What it Means to Be Old Catholic

What does it mean to be “Old Catholic?” I get asked this question in one form or another almost every time I tell someone what Church to which I belong. Usually, I give as short of an answer as possible which goes something like “the Old Catholic Church broke from Rome about a hundred and forty years ago over the issue of papal infallibility.” It's not the most informative of answers, but it's usually the one that doesn't require a more in-depth look at the ugly side of Church history and Church politics which, if most people knew more about, they would probably wish they hadn't asked.

The truth is that the answer to this question isn't a one sentence answer. And it often differs with whoever is answering the question. To some, the Old Catholic Church is one of the most liberal Denominations out there. To others, it is strict adherence to Sacred Tradition and the founding charters of the Old Catholic Church, the Fourteen Theses of the Old Catholic Church and the Declaration of Utrecht.

The most basic statement of Old Catholicism is that we believe what has been believed by all Christians everywhere, at all times, and in every place. We shun innovations in theology and anything which deviates from what the Church as a whole agreed on in ancient times.

To be Old Catholic means that we accept the seven Sacraments of the Church, especially the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and the Sacrament of Baptism. It means that we profess and champion the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, while at the same time refusing any explanations of how that comes to be whether it is transsubstantiation, consubstantiation, or something else entirely. It is a mystery and it will always remain a mystery, as it should.

To be Old Catholic means that we venerate, look up to, those saints who have gone before us, especially Mary, the mother of God. Why? Because when all is said and done, these are family who have already won the race, and now watch us run ours, praying for us, and encouraging us onwards with their examples. We hold up Mary because she was a prime example of faith and obedience to God both in agreeing to the conception of His Son, and in following Him right up to the cross. According to Church Tradition and history, she was an active and known part of the Church right up to her death, and after her death her body was not left on earth to rot. We do not worship human beings, but we look to their examples, and as family ask them to pray fr us.

To be Old Catholic means that we believe that the Holy Scriptures are infallible and inerrant in the original autographs.

To be Old Catholic means that we worship corporately in a liturgical manner which agrees in form with the liturgical worship with which the Church has always celebrated from the earliest times up until the present day, thus you are likely to hear the Roman Rite, the Anglican Rite, the Eastern Orthodox Rite, or some combination thereof in an Old Catholic Mass.

To be Old Catholic means that we accept that all men have fallen through our ancestor Adam, but that the image of God was defaced, not destroyed. It means that we profess that it is only through Jesus Christ that anyone can be delivered from their fallen state.

To be Old Catholic means that we make no presumption on our final salvation, but believe and profess that Jesus Christ died for our sins and those of the whole world, and He is capable of saving even us if we are willing to repent and cooperate with Him. Eternal Life is a relationship with God, and every relationship takes working together to maintain it. (This is a difficult concept for many Protestants to understand and accept because of the Protestant “once saved always saved” doctrine. Such a doctrine was never found in the ancient Church and wasn’t taught until the Protestant Reformation.)

To be Old Catholic means that we maintain the equilateral, autonomous authority of the local Bishop over the clergy and parishes under his care. We reject the imposition of any one Bishop’s authority over another Bishop, and thus reject the claims to universal authority of the Bishop of Rome. We accept the universal authority of the Ecumenical Church Councils which were held in the first millennium, and were decision made by representatives of the entire Church equally where matters of doctrine, faith, and practice were concerned. To this end, being Old Catholic means that we accept the three great creeds of the Church: Nicene, Athanasian, and Apostolic, and reject any additions to these which were not agreed upon by the entire Church in Council (such as the “filioque” clause added some hundred years after the Council of Constantinople finalized it).

To be Old Catholic means that we maintain valid lines of Apostolic Succession which can be traced back to the Apostles.

To be Old Catholic means that we profess, maintain, and defend the Sacred Tradition of the Church as found in the writings of the Church Fathers, the Liturgies, the Sacred Scriptures, the Ecumenical Councils, the Creeds, the Sacraments, and the Lines of Apostolic Succession.

But what does it mean to me?

To me, being Old Catholic means that I claim spiritual lineage, and valid holy orders, from St. Ignatius of Antioch, from St. Irenaeus of Lyons, from St. Peter the Apostle as well as St. Peter of Damascus. That I look to St. Augustine of Hippo, St. John Cassian, St. John Crysostom, and the writings of the holy fathers of the Church for the first thousand years of the Church in order to understand what the faith of Jesus Christ is, how it should be lived and practiced, and what the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures is instead of pastors and theologians who lived within the last couple of centuries. It means that I look to the early writings, the Church Fathers, the Creeds, and Ecumenical Councils of the Church when she was One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic in practice to outline and define the limits of Christian orthodoxy.

It means that I am theologically Eastern Orthodox without being accepted by the Eastern Orthodox. It means that I am a Western Rites Catholic while being denounced as illicit by the Roman Catholic. It means that I am looked on with disdain by the Mainline Protestant for being too Catholic, and as a heretic by the Evangelical for the same. It means rejecting the Reformation doctrines outright, while not catering to either the Roman delusions of grandeur, or succumbing to the isolationism of the Eastern Orthodox.

It means that while other denominations celebrate worship in liturgy and song in vast cathedrals with thousands of congregants, I say Mass quietly with just myself, my family, and our Lord. It means I watch while pastors in other ministries take in salaries of forty thousand a year or more, while I draw a near minimum wage income from outside employment so I can minister in whatever way the Lord would have me do so to whomever He brings me.

Being Old Catholic means listening to what our brothers and sisters had to say who persevered in the faith long before us, and also recognizing that they are still family now and as family love and support not only me, but all the rest of our brothers and sisters and want us to succeed. It means honoring the Mother of God as such without confusing honor with worship. It means faith in the body and blood of Jesus Christ without trying to explain how the bread and wine become such. Being Old Catholic means to me that I have the peace of knowing that I stand connected with those brothers and sisters who gave their lives for their faith in that very same faith unaltered for nearly two thousand years, and knowing that I often must stand alone. It means not having to “re-discover” how the early Church did things, because the Old Catholic still does them more or less the same way.

Most of all, being Old Catholic is about that unbroken faith. That faith and practice which stands unaltered by the flow and ebb of theological fads and innovations. The faith which stands in spite of the attempts to twist and shape it to whatever this or that teacher or preacher wants to turn it into. It means remembering why the priest wears black, and what the white collar stands for and putting both into practice with as much Grace as God gives even if no one else around me does.

Old Catholic means just that. Old Catholic. The kind of Catholic before the splits, and schisms, and divisions, and denominations, and break aways. The kind of Catholic when the Church was “the Church” and not some fractured mess ruined by human ego and politics. Perhaps a better term would be ancient Catholic, or pre-schism Catholic, or “Catholic before the Roman Church made off with the word 'Catholic'”. A particular favorite, and slightly more explanatory is “Western Rites Orthodox”, but then that has to be explained in more detail, too.

Being Old Catholic means that I believe in Jesus Christ with my actions as well as my words. It means that I aspire to deification and union with God while being well aware that I deserve Gehenna. It means that I care about all those who would be my enemies or do me harm, and give back Jesus when I am abused and mistreated. It means that I renounce everything in principle even if I must use it in practice, and count it as trash anyway, so that I may know Him free from distraction if that might be possible.

This is not a technical definition, and as I said, it is likely you will hear something different from someone else. But this is what being Old Catholic means to me.