Old Catholic Church
[10][11] Both groups trace their beginning to the 18th century when members of the See of Utrecht refused to obey papal authority and were excommunicated.
Today, Utrechter Union churches are found chiefly in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
In the pre-Reformation era, there were already disputes that set the stage for an independent bishopric of Utrecht between the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, notably during between the 11th to 15th centuries.
Although the pope was notified of all proceedings, the Holy See still regarded the diocese as vacant due to papal permission not being sought.
[29] The formation of the Old Catholic communion of Germans, Austrians and Swiss began under the leadership of Ignaz von Döllinger, following the First Vatican Council.
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.
[34] In Austria-Hungary, pan-Germanic nationalist groups, like those of Georg Ritter von Schönerer, promoted the conversion of all German speaking Catholics to Old Catholicism and Lutheranism, with poor results.
[35] In 1897 a group of Polish migrants in the United States broke away from the Holy See due to theological and liturgical issues; their leader, Franciszek Hodur, was consecrated a bishop by Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht Gerardus Gul, establishing the Polish National Catholic Church, which joined the Union of Utrecht.
In 1914, he consecrated Rudolph de Landas Berghes, who emigrated to the United States in 1914 and planted the seed of Old Roman Catholicism in the Americas.
[36] Various Christian denominations claiming apostolic succession from Mathew were founded in the world through Berghes, Carfora, and others including James Wedgwood—founder of the Liberal Catholic Church.
[38] Another significant figure, Joseph René Vilatte, who was ordained a deacon and priest by Bishop Eduard Herzog, of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland;[39] he worked with Catholics of Belgian ancestry living on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin, with the knowledge and blessing of the Union of Utrecht and under the full jurisdiction of the local Episcopal Bishop of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
[42][43] Prior, in 1994, the German Old Catholic bishops of the Utrechter Union decided to ordain women as priests, and put this into practice on 27 May 1996.
[46] As early as 2001 some issues arose concerning future consecration of Augustin Bacinsky as old-catholic bishop of Slovakia, and the matter was postponed.
[47] The Old Catholic Church of Slovakia was expelled from the Union of Utrecht in 2004, because the episcopal administrator Augustin Bacinsky had been consecrated by an episcopus vagans.
[57] An active contributor to the Declaration of the Catholic Congress of Munich, 1871—and all later assemblies—was Johann Friedrich von Schulte, professor of dogmatics at Prague.
[62] Old Catholicism values apostolic succession by which they mean both the uninterrupted laying on of hands by bishops through time (the historic episcopate), and the continuation of the whole life of the church community by word and sacrament over the years and ages.
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.
Following these principles, later bishops and theologians of the Union of Utrechts churches stayed in contact with Russian Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican representatives.
[3][64] 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).
