tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13804788.post1761284171460306746..comments2024-03-27T11:27:31.790-05:00Comments on A Catholic Life: What is the Old Catholic Church? Are Roman Catholic?Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929374709032473716noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13804788.post-33727826181524437442015-07-22T18:09:44.515-05:002015-07-22T18:09:44.515-05:00(to be open: I am Old Catholic) Good Lord, how far...(to be open: I am Old Catholic) Good Lord, how far Vatican has come in the last 130 years! Thanks be to our Father in Haven for that! <br />To explain some of the factual misconceptions, there are two streams of Old Catholicism, the Utrecht Union including most Old Catholic churches (they operate on territorial principle, unlike Rome, so there are dozens of them, one in each country) and including US and Canadian Episcopalians, and then there is Scranton Union, which was established by several Old Catholic Churches (like mine, the Slovak Old Catholic Church) in reaction to Utrecht Union starting to ordain women, ordain openly gay men and support homosexual relationships, to which we repeatedly protested, but to no avail. So we withdrew, and established the Scranton Union (in Scranton :-). The Scranton Union is the "good guys" of which the Papal Declaration Dominus Jesus of August 2000 speaks. Full apostolic succession, valid sacraments, valid priests and bishops, Roman and Eastern Catholics may "validly and licitely" (according to the Pope, not my idea) accept sacraments there under canon of necessity (conditions of canon law are these: no Roman or Eastern Catholic ordinary (= priest or bishop) is available for that sacrament at that time in that place, happens more often than you think) and vice versa, we are allowed to accept sacraments (Holy Eucharist and Holy Confession before all, but all others as well) under the same terms (also happens very often). The Papal Declaration applies expressly to: Orthodox Church, Polish National Church and Old Catholic Church with the caveat "with valid apostolic succession", so Utrecht churches are thereby excluded, while Scranton curches are thereby included. And a note at the end: the Papal Declaration was issued by His Holiness John Paul II and then confirmed by s Holiness Benedict XVI, and it is a textbook declaration "in the matters of faith and morals". You Roman Catholics do know what that means, right?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com