Old Catholic Church

The Old Catholic Church is a family of Western Christian churches that rejected the First Vatican Council’s definition of papal infallibility and separated from Roman Catholic authority.

First Vatican Council: The 1869–1870 Roman Catholic council that defined papal primacy and infallibility as dogmas. Its definition of papal infallibility prompted the organized Old Catholic opposition.
Catholic Church: The worldwide Christian communion whose largest body is governed by the bishop of Rome. Old Catholic communities retain Catholic worship and tradition while rejecting Roman jurisdiction.
Union of Utrecht: A communion of Old Catholic churches formed in 1889 and centered on the Declaration of Utrecht. It provides a shared structure for several national Old Catholic churches.
Roman Catholic Church: The largest Catholic church, led by the pope as bishop of Rome. It is the ecclesial authority from which Old Catholic churches separated.
Papal infallibility: The doctrine that the pope is preserved from error when defining certain teachings on faith or morals for the whole Church. Opposition to its formal definition became the movement’s defining dispute.
Ecumenical council: A council intended to represent the whole Christian Church and settle matters of doctrine or discipline. The status and authority of Vatican I are central to the Old Catholic dispute.
Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands: An independent Dutch church that became a principal center of Old Catholic identity and episcopal continuity. Its bishops helped provide episcopal leadership for the wider movement.
Papal supremacy: The doctrine that the pope holds supreme and universal jurisdiction over the whole Catholic Church. Old Catholic opposition targets this expansive account of papal authority.
Ignaz von Döllinger: A German Catholic theologian and historian who opposed the First Vatican Council’s definition of papal infallibility. His refusal to accept the definition made him a leading intellectual figure of the opposition.
Papal primacy: The claim that the bishop of Rome holds a unique primacy among Christian bishops. Old Catholic churches contest the form of universal jurisdiction asserted for the pope.

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