti and Frederick Ebenezer Lloyd.
[citation needed] Joseph René Vilatte founded his independent Christian denomination, American Catholic Church (ACC), soon after he was consecrated.
Vilatte wrote to The New York Times, that he had "been pestered with applications from clergymen of other churches for episcopal consecration."
"[2] Vilatte was mocked, in The Sacred Heart Review, as being the "sole proprietor and General Manager of the new Old Catholic Church in America" confronted by a schism.
While the "great 'neatness and despatch'" of Knowles' ordination was ridiculed and his judgment, for "resigning from his church because he can't be a bishop all at once", was questioned.
[3] Knowles was a Baptist convert to the RCC, he graduated from Princeton University, studied Christian Science for a time, interviewed Joseph Leycester Lyne, corresponded with Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvarez, Pedro Manoel Lisboa Pinto, Eduard Herzog and others.
[5]: 51 On February 11, 1895, The New York Times reported that Knowles was a guest at Holland House, London and was "a priest of the Old Catholic or Syrian Church" who will in Egypt "study the Coptic and Greek systems".
Hardly any advance has been made since the consecration of Archbishop Vilatte [...] Negotiations were carried on with disaffected Polish Catholics [...] but they failed [...] through a lack of discretion and tact."
[6] "In point of fact", Orzell wrote, "most Polish dissidents proved more willing to make use of Vilatte's episcopal services at blessings and confirmations than to accept his leadership and embrace his curious blend of Eastern and Western Christian theology.
"[7]: 42 Margrander wrote that Poles did not accept Vilatte's doctrinal reforms so he withdrew his approval of their movement; he also wrote that Vilatte was convinced that their motive was a "deliberate defiance of the canonical authority" of their bishops, rather than reform, so he "advised them either to accept fully and freely the Old Catholic principles, or to return to the Roman Church.
It showed the OCC had at most three minister, five edifices and 700 members;[9]: 82, 428–429, 468 [10]: 382–383 Moreover, the 1910 United States Census data showed that prior to 1910, the OCC disintegrated and ceased to exist;[9]: 428–429, 468 Carroll wrote that "a number of denominations, all quite small, have disappeared, including [...] the Old Catholic Church, and other insignificant bodies.
[11]: 347, 534, 546 [a] Of the two denominations under Vilatte's leadership, the first was the Old Roman Catholic Church (ORCC) with an episcopal see in Chicago, Illinois.
"Of the many bishops that have been consecrated in this group, [...] most have assumed other names and titles and founded separate churches for themselves by civil incorporation.
[19]: 49 A notice from the Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East concerning schismatic bodies and episcopi vagantes, dated December 10, 1938, states that "after direct expulsion from official Christian communities" some schismatic bodies exist, including "all the sects claiming succession through Vilatte," that claim "without truth to derive their origin and apostolic succession from some ancient Apostolic Church of the East" and [...] some of these schismatic bodies have with effrontery published statements which are untrue as to an alleged relation "in succession and ordination" to our Holy Apostolic Church and her forefathers, We find it necessary to announce to all whom it may concern that we deny any and every relation whatsoever with these schismatic bodies and repudiate them and their claims absolutely.
Furthermore, our Church forbids any and every relationship, and above all, intercommunion with all and any of these schismatic sects and warns the public that their statements and pretensions [...] are altogether without truth.
[14]: 70 According to James R. Lewis, in The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, the ACC "was taken over by bishops with theosophical leanings" after Vilatte's death.
[21] According to The Spectator, after Sibley died, "the Intercollegian accomplished a remarkable feat by publishing an obituary notice of him without mentioning his name.
There with the leaders of the Polish and the Italian constituencies, he made the American Catholic Church evolve into a Council of Oversight.
[clarification needed oversight of what] The concept of such a council appeared in his booklet Apostolic Reunion in America, published in 1909.
[clarification needed describe the concept] The following protocol was signed: We, Joseph Rene Archbishop Vilatte, Stephen Bishop Kaminski, and Paul Bishop Miraglia, by the grace of God and the suffrage of the faithful, assembled in the Cathedral of Buffalo, on this the feast of the Circumcision of Christ in the year 1910, do hereby declare that we are [This quote needs a citation] Another bishop was added to the Council of Oversight on April 27, 1913,[citation needed] when Vilatte consecrated Victor von Kubinyi in South Bend, Indiana.
Dissidents in a schism from St. Stephen Church for Hungarians in South Bend, a parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne, arranged for Kubinyi to come from Newark to South Bend and elected him pastor of their separatist congregation, Sacred Heart Independent Hungarian Catholic Church.
Tensions flared in June at a cemetery during a funeral officiated by Kubinyi, the South Bend Tribune printed that, "it is said, an attempt was made to prevent the [...] burial because the mother attends the new independent church" but she owned the lot and "interment took place despite the protests of cemetery attaches who refuse to lend their aid to the ceremonies.
[31] In February, 1913, Hodur assigned a Polish priest who fluently spoke Hungarian, Father Basil Sychta, as Kubinyi's replacement.
[26][32] Kubinyi returned from Chicago to South Bend in April and announced that Vilatte will consecrate him as a bishop for a proposed new sect for Hungarians.
[33]The South Bend Tribune reported that it was "not improbable that the independent congregation of the Sacred Heart" would transfer to Kubinyi's jurisdiction.
[37] The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel reported that Vilatte consecrated Kubinyi as bishop and founder of the HNCiA.
In November 1924, he was also installed as a member of the cathedral chapter of the African Orthodox Church, invited by McGuire.
[citation needed] Although a Central Press Association supplied article described him as "a scholar and a linguist", in 1927, Kubinyi was an amateur painter who lived meagerly in "his tiny studio in New York City" and worked as a secretary.
[25] According to the Central Press Association, Kubinyi's artwork hung in William Henry Holmes' "exhibition rooms for five weeks.
"[25][clarification needed] By the 1930s he was known as the "Hungarian Bluebeard" in New York, an "ex-priest, ex-bishop, now fugitive from justice, under criminal indictment for forgery and embezzlement" found on wanted posters.
