Autocephalous Catholicism

Overview of the

Autocephalous / Independent

Catholic Movement

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Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who self-identify as Catholic (most often as Old Catholic or as Independent Catholic) and form micro-churches celebrating both valid apostolic succession and valid sacraments, even though they are not under the jurisdiction with the Roman Catholic Church. The term "Independent Catholic" derives from the fact that these denominations affirm both their belonging to the Catholic tradition as well as their autonomy from Rome.

Independent Catholicism refers to Christian churches that identify with Catholic traditions but are not under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. These churches often have apostolic succession, meaning they believe their bishops have a direct lineage back to the apostles. They are part of a larger Independent Sacramental Movement, which includes groups with sometimes different theological interpretations but share a belief in the importance of sacraments.

The term "autocephalous Catholic" is not a standard term within Catholic or Orthodox Christian terminology. Autocephaly, meaning "self-headed," refers to the status of an church whose highest-ranking bishop does not answer to any higher ecclesiastical authority. While some Independent Catholic churches may claim autocephaly, this is not a universally recognized or accepted term within Catholicism.

It is difficult to determine the number of jurisdictions, communities, clergy, religious and members who make up Independent Catholicism, particularly since the movement is growing and changing in every moment. Some adherents choose Independent Catholicism as an alternative way to live and express their Catholic faith outside the Roman Catholic Church (with whose structures, beliefs and practices Independent Catholicism often closely aligns) while having moved beyond some traditional Catholic teachings. Some have chosen to embrace the Independent Catholic movement as a result of finding themselves orphaned by the Roman Catholic Church.

Why People have joined Independent Catholic Churches:

Some individuals have continued their journeys in faith beyond the Roman Catholic Church due to disagreements with certain doctrines or practices, such as those related to sexuality, women's ordination, or the handling of abuse cases.

Seeking Inclusion and Progress: Some are drawn to independent churches because of their more liberal and inclusive approaches to issues like LGBTQ+ rights, open communion and inclusification of Holy Order.

Appreciation for the Catholic Tradition: Independent Catholic churches often appeal to individuals who value the rich history and traditions of Catholicism but want to explore alternatives to discover it.

Independent Catholicism may be considered part of the larger independent sacramental movement, in which clergy and laity of various faith traditions—including the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran churches, the Anglican Communion and various non-Catholic Christian churches—have separated themselves from the institutions with which they previously identified.

Some Independent Catholic churches have joined the International Council of Community Churches, a denomination based in Loudon, Tennessee, in the United States. In doing so, it gives them a place and voice in national and international Christian organizations such as Churches Uniting in Christ, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and the World Council of Churches, membership of which is usually reserved to larger, longer-established church bodies. The International Council of Community Churches (ICCC) is a Christian religious association of ecumenically-minded, locally autonomous, and congregationally governed churches. It's a member of various ecumenical bodies like Churches Uniting in Christ, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and the World Council of Churches. The ICCC emphasizes local church autonomy and works towards Christian unity through ecumenical cooperation.

History

Early Episcopal Consecrations Establishing Autocephalous / Independent Jurisdictions

The consecration of bishops without the approval of the wider church or papal mandate appears to be an ancient phenomenon, which led to Canon VI of the Council of Chalcedon's assertion that any potential sacramental validity of such consecrations is valueless without the church's endorsement. The resurgence of the phenomenon in the modern era seems to have coincided with the spread of Enlightenment values. Beginning in 1724, Dominique Marie Varlet (1678–1742), the Roman Catholic Bishop of Babylon, consecrated four men successively as Archbishop of Utrecht without papal approval. The cathedral chapter of Utrecht, which elected these men, had previously obtained an opinion from Zeger Bernhard van Espen (1646–1728) and two other doctors of canon law at the University of Louvain, which said that the chapter had the right, in special circumstances, to elect its own archbishop and have him consecrated without the consent of the pope, and that, in the case of necessity, one bishop alone might validly consecrate another. Nineteen doctors of the theological faculties at Paris, Nantes, Rheims and Padua approved of this opinion. This consecration by Varlet caused a theological controversy and schism within the Catholic Church, which now possessed bishops who were validly consecrated without the permission of the pope. This schism marked the birth of the movement that would later be known as the Old Catholic Church (a term coined in 1853 for the Catholics of Utrecht), and it marked the beginning of an era in the Western Church, in which validly-consecrated bishops could claim apostolic succession but were not subject to the rights and responsibilities of the Catholic Church of Rome.

First departures from the Catholic Church of Rome

The sharing of apostolic succession in the west outside the Catholic Church was largely confined to the Church of Utrecht for over a century. After the (First) Vatican Council in 1870, many Austro-Hungarian, German and Swiss Catholics rejected assertions of universal jurisdiction of the pope and the declaration of papal infallibility, and their bishops, inspired by earlier acts in Utrecht, decided to leave the Roman Catholic Church to form their own churches, independent of Rome. Now independent of the pope, these bishops were sometimes referred to as autocephalous (or self-governing) bishops from within their circles or episcopi vaganti (wandering bishops) from outside of their circles. These validly-consecrated bishops could claim apostolic succession, and they continued to share valid lines of apostolic succession with the priests and deacons they ordained. In 1889, they formally united as part of the Utrecht Union of Churches (UU).

Arnold Harris Mathew

In 1908, the movement that would become Independent Catholicism left continental Europe when Arnold Harris Mathew (1852–1919), a former Catholic priest, was consecrated in Great Britain by Archbishop Gerardus Gul (1847–1920) of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands. Mathew believed that Old Catholicism might provide a home for disaffected Anglican clergy who reacted to Pope Leo XIII's declaration that Anglican orders were null and void, and Gul incorrectly believed that Mathew had a significant following in the United Kingdom. Two years later, in 1910, Mathew consecrated two priests to the episcopate, without clear reasons and without consulting the Archbishop of Utrecht, and, in response to the ensuing protest, declared his autonomy from the Old Catholic Church. Mathew later consecrated several other bishops who spread through England and North America. Plummer writes that, as a result, "we begin to see the small, endlessly multiplying groups, with a high percentage of the membership in holy orders, which came to characterize the independent movement." From a historical perspective, one of Mathew's most important consecrations was of Frederick Samuel Willoughby, who in turn consecrated James Wedgwood, the co-founder in 1918 of the Liberal Catholic Church, an esoteric community closely aligned with the Theosophical Society and allowing complete freedom of belief.

Joseph René Vilatte

Joseph René Vilatte (1854–1929), an Old Catholic priest ordained by Bishop Eduard Herzog (1841–1924) of the Old Catholic Church in Switzerland, is credited with being the first person to bring to North America the movement that would result in Independent Catholicism. In 1892, Vilatte traveled to India, where he was consecrated, as Mar Timotheos, by Mar Julius I (1836–1923) of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. In 1915, Vilatte founded the American Catholic Church which still exists. During the following 28 years, Vilatte consecrated "a number of men who are the episcopal ancestors of an enormous variety of descendants" in North America.

Subsequent departures

The 20th century has seen a number of clergy and laity moved into the Independent Catholic movement from the Roman Catholic Church.

Czechoslovak Hussite Church

Perhaps the largest departure from the Roman Church was the Czechoslovak Hussite Church (CHC), which organized on 8 January 1920, when several thousand priests and laypeople formed an independent church in response to their deep concerns over the Catholic Church's opposition to modernism. The church's first patriarch was Karel Farský (1880–1927), a modernist and former Catholic priest. The first bishops of the CHC were consecrated by priests through the laying on of hands. In 1931, Louis-Charles Winnaert (1880–1937), who was consecrated by Liberal Catholic bishop James Wedgwood (1883–1951), consecrated two CHC bishops, Gustav Procházka (1872–1942) and Rostislav Stejskal (1894–1946), thus sharing apostolic succession with the CHC. The CHC ordained its first woman priest in 1947, and it consecrated its first woman bishop in 1999. According to the 2011 Czech Republic census, 39,276 people at that time self-identified as members of the CHC.

Carlos Duarte Costa

Carlos Duarte Costa (1888–1961) was a Roman Catholic bishop in Brazil for twenty years before distancing himself, and being excommunicated by the Catholic Church over his opposition to its position on clerical celibacy, divorce, vernacular liturgy, and accused the Catholic Church of fascist sympathies. In 1945, Duarte Costa founded the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church and began consecrating numerous bishops in the apostolic succession. He is known as "St. Charles of Brazil" by the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, which had grown to 560,781 members by 2010.

Pierre Martin Ngo Dinh Thuc

From 1975 until his death in 1984, exiled Roman Catholic Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục (1897–1984) of Huế, Vietnam, an older brother of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam, consecrated a number of bishops, first for the Palmarian Catholic Church, then for the sedevacantists of the Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church. Thục also consecrated individuals unaffiliated to either of these groups such as Jean Laborie. In 1999, pop star Sinéad O'Connor was ordained a priest by Bishop Michael Cox of the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, whose lines of apostolic succession came through Thục.

Emmanuel Milingo

Emmanuel Milingo served as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia from 1969 to 1983. As such, he had lines of apostolic succession from the Roman Catholic Church and, after departing from the Catholic Church in 1983 over the issues of faith healing and clerical celibacy, he formed Married Priests Now! and consecrated four married priests as bishops: George Stallings of Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation, Peter Paul Brennan of the Old Catholic Confederation.

Appeal to people

Upon encountering Independent Catholicism for the first time, the questions of many individuals "are often historical: 'Where did this come from? Who ordained you? Did you invent this?'" Many Independent Catholics respond by emphasizing their tie to the larger Christian tradition of which they form part, the heritage they have received from larger, historic, mainstream churches, like the Roman Catholic Church or Lutheran Churches, and their continuity of faith and ministry with those churches. Like Christians of the Early Church, many see their efforts as the seeds of a new kind of ministry that can adapt itself to the time and place of its exercise, the needs of the moment, and the people who are actually present in that particular place at that particular time. And yet is it so new? Is it not perhaps the very way that St. Paul set about spreading the Gospel and building the Church?

Beliefs and practices

Virtually all members of the Independent Catholic movement possess a deep commitment to the catholic (in the broadest possible sense) sacramental tradition and worship according to a prescribed liturgy, usually derived from a mainstream Christian rite (like the Roman Rite). Critics unfairly suggest out of fear that the most critical factor for independent sacramental identity is the single-minded focus on sacramental activity [and that] very few independent communities offer coffee hour, Sunday School, and the array of other social programs which have come to characterize many mainstream churches.

Like the liturgies of early Christian communities, the liturgies of Independent Catholic communities often vary widely, with each cleric or community making its own choices of emphasis in terms of doctrine, liturgy, and other matters. In practice, Independent Catholic polity had often been essentially congregational.

For the most part, Independent Catholic communities possess a sacramental and eucharistic spirituality, often mirroring the sacramental life and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. Most possess a mediatory priesthood and an historic episcopate, which are often the only constants amid diversity that ranges from extreme traditionalism to radical experimentation. In more contemporary times the Independent Catholic jurisdiction has found positive hope for the future resulting from the growing influx of professionally trained and formed candidates for Holy Order. In addition, many experienced priests and clerics from other jurisdictions have come forward to continue their vocations via clerical incardination.

While the Western Church and its theology have remained constant, despite changing clergy, Independent Catholicism often possesses another model in which the priesthood remains constant, while the church it serves and the theology it teaches are often in a state of flux. While some western Christians may see this state of affairs as a distortion, it is nonetheless the centerpiece of the independent sacramental inheritance from the west.

Independent sacramental Christians have given a unique primacy to the priesthood, carrying the 'priesthood of all believers' to an extent never before envisioned. For better or worse, there is great freedom to create new church structures, new forms for the sacraments, and new theologies, or at least a new synthesis of inherited elements.

Many Independent Catholic communities are small, are led by an unpaid clergy, and lack a fixed location. Larger Independent Catholic communities have often resulted from schism within the Church or are often led by clergy who were formed by and formerly ministered to the Church; these communities often resemble mainstream churches with a larger population of laity and a small number of paid clergy.

While many Independent Catholic clergy and communities affirm the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, with or without the filioque and with varying interpretations, they espouse a variety of doctrines and beliefs, ranging from neo-gnostic and theosophical beliefs allowing for "freedom in the interpretation of scriptures, creeds, and liturgies." to extremely traditional orthodox Catholic positions.

Within the movement of Independent Catholicism, views vary widely on such issues as the ordination of women, homosexuality, divorce, issues of conscience, and other issues that are also controversial in other mainstream Catholic and Christian churches. Drawing from the ecumenical Christian tradition and other religious traditions, a growing number of Independent Catholic clergy and communities espouse a certain universalism, believing that God's loving embrace and forgiveness might be extended to all. Sometimes reaching beyond the bounds of the Christian tradition, some Independent Catholic clergy and communities feel greater liberty to incorporate into their lives and their worship a wide ranges of elements from other spiritual and religious traditions.

Future Goals for the Autocephalous / Independent Catholic Movement

"Moving forward" generally signifies progress or advancement towards a goal. It implies a conscious effort to overcome obstacles and continue towards a goal. This phrase is often used to describe a positive change in direction, indicating a focus on future actions and improvements.

Consider these ideas for moving forward:

Proactive Advancement often suggests a sense of taking steps to improve a situation or overcome obstacles.

Overcoming the Past often suggests "Moving forward" can also imply letting go of past hurts or setbacks to focus on the future.

In essence, "moving forward" encourages a mindset of resilience and determination, emphasizing the importance of continued effort despite difficulties. It's a phrase that highlights the positive aspects of progress and change.

To correct unhealthy church impediments, focus on fostering open communication, establishing clear pastoral goals, promoting healthy conflict resolution and ensuring accountability. This involves creating a culture where ideas welcomed and where all feel safe to address issues without fear of reprisal.

Once more professionally experienced priests, deacons and religious become part of the Independent Catholic movement, they will overshadow and replace the problematic individuals who have stymied jurisdictions within the movement from fulfilling their potential. This will take time to overcome the problems with so many feral clergy.

There IS a light, a world and even more of the People of God awaiting us at the end of the tunnel. Interested in sharing this journey with us?

“A Welcoming Community of Faith Rooted in the Catholic Tradition”