Phone
410-314-1159
Address
141 Lavern Avenue
Lansdowne, Maryland 21227
Services are held each Sunday at 11:00 a.m.. Holy Day of obligation service is held at 7:00 p.m. Confessions are heard 10 minutes before each service as well as by appointment.
About Us
As independent Catholics we are not restricted by Rome in what we are able to offer our congregants. We welcome all God's children to the table to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
All of our Sacraments are valid in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church as reported by both Saint John Paul II and Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI and outlined in a document entitled "Dominus Iesus" and our Apostolic Succession is intact. The Roman Catholic Church has had to acknowledge that not all denominations with "TRUE" Apostolic Succession are in full communion with them.
Weddings, Holy Unions, Same Sex Weddings, Baptisms and Funerals. All of our services are custom designed to fit your needs and as a result we are able to perform Traditional Catholic services, as well as Protestant, Non-Denominational, Inter-Denominational and Spiritual, either at the Church or a venue of your choice.
What are Old Catholics?
*cite: Old Catholic Church (2006, August 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:42, August 20, 2006
The Old Catholic Church is a community of Christian churches. Many of these were German-speaking churches which split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870’s because of the promulgation of the dogma of Papal Infallibility as promoted by the First Vatican Council of 1869-1870. The term ‘Old Catholic’ was first used in 1853 to describe the members of the See of Utrecht, who were not under Papal authority. White the European Old Catholic Churches are a part of the Union of Utrecht, there are many more than are independent, especially in the United States.
Soon after Old Catholicism’s momentous events at the end of the 19th century, Old Catholic missionaries came to the United States. In the area of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Joseph Rene Vilatte began working with Roman Catholics of Belgian ancestry, who tended to separation from Roman influence due to their isolated geographical position at the time. Vilatte was ordained a deacon on June 6, 1885 and priest on June 7, 1885 by the Most Reverend Eduard Herzog, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church of Switzerland. After his ordination, Fr. Vilatte worked diligently on behalf of his congregations in Wisconsin, providing the only Catholic presence in his very rural part of the state.
He was consecrated a bishop in India on May 28, 1892 under the jurisdiction of the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch. A number of western orthodox churches such as the African Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Catholic Church of America are descended from Bishop Vilatte and claim him as a kind of founder by virtue of his ordinations and consecrations.
Many Old Catholic bishops in the United States trace their Apostolic Succession to Arnold Harris Mathew. Father Mathew was consecrated bishop on April 28, 1908, by Utrecht Archbishop Gerhardus Gul, assisted by the Old Catholic Bishops of Deventer and Berne, in St. Gertrude’s Old Catholic Cathedral in the city of Utrecht. Bishop Mathews sent pioneers to the United States including the theosophist Bishop James Ingall Wedgwood (1892-1950) and Prince (Bishop) Rudolph de Landas Berghes et de Rache (1873-1920).
Bishop de Landas arrived in the United States on November 7, 1914. He hoped to bring the various Old Catholic jurisdictions into one church organization under Archbishop Arnold Mathew of England. Bishop de Landas contributed greatly to the growth and development of the Old Catholic Church during his active years. He ordained and consecrated other priestly pioneers including William Francis Brothers and Carmel Henry Cafora.
Since the passing of the original organizers from the ecclesiastical scene, the Old Catholic Church in the United States has evolved from a centralized administration with structured oversight of ministry to a local and regional model of administration with self-governing dioceses and provinces. According to some, this local model more closely follows the ancient tradition of the early Christian Churches as a communion of communities each laboring together to proclaim the message of the Gospel.
