Utrecht Declaration
The Utrecht Declaration of September 24, 1889 is the founding document of the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches , to which the churches affiliated to it have committed themselves in their unchanged version.
Emergence
Shortly after the 1st Vatican Council , Old Catholic movements in Germany and Switzerland organized the protest against this. They made contact with the church of Utrecht in the Netherlands, which had existed since 1723 . However, these contacts were not without tension in the first few years. Initially, the Utrecht Church provided help in the formation of the Old Catholic Churches. Archbishop of Utrecht firmte Henricus Loos in 1872 in Germany children excommunicated Old Catholics., And the bishop of Deventer, Hermann Heykamp , issued in 1873 in Rotterdam the first German Old Catholic Bishop Joseph Hubert Reinkens the episcopal ordination .
A little later, however, far-reaching reforms in the Old Catholic churches in Germany and Switzerland, such as the abolition of celibacy , caused the Dutch sister church some trouble. She began to question the Catholic character of the Old Catholic Movement. This was intensified by the rapprochement between the Swiss Bishop Eduard Herzog and the German Bishop Reinkens to the Anglican churches in Great Britain and the United States, as the Dutch Church at that time still questioned the validity of the Anglican ordinations and thus the Catholic character of this church . Only in 1925 were these ordinations recognized by the Dutch bishops, which paved the way for the Bonn Agreement of 1931.
Towards the end of the 1880s, however, the desire for closer relationships prevailed on both sides. For this purpose the five Old Catholic Bishops Johannes Heykamp (Archbishop of Utrecht), Casparus Johannes Rinkel (Bishop of Haarlem), Cornelius Diependaal (Bishop of Deventer) as well as Joseph Hubert Reinkens (Bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Germany) and Eduard Herzog (Bishop of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland) on September 24, 1889 in Utrecht. During this meeting they constituted themselves for a bishops' conference and expressly stated that the churches they represent and lead are in full ecclesial communion with one another. They formulated a declaration to the Catholic Church in which they summarized the guiding theological principles of Old Catholicism.
Text of the declaration
( Original text, according to the spelling of the time )
" In nomine ss. Trinity.
- Johannes Heykamp, Archbishop of Utrecht,
- Casparus Johannes Rinkel, Bishop of Haarlem,
- Cornelius Diependaal, Bishop of Deventer,
- Joseph Hubert Reinkens, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Germany,
- Eduard Herzog, Bishop of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland,
the four and twentieth of September one thousand eight hundred nine and eighty, gathered under the invocation of the Holy Spirit in the archiepiscopal apartment at Utrecht, issue the following declaration
to the Catholic Church .
As a result of an invitation from the co-signed Archbishop of Utrecht, we have decided to come together from time to time to discuss common matters with the assistance of our assistants, councilors and theologians. We consider it appropriate at this first meeting to briefly summarize in a joint declaration the ecclesiastical principles according to which we have administered our episcopal office so far and will continue to administer it in the future and which we have repeatedly had the opportunity to express in individual declarations.
1. We hold fast to the principle of the early church which Vincentius of Lerinum expressed in the sentence: Id teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est etenim vere proprieque catholicum . We therefore hold fast to the faith of the ancient Church, as expressed in the ecumenical symbols and in the generally accepted dogmatic decisions of the ecumenical synods of the undivided Church of the first millennium.
2. As contradicting the beliefs of the old church and destroying the constitution of the old church, we reject the Vatican decrees of July 18, 1870 on infallibility and the universal episcopate or the ecclesiastical omnipotence of the Roman Pope. But this does not prevent us from recognizing the historical primacy, as several ecumenical councils and the Fathers of the ancient Church ascribed to the Bishop of Rome as the primus inter pares, with the consent of the whole Church of the first millennium.
3. We also reject the declaration of Pius IX as not justified in the scriptures and the tradition of the first centuries. dated 1854 about the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
4. As regards the other dogmatic decrees issued by the Roman bishop in the last few centuries, the Bullen Unigenitus, Auctorem fidei, the Syllabus of 1864, etc., we reject them and recognize them insofar as they contradict the teaching of the ancient Church they are not considered authoritative. Moreover, we are renewing all the protests which the old Catholic Church of Holland raised against Rome in earlier times.
5. We do not accept the Council of Trent in its decisions concerning the discipline, and we only accept its dogmatic decisions insofar as they are in accordance with the teaching of the ancient Church.
6. Considering that the Holy Eucharist has always been the true focus of worship in the Catholic Church, we consider it our duty to also declare that we are faithfully adhering to the ancient Catholic faith of the sacred sacraments of the altar by we believe that we receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself under the forms of bread and wine.
The Eucharistic celebration in the Church is not a perpetual repetition or renewal of the Atonement which Christ offered once and for all on the cross; but its sacrificial character consists in the fact that it is the lasting memory of the same and a real visualization taking place on earth of that one offering of Christ for the salvation of redeemed humanity, which according to Heb. IX, 11,12 is continually performed in heaven by Christ by now appearing for us in the presence of God. (Hebr. IX, 24.)
As this is the character of the Eucharist with regard to the sacrifice of Christ, it is at the same time a sacred sacrificial meal in which the believers who receive the body and blood of the Lord have fellowship with one another. (I. Cor. X, 17.)
7. We hope that the efforts of the theologians will succeed in reaching an understanding on the differences that have arisen since the church divisions, while maintaining the faith of the undivided Church. We urge the clergy under our leadership to emphasize in the sermon and in the teaching the essential Christian truths of faith, to which the churchly separated confessions profess, in the first place, when discussing the remaining contradictions, every violation of truth and love to carefully avoid and to guide the members of our churches by word and example to behave towards those of different faiths in a way that corresponds to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is the Redeemer of us all.
8. By faithful adherence to the teaching of Jesus Christ, while rejecting all errors, all church abuses and hierarchical endeavors, which are caused by the guilt of men and women, we believe most successfully to counteract unbelief and religious indifference, the worst evil of our time.
Given at Utrecht, September 24, 1889.
- Johannes Heykamp.
- Casparus Johannes Rinkel.
- Cornelius Diependaal.
- Joseph Hubert Reinkens.
- Eduard Herzog. "
Theological meaning
Although the Utrecht Declaration marked the emergence of an Old Catholic Church across national borders, it does not enjoy the status of a creed . The principles contained therein, however, still form a common denominator for Old Catholic churches, even beyond the Union of Utrecht. Many of those churches in the USA that are in the tradition of Arnold Harris Mathew or Joseph René Vilatte also refer to this document in their basic theological statements.
From the Old Catholic point of view, the Utrecht Declaration is an authentic testimony to the apostolic faith.
At the same time as this declaration, the bishops signed an agreement on their official dealings and the relationship between the churches they lead. It declares the full ecclesial communion based on the Utrecht Declaration.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Contemporaries report that this journey was like a triumphal procession, cf. Reports in the Utrecht Archives , accessed on December 19, 2010
- ↑ Urs Küry: The Old Catholic Church. Their history, their teaching, their concerns . 3. Edition. Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-7715-0190-3 , p. 38-40, 98-102, 452-453 .
- ^ Georg Hintzen: Union of Utrecht . In: Wolfgang Thönissen (Hrsg.): Lexicon of ecumenism and denominational studies . On behalf of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute for Ecumenism. Herder. Freiburg in Breisgau. 2007. ISBN 978-3-451-29500-3 . Pp. 1401-1402.
- ^ Peter Neuner : Old Catholic Church . In: Wolfgang Thönissen (Hrsg.): Lexicon of ecumenism and denominational studies . On behalf of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute for Ecumenism. Herder publishing house . Freiburg in Breisgau. 2007. ISBN 978-3-451-29500-3 . Pp. 31-34.
- ↑ Wolfgang Krahl: Ecumenical Catholicism. Old Catholic landmarks and texts from two millennia . 1st edition. St. Cyprian, Bonn 1970, p. 153-154 .
- ↑ Commonitorium of Vincent von Lerin