This text is a contemporary adaptation of the Declaration of Utrecht, one of the foundational documents of Old Catholicism. This document has been updated in idiom and content to reflect the faith and practice of The Old Catholic Ordinariate for Specialized Ministries. While the Ordinariate is a contemporary expression of Catholicism in many respects, her doctrinal origins descend from the faith and practice endorsed by the original signatories (1) of the Declaration of Utrecht.
INTRODUCTION
We deem it appropriate to summarize in a common declaration certain aspect of faith and practice which are foundational to Old Catholicism, and to our practice within The Old Catholic Ordinariate for Specialized Ministries.
THE DEFINITION OF “CATHOLIC”
We recognize as Catholic that which adheres to the principles of the ancient Church laid down by Saint Vincent of Lérins: “In the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.” (2)
“One is a true and genuine Catholic if they love the truth of God, love the Church, love the Body of Christ, and esteem divine religion and the Catholic faith above all else – above the authority, above the regard, above the genius, above the eloquence, above the philosophy, of every other individual whatsoever. Such a one, set alight by all of these, and continuing steadfast and established in the faith, resolves that they will believe only that which they are sure the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient time.” (3)
It is the intention of our Ministerium to abide by the faith of the ancient Church as it is formulated in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian (4) Creeds and Apostles’ Creeds, and in the universally accepted dogmatic decisions of the Ecumenical Councils held in the undivided Church of the first millennium.
REJECTIONS OF LATE DOGMA AND DISCIPLINE
We therefore reject as contradicting to the ancient Catholic faith the decrees of the First Vatican Council (1870) concerning the infallibility and the universal jurisdiction (throughout all branches of Christendom) of the Bishop of Rome. As a direct result of this rejection, we also reject the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception (5) and the Assumption (6) as being without indisputable foundation in Holy Scriptures and the tradition of the first centuries. (7)
As for the other dogmatic decrees issued by the Roman Communion since the Great Schism in the eleventh century, we reject every aspect of them that stands in contradiction with the doctrine of the ancient Church, and do not recognize them as binding. We likewise reject the decisions of the local councils recognized by the Roman Communion in matters of doctrine and discipline where they stand in opposition to the teachings of the ancient Church.
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES
Despite our differences with the Roman Communion, we acknowledge the historic primacy which several ecumenical councils and the Fathers of the ancient Church have attributed to the Bishop of Rome by recognizing him as the primus inter pares. (8) Therefore, we express our deep filial connection with the Roman Communion, with whom we share many of our beliefs and practices, and we long for the day when deep healing will come to the fractures that exist within the Western Church, and our current state of impaired communion will be healed.
We also express our closeness to those other Western Churches who have maintained the historic episcopate (via Apostolic Succession), such as the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Churches of Scandinavian origin, and other Old and Independent Catholic bodies which derive their origin from one of the many birth points at/after 1870.
We pray for the restoration of full fellowship among all the historic Churches of the East and West who adhere to the principles of Catholicity outlined by St. Vincent of Lerins.
Finally, we recognize those ecclesial communities which hold to the Scriptures, the Creeds, and the dogmatic decisions of the Ecumenical Councils as true and life-giving to be true and faithful Christian communities and, to the extent that our mutual disciplines allow, we welcome their members to participate with us in prayer and worship, and in the celebration of the Sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist.
THE HOLY EUCHARIST
The Holy Eucharist has always been the central act of worship in the Catholic Church. Therefore, we consider it our duty to declare that we maintain in all faithfulness and without deviation the ancient Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, by believing that we truly receive the Body and the Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ under the forms of bread and wine.
The Eucharistic celebration in the Church is neither a continual repetition nor a renewal of the propitiatory/expiatory sacrifice which Christ offered once and for all on the Cross. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is rooted in its being the perpetual anamnesis (9) of the Paschal Sacrifice of Christ which, even now, is continually pled in heaven for the salvation of the human race. Thus, the Eucharistic Sacrifice is a true, earthly representation of, and participation in, the one offering of Christ Jesus.
As we celebrate the Eucharist here on earth, the Sacrament itself takes on a dual purpose and effect, for not only are we nourished by Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament, but our communion and interrelationship as a Church is revealed, for we, though many, are one body, since we share in the one bread. (10)
CHRISTIAN UNITY
In a world where the current state of Christian witness is called into question, and where the division of many jurisdictions and denominations serves to undercut the expressed wish of the Savior for unity among all believers, we pray for honest theologians and believers who will work tirelessly for greater unity among Christians, while at the same time “contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.” (11)
We urge the clergy of our Ministerium (and the people whom we serve) to stress, in their preaching, catechesis, and by the example of their lives, the essential Christian truths professed in common by all the divided confessions, and to carefully avoid, in discussing those genuine differences that exist, any violation of truth or charity, and, in word and deed, to set an example to the members of our parishes of how to act towards people of a different belief in a way that is in accordance with the spirit of Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of us all.
We believe that it is in faithfully maintaining the teaching of Jesus Christ, while rejecting all the errors that have been added to it through human sin, as well as rejecting all the abuses in ecclesiastical matters and hierarchical tendencies, that we shall best counteract unbelief and that religious indifference of our day.
NOTES
1) The original signatories of the Declaration of Utrecht, were:
• Archbishop Johannes Heykamp (Utrecht, the Netherlands)
• Bishop Casparus Johannes Rinkel (Haarlem, the Netherlands)
• Bishop Cornelius Diependaal (Deventer, the Netherlands)
• Bishop Joseph Hubert Reinkens (Old Catholic Church of Germany)
• Bishop Eduard Herzog (Christian-Catholic Church of Switzerland)
2) Vincent of Lérins, The Commonitory; Paragraph 6
3) Ibid., Paragraph 48
4) Specifically, the text of the Russian Orthodox recension of the Athanasian Creed, which omits the so-called filioque clause, in keeping with the ecumenically accepted form of the Nicene Creed.
5) Declared in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.
6) Declared in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.
7) While individual sensibility and devotion connected to these dogmatic pronouncements may be held, they should not be held as requisite for salvation, nor commemorated liturgically in such a way that would alienate members of local assemblies who do not hold to such positions.
8) Latin: first among equals.
9) Far from being a static memory or a passive participation, the word anamnesis, which we translate as memory or remembrance is an active immersion of ones’ self in the Paschal Sacrifice of Christ. We literally ‘enter to live the memory’. This can be seen as bringing the Last Supper/Altar of the Cross forward in time, or it can be seen as bringing the faithful believer to the Table and the Foot of the Cross and fully immersing themselves in the Mystery. The Gregorian Canon seems to indicate the former theology, while many modern texts endorse the latter. Neither visual is wrong, nor are they mutually exclusive.
10) 1 Corinthians 10:17
11) Jude 3b