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:::''See the article on Ultrajectinism for a more detailed description of historical and theological events.''

'The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands' is the mother church related to the Old Catholic Churches. It is sometimes called ''Ancient Catholic Church'', ''Church of Utrecht'' (''Ultrajectine Church'') or ''Dutch Roman Catholic Church of the Old Episcopal Order''. Roman Catholic and, in the past Jesuit, critics also tend to call it the ''Jansenist Church of Holland''.

Contents

Early history

Reformation and Jansenism

Vatican I

Doctrine

Old Catholic Archbishops of Utrecht

External links

Early history

Catholicism came to the Netherlands by means of the proselytising of St. Willibrord in the 7th century. Willibrord had been consecrated by Pope Sergius I in 696 in Rome. In 1145 Pope Eugene III granted the Cathedral Chapter of Utrecht the right to elect bishops after such had been requested by the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III and Bishop Heribert of Utrecht. The Fourth Lateran Council confirmed this in 1215. Pope Leo X, issued the papal bull ''Debitum Pastoralis'' in 1520 giving extraordinary powers to Philip of Burgundy, 57th Bishop of Utrecht, essentially removing the ability of any external authority to "in the first instance, have his cause evoked to any external tribunal, not even under pretense of any apostolic letters whatever; and that all such proceedings should be, ipso facto, null and void".

Reformation and Jansenism

Forced into hiding during the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church of the Netherlands continued to thrive, even eventually obtaining a comfortable enough status with the local authorities so as to allow it to practice Catholicism as long as this did not take place in public or semi-public buildings and areas. The Popes appointed Apostolic Vicars to Utrecht, while the other sees remained vacant since the dissolution of diocesan structures due to the reformation. Strangely, despite the ''Debitum Pastoralis'' and the waivers it provided, in 1692 the Dutch ancient Church came under persecution from counter-reformist Jesuits, who, despite opposition to this from Rome, accused Petrus Codde, Apostolic Vicar of Utrecht and the Dutch Republic, of favoring the so-called Jansenist heresy. Pope Innocent XII appointed a Commission of Cardinals who started an investigation of Archbishop Codde, ending in exoneration. In 1700 Archbishop Codde was summoned to Rome and brought before a second Commission appointed by Pope Clement XI. After another acquittal, Clement XI suspended the Archbishop in 1701 and appointed his successor, Gerard Potcamp, to the See of Utrecht.
This was not a popular decision in Holland, culminating in a demand by the Dutch for the return of Codde, and the refusal of his successor Gerard Potkamp by a large part of the clergy. Codde returned to Utrecht in June of 1703. Codde formally resigned, protesting the circumstance in his Pastoral Letter of March 19, 1704. He died December 18, 1710.
During and shortly before the controversy on Codde, the Netherlands and its Catholic clergy had become a refuge for a number of well-known dissenting Catholic priests from France and Belgium, who were persecuted because of accusations of Jansenism and because of their anti-Roman views on jurisdiction and, generally, the Vatican rule over the Catholic Church in Europe.
Lacking an own archbishop in partibus infidelium, the Dutch Church was able to arrange for an Irish bishop, Luke Fagan, Bishop of Meath (later Archbishop of Dublin), to ordain Catholic priests for the see of Utrecht. The legal matters arising from the supposed Roman violations of ''Debitum Pastoralis'' led to the case being brought before the Pontifical Roman Catholic University of Leuven (Southern Brabant) in May of 1717, which found in favor of the Ancient Church, but was unable to resolve the matter with the Roman Church, leading to an autonomous, Dutch, independent Catholic church. Finally in 1723 dissatisfied Dutch clergymen elected Cornelius van Steenoven to be their Archbishop of Utrecht. He was consecrated, without a papal mandate, by Dominique Marie Varlet (who had been consecrated by the Pope to be the Coadjutor Bishop of Babylon, a Titular See = a diocese in name only), who was staying in the Netherlands to confirm children and to support the Dutch clergy out of sympathy with their cause. Both consecrator and consecrated incurred the penalty of suspension and excommunication for illicit episcopal consecration (only punished by a suspension at the time and until 1950) and because of illegitimately claiming a diocesan see of jurisdiction without the permission of the Roman Pontiff (punished by excommunication). Consecrating bishop Varlet was reconciled to Rome afterwards, even though he subsequently consecrated four bishops for the independent Ultrajectine Church, which would become known as 'Old Catholic' after 1853. Van Steenoven after his consecration autonomously, and from the Roman view point illegitimately and invalidly, appointed bishops to the vacant Dutch sees of Deventer, Haarlem and Groningen.
Most Dutch Catholics nevertheless continued to follow the Roman Pope and obeyed his newly appointed Apostolic Vicars at Utrecht as well as the later official Roman hierarchy established in 1853, when Catholicism was allowed in the public sphere again after two and a half centuries of secret and private practice of Mass and prayer.

Vatican I

After Pope Pius IX reestablished a Church hierarchy in Holland in 1853, the breakaway Church of Utrecht adopted the name "Old Catholic Church" to distinguish itself from the newly created Roman hierarchy by its seniority in Holland. In 1870 Vatican I was convened, and the bishops of the Church of Utrecht, not recognized by the Church in Rome, were refused seats, because they were not seen as being Roman Catholic. At the council, the dogmas of papal primacy in jurisdiction and papal infallibility were defined, to the objection of the Old Catholic hierarchy of the Church of Utrecht and some communities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Many separate communities were formed at this time, seeking to practice pre-Vatican I, anti-Roman centralism, Catholic ideas. Since no bishops left Rome over the issues of Vatican I, these communities sought Apostolic Succession from the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, leading to the formation of the Utrecht Union of Churches, and the final adoption of the name "Old Catholic" by these German speaking communities.

Doctrine

Perhaps the most fundamental position of the Old Catholic Church is its claim to Apostolic succession directly back to Christ, and to being legally separate from the Roman Catholic Church.
The churches of the Union of Utrecht generally follow the theological and ecclesiological lead of the Church of England, with whom they have been in Communion since 1931. The Polish National Catholic Church, which was the only Old Catholic body in the U.S. and was a member of the Union, did so until the Episcopal Church in the U.S. began ordaining women in about 1975.
Old Catholics have celebrated Mass in the vernacular virtually since their foundation, even if not in all of their places of worship. They did so already in the 18th century in Utrecht. They reject the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility, as well as later Roman Catholic dogma (e.g. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). They sometimes reject auricular confession. Old Catholic clergy can marry at any time, since their Church allowed marriage to its priests in 1878. Arnold Harris Mathew in his declaration of ecclesial independence of December 29th, 1910, wrote to the Old Catholics of Utrecht, that he deplored the lack of an eucharistic fast among continental Old Catholics, the abolition of both daily celebration of the Mass and the ceremony of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and the abolition of veneration of the saints among certain Old Catholics.[1]
The main bodies of the Old Catholics are theologically progressive. The main church of Dutch Old Catholics since 1998 has allowed women to enter the priesthood, and has for a long time allowed divorce. Since the beginning of the 20th century, many Roman Catholic priests who adhere to certain modern or liberal views in either discipline or theology, have joined the Old Catholic Church in order to pursue marriage or a theologically modern way of ministering.
While the vernacular was introduced at a very early stage, external rites remained very Catholic, as well as the prayers of Mass, which still emphasized sacrificial intention. Although distinct from the Roman Catholic Church, since the 1960s most Old Catholics have followed the liturgical reforms of the Vatican Council II.
Independent Old Catholic bodies, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, tend to follow the theological and ecclesiological ideas of their founders and current bishops, which can vary from extremely conservative to extremely liberal. It is generally not useful to talk of "the" Old Catholic Church in the U.S.

Old Catholic Archbishops of Utrecht

★ Cornelius van Steenoven (1723-1725)

★ Cornelius Johannes Barchman Wuytiers (1725-1733)

★ Theodorus van der Croon (1734-1739)

★ Petrus Johannes Meindaerts (1739-1767)

★ Walter van Nieuwenhuisen (1768-1797)

★ Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn (1797-1808)

★ Willibrord van Os (1814-1825)

★ Johannes van Santen (1825-1858)

★ Henricus Loos (1858-1873)

★ Johannes Heijkamp (1875-1892)

★ Gerardus Gul (1892-1920)

★ Franciscus Kenninck (1920-1937)

★ Andreas Rinkel (1937-1970)

★ Marinus Kok (1970-1982)

★ Antonius Jan Glazemaker (1982-1999)

★ Joris Vercammen (2000-pres.)

External links

★ Oud Katholieke Kerk van Nederland

★ Sources related to Jansenism and Old Catholicism

★ A History of the So-Called Jansenist Church of Holland; with a Sketch of Its Earlier Annals, And some Account of the Brothers of the Common Life, by John Mason Neale (1858)