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63-464: The terms Old Catholic Church , Old Catholics , Old-Catholic churches , or Old Catholic movement , designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivided church but who separated from the see of Rome after the First Vatican council of 1869–70". The expression Old Catholic has been used from

126-529: 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. By active participation in the ecumenical movement since its very beginning, the OCC demonstrates its belief in this work. Western Christians Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity ( Eastern Christianity being

189-507: A period of years, though some left the country and continued their work overseas. The last of the deposed bishops was Thomas Goldwell , Bishop of St Asaph , who died in Rome on April 3, 1585. In 1623, after 65 years of formal absence from England, Pope Urban VIII decided once again to appoint a bishop with actual jurisdiction in England. His choice fell upon William Bishop , who was given

252-730: A slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt , referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt. Most Western Christians use a version of the Nicene Creed that states that the Holy Spirit " proceeds from the Father and the Son ", where the original text as adopted by the First Council of Constantinople had "proceeds from

315-651: Is applied to distinguish all these denominations collectively from Eastern Christianity. The establishment of the distinct Latin Church, a particular church sui iuris of the Catholic Church , coincided with the consolidation of the Holy See in Rome , which claimed primacy since Antiquity. The Latin Church is distinct from the Eastern Catholic Churches , also in full communion with

378-580: Is not nearly as absolute as in Antiquity or the Middle Ages, due to the spread of Christian missionaries , migrations , and globalisation . As such, the adjectives "Western Christianity" and "Eastern Christianity" are typically used to refer to historical origins and differences in theology and liturgy rather than present geographical locations. While the Latin Church maintains the use of

441-518: The Americas , much of the Philippines , Southern Africa , pockets of West Africa , and throughout Australia and New Zealand . Thus, when used for historical periods after the 16th century, the term "Western Christianity" does not refer to a particular geographical area but is used as a collective term for all these. Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity

504-585: The Catholic sacraments . However, Catholicism 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. Priests identified themselves by wearing all black clothing with very simple collars . All the episcopal sees of the area, including that of Utrecht, had fallen vacant by 1580, because the Spanish crown , which since 1559 had patronal rights over all bishoprics in

567-592: The Council of Chalcedon (451), and then from Eastern Orthodoxy with the East-West Schism of 1054. With the last-named form of Eastern Christianity, reunion agreements were signed at the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439), but these proved ineffective. Historian Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of

630-601: The Dutch/Holland Mission , Petrus Codde , was appointed in 1688. In 1691, the Jesuits accused him of favouring the Jansenist heresy . Pope Innocent XII appointed a commission of cardinals to investigate the accusations against Codde. The commission concluded that the accusations were groundless. In 1702, Pope Clement XI deposed Codde, to which Codde obeyed. While the religious clergy remained loyal to

693-666: The Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar respectively. However, before the Council of Nicea, various dates including Jewish Passover were observed. Nicea "Romanized" the date for Easter and anathematized a "Judaized" (i.e. Passover date for) Easter. The date of observance of Easter has only differed in modern times since the promulgation of the Gregorian calendar in 1582; and further, the Western Church did not universally adopt

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756-620: The Latin liturgical rites , Protestant denominations and Independent Catholicism use various liturgical practices. The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simply a geographic term) appeared during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, which included territories that practiced Western Christianity at the time. For much of its history, the Christian church has been culturally divided between

819-559: The Middle Ages , adherents of the Latin Church, irrespective of ethnicity, commonly referred to themselves as "Latins" to distinguish themselves from Eastern Christians ("Greeks"). Western Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization . With the expansion of European colonialism from the Early Modern era , the Latin Church, in time along with its Protestant secessions, spread throughout

882-732: The Pope in Rome , and from the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches , which are not in communion with Rome. These other churches are part of Eastern Christianity . The terms "Western" and "Eastern" in this regard originated with geographical divisions mirroring the cultural divide between the Hellenistic East and Latin West and the political divide between the Western and Eastern Roman empires . During

945-672: The Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals and left to form their own churches. 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. These were supported by the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht , who ordained priests and bishops for them. Later

1008-809: The Roman province of Africa . There is evidence of a Latin translation of the Bible as early as the 2nd century (see also Vetus Latina ). With the decline of the Roman Empire , distinctions appeared also in organization, since the bishops in the West were not dependent on the Emperor in Constantinople and did not come under the influence of the Caesaropapism in the Eastern Church . While

1071-832: The See of Utrecht refused to obey papal authority and were excommunicated . Later Catholics who disagreed with the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility , as defined by the First Vatican Council (1870), were thereafter without a bishop and joined with the See of Utrecht to form the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches. Today, Utrechter Union churches are found chiefly in Germany, Switzerland,

1134-759: The Union of Scranton (US). Neither group is in full communion with the Holy See . Member churches of the Union of Utrecht are in full communion with the Anglican Communion as well as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Philippine Independent Church and many UU churches are members of the World Council of Churches . Both groups trace their beginning to the 18th century when members of

1197-605: The see of Constantinople became dominant throughout the Emperor's lands, the West looked exclusively to the see of Rome , which in the East was seen as that of one of the five patriarchs of the Pentarchy , "the proposed government of universal Christendom by five patriarchal sees under the auspices of a single universal empire. Formulated in the legislation of the emperor Justinian I (527–565), especially in his Novella 131,

1260-681: The "Old Catholic Church" in order to distinguish its members from what they saw as the novel teaching in the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility. 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

1323-553: The 1850s by communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, primarily concerned with papal authority and infallibility . Some of these groups, especially in the Netherlands , had already existed long before the term. The Old Catholic Church is separate and distinct from Traditionalist Catholicism . Two groups of Old Catholic churches currently exist: the Union of Utrecht (UU) and

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1386-512: The Americas (especially South America), Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Protestantism, including Anglicanism, came to North America, Australia-Pacific and some African locales. Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is much less absolute, due to the great migrations of Europeans across the globe, as well as the work of missionaries worldwide over

1449-750: The Catholic Church accounting for over half and various Protestant denominations making up another 40%. Hussite movements of 15th century Bohemia preceded the main Protestant uprising by 100 years and evolved into several small Protestant churches, such as the Moravian Church . Waldensians survived also, but blended into the Reformed tradition . Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Vicar Apostolic of England Soon after

1512-607: The Church could be made visible again. Following these principles, later bishops and theologians of the Union of Utrechts churches stayed in contact with Russian Orthodox , Lutheran and Anglican representatives. 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

1575-536: The Dutch clergy in the 1600–1650 period. Conflicts arose between these, and the apostolic vicars and secular clergy . In 1629, there were 321 Roman Catholic priests in the United Provinces, 250 secular and 71 religious, with Jesuits at 34 forming almost half of the religious. By the middle of the 17th century the secular priests were 442, the religious 142, of whom 62 were Jesuits. The sixth apostolic vicar of

1638-498: The Dutch were united more formally with many of these groups under the name " Utrecht Union of Churches ". In the spring of 1871, a convention in Munich attracted several hundred participants, including Church of England and Protestant observers. Döllinger, an excommunicated Roman Catholic priest and church historian, was a notable leader of the movement but was never a member of an Old Catholic church. The convention decided to form

1701-669: The Eastern Orthodox Church, has traditionally held a distinction between God's essence, or that which He is, with God's energies, or that which He does. They hold that while God is unknowable in His essence, He can be known (i.e. experienced) in His energies. This is an extension of Eastern Christianity's apophatic theology , while Western Christians tend to prefer a view of divine simplicity , and claim that God's essence can be known by its attributes. Today, Western Christianity makes up close to 90% of Christians worldwide with

1764-527: The Father" without the addition of either "and the Son" or "alone". This Western version also has the additional phrase "God from God" ( Latin : Deum de Deo ), which was in the Creed as adopted by the First Council of Nicaea , but which was dropped by the First Council of Constantinople. The date of Easter usually differs between Eastern and Western Christianity, because the calculations are based on

1827-624: The Gregorian calendar at once, so that for some time the dates of Easter differed between the Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but not necessarily as between the Eastern Church and the Western Protestant churches. For example, the Church of England continued to observe Easter on the same date as the Eastern Church until 1753. Even the dates of other Christian holidays often differ between Eastern and Western Christianity. Eastern Christianity, and particularly

1890-412: The Holy See , and the ordinations of and by Old Catholic bishops in the Union of Utrecht churches has never been formally questioned by the Holy See until the more recent ordinations of women as priests. The Union of Utrecht considers that the reunion of the churches has to be based on a re-actualization of the decisions of faith made by the undivided Church. In that way, they claim, the original unity of

1953-512: The Holy See, three-quarters of the secular clergy at first followed Codde, but by 1706 over two-thirds of these returned to Roman Catholic allegiance. Of the laity, the overwhelming majority sided with the Holy See. Thus, most Dutch Catholics remained in full communion with the pope and with the apostolic vicars appointed by him. After Codde's resignation, the Diocese of Utrecht elected Cornelius Steenoven as bishop . The See of Utrecht declared

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2016-487: The Latin Church, developed under the bishop of Rome . Out of the Latin Church emerged a wide variety of independent Protestant denominations , including Lutheranism and Anglicanism , starting from the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, as did Independent Catholicism in the 19th century. Thus, the term "Western Christianity" does not describe a single communion or religious denomination but

2079-554: The Latin-speaking West, whose centre was Rome , and the Greek-speaking East, whose centre was Constantinople . Cultural differences and political rivalry created tensions between the two churches, leading to disagreement over doctrine and ecclesiology and ultimately to schism . Like Eastern Christianity , Western Christianity traces its roots directly to the apostles and other early preachers of

2142-556: The Netherlands , refused to make appointments for what it saw as heretical territories, and the nomination of an apostolic vicar was seen as a way of avoiding direct violation of the privilege granted to the crown. The appointment of an apostolic vicar, the first after many centuries, for what came to be called the Holland Mission was followed by similar appointments for other Protestant-ruled countries, such as England , which likewise became mission territories. The disarray of

2205-553: The Netherlands . The Holy See considers the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht as the continuation of the episcopal see founded in the 7th century and raised to metropolitan status on 12 May 1559, thus not recognizing any legitimacy of Old Catholics. After the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), several groups of Roman Catholics in Austria-Hungary , Imperial Germany , and Switzerland rejected

2268-575: The Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In 2008, the Polish National Catholic Church created the Union of Scranton and separated from the Union of Utrecht. This was done in protest of the older Union's decision to ordain women and bless same-sex marriages . The Nordic Catholic Church later joined the Union of Scranton as well. In the pre- Reformation era, there were already disputes that set

2331-637: The Old Catholic See of Utrecht gradually introduced the vernacular into the liturgy until it completely replaced Latin in 1877. In 1874, the Old Catholics removed the requirement of clerical celibacy . The Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany received support from the government of Otto von Bismarck , whose 1870s Kulturkampf policies persecuted the Roman Catholic Church. In Austria-Hungary, pan-Germanic nationalist groups , like those of Georg Ritter von Schönerer , promoted

2394-411: The Polish National Catholic Church rejects. 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. Similar decisions and practices followed in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. By 2020, the Swiss church also voted in favour of same-sex marriage . Marriages between two men and two women were conducted in

2457-428: The Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands between 1572 and about 1610 was followed by a period of expansion of Roman Catholicism under the apostolic vicars, leading to Protestant protests. The initial shortage of Roman Catholic priests in the Netherlands resulted in increased pastoral activity of religious clergy, among whom Jesuits formed a considerable minority, coming to represent between 10 and 15 percent of all

2520-607: The Union of Utrecht. In 1910, Arnold Mathew —a former British Catholic and Anglican, who was consecrated by Old Catholic Archbishop Gul in 1908—split away from the Union of Utrecht, establishing the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain . 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. Mathew also consecrated an excommunicated Capuchin Franciscan priest as bishop: Carmel Henry Carfora . Various Christian denominations claiming apostolic succession from Mathew were founded in

2583-455: The accession of Queen Elizabeth I , in 1559, the bishops of England and Wales were forced to choose between taking the Oath of Supremacy , thus denying the authority of the Pope , and losing their episcopal sees . Those who chose to continue their allegiance to Rome were subsequently deposed and replaced in their sees by priests of the Church of England . Most of the deposed Bishops were imprisoned in various locations and died in captivity over

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2646-405: The church, and Old Catholics had gradually replaced the Latin mass with the vernacular by 1877. In 1989, the Union of Utrecht opposed abortion , but "[u]nusual exceptions should be made in consultation with a priest". 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

2709-410: The conversion of all German speaking Catholics to Old Catholicism and Lutheranism, with poor results. 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

2772-428: The highest expression of the love of God . Therefore, the celebration of the Eucharist is understood as the experience of Christ's triumph over sin . The defeat of sin consists in bringing together that which is divided. 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 . Von Schulte summed up

2835-420: The only recognized Christian church in America that is in communion with the Union of Utrecht is the Episcopal Church . As of 2016, there are 115,000 members of Old Catholic churches. Old Catholic theology views the Eucharist as the core of the Christian Church ; from this point of view, the church is a community of believers. All are in communion with one another around the sacrifice of Jesus Christ , as

2898-403: The other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism , together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic Church , Independent Catholicism and Restorationism . The large majority of the world's 2.3 billion Christians are Western Christians (about 2 billion: 1.2 billion Latin Catholic and 1.17 billion Protestant). One major component,

2961-535: The past five centuries. Original sin , also called ancestral sin , is a Christian belief in a state of sin in which humanity has existed since the fall of man , stemming from Adam and Eve 's rebellion in the Garden of Eden , namely the sin of disobedience in consuming the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . Theologians have characterized this condition in many ways, seeing it as ranging from something as insignificant as

3024-413: The pope was notified of all proceedings, the Holy See still regarded the diocese as vacant due to papal permission not being sought. The pope, therefore, continued to appoint apostolic vicars for the Netherlands. Steenoven and the other bishops were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church, and thus began the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands . Subsequent bishops were then appointed and ordained to

3087-410: The religion. In Western Christianity's original area, Latin was the principal language. Christian writers in Latin had more influence there than those who wrote in Greek , Syriac , or other languages. Although the first Christians in the West used Greek (such as Clement of Rome ), by the fourth century Latin had superseded it even in the cosmopolitan city of Rome , as well as in southern Gaul and

3150-415: The results of the congress as follows: The 1889 Declaration of Utrecht states the Union of Utrecht believes in Vincent of Lérins 's following quote from his Commonitory : "all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all; for this is truly what is catholic ". The UU allows those who are divorced to have a new religious marriage in

3213-418: The right to elect its own archbishop in 1724, after being accused of Jansenism . Following consultation with both canon lawyers and theologians in France and Germany, Dominique Marie Varlet , a Catholic bishop of the French Oratorian Society of Foreign Missions, consecrated Steenoven as a bishop without a papal mandate. What had been de jure autonomous became de facto an independent Catholic church. Although

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3276-492: The same manner as heterosexual marriages. The Old Catholic Church of Slovakia was accepted in 2000 as a member of the Union of Utrecht. As early as 2001 some issues arose concerning future consecration of Augustin Bacinsky as old-catholic bishop of Slovakia, and the matter was postponed. 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 . At present,

3339-428: The sees of Deventer , Haarlem and Groningen under the See of Utrecht in later years. 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 . In 1853 Pope Pius IX received guarantees of religious freedom from King William II of the Netherlands and re-established the Roman Catholic hierarchy in

3402-425: 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. The northern provinces that revolted against the Spanish Netherlands and signed the 1579 Union of Utrecht , persecuted the Roman Catholic Church, confiscated church property, expelled monks and nuns from convents and monasteries, and made it illegal to receive

3465-410: The theory received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo (692), which ranked the five sees as Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem." Over the centuries, disagreements separated Western Christianity from the various forms of Eastern Christianity: first from East Syriac Christianity after the Council of Ephesus (431) , then from that of Oriental Orthodoxy after

3528-440: The title of Apostolic Vicar of England. Bishop landed secretly in England at midnight on 31 July 1623, but was to die only nine months later. Bishop was succeeded in office by Richard Smith , also ordained a bishop, who arrived in England in April 1625. However, two warrants were issued for Smith's arrest in August 1631, and he was forced to resign and flee to France, where he eventually died in Paris in 1655. After 1631, there

3591-453: The values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization ". The rise of Protestantism led to major divisions within Western Christianity, which still persist, and wars—for example, the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 had religious as well as economic causes. In and after the Age of Discovery , Europeans spread Western Christianity to the New World and elsewhere. Roman Catholicism came to

3654-504: The whole life of the church community by word and sacrament over the years and ages. Old Catholics consider apostolic succession to be the handing on 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. According to the principle of ex opere operato , certain ordinations by bishops not in communion with Rome are still recognised as being valid by

3717-522: The world through Berghes, Carfora, and others including James Wedgwood —founder of the Liberal Catholic Church . Such groups' apostolic succession is deemed to be invalid by both the Holy See , the Union of Utrecht and the Anglican Communion . Mathew himself was excommunicated and declared a "pseudo-bishop" by Pope Pius X , while the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference declared his consecration to be null and void , obtained mala fide . Another significant figure, Joseph René Vilatte , who

3780-437: Was consecrated bishop in Rome on 9 September 1685. In 1623, Bishop had divided England into six areas, at the head of each of which he placed a superior with the title of vicar general , and this had remained the system thereafter. Leyburn reduced these six areas to four. In the summer of 1687 he toured the North of England and confirmed over 20,000 Catholics there. On 30 January 1688, the number of bishops in England and Wales

3843-464: Was later consecrated a bishop by Patriarch Mar Julius I of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church , though the validity of such consecration is disputed. He proceeded to establish a number of Christian denominations before eventually reconciling with the Holy See. In 2003, the Polish National Catholic Church voted itself out of the UU due to the Utrechter Union's acceptance of female ordination, and their attitude towards homosexuality , both of which

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3906-408: Was no Roman Catholic bishop in England for another 54 years, and the void was to some extent filled by a dean and chapter of rather unsure legal status, first established by Bishop and confirmed by Smith. It was only in 1685 that a successor was appointed by Rome, in the person of John Leyburn , a Doctor of Divinity of the Sorbonne and a former President of the English College at Douai , who

3969-401: Was ordained a deacon and priest by Bishop Eduard Herzog , of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland ; 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 . However, he subsequently left the Old Catholics and

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