Old Catholics are a Community committed to the teachings of Jesus. We accept the testimony of His Apostles as eye witness to His life. These twelve Apostles passed on to succeeding generations their own testimony about Jesus. Through proclaiming His teachings and giving of their testimony (called Apostolic Tradition) the Apostles built up the Church. Old Catholics are a historical part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and have their origins in the Netherlands. Old Catholic orders and sacramental services are recognized as "valid" by Roman, Orthodox and Anglican authorities.

St. Willibrord and his companions converted the area of Europe known as the Low Countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) to the Catholic faith in the 7th century. Three principal dioceses were established in the cities of Utrecht, Deventer and Haarlem. Utrecht eventually became the archiepiscopal See.

Pope Eugene III acknowledged the traditional right of the Cathedral Chapter of Utrecht to elect successors to the See. The fourth Lateran Council gave all Cathedral Chapters the right to elect bishops. Pope Leo X, in his letter Debitum Pastoralis, conceded to Philip of Burgundy, 57th Bishop of Utrecht, and his successors, internal autonomy in church affairs. This further demonstrated the independence of the See of Utrecht.

These papal acknowledgements allowed the Church in the Netherlands to minister throughout the Reformation. During this period the Church in the Netherlands was forced "underground" to survive. Eventually the Archbishop of Utrecht reached an informal agreement with the civil government allowing the Dutch Church to function openly without interference from the reformists.

While peace existed between the Netherlands Church and the civil government, the "counter-reformation" movement attempted to "re-Romanize" the Dutch Church. The Dutch resisted strongly. Contrary to prior guarantees, Papal forces intervened on the side of the Counter-reformists. The Church in Holland was effectively isolated; its appeals to Church General Council ignored. In 1724, due to politics in Europe, the See of Utrecht had been vacant for many years. The Dutch had no bishops. In that year they prevailed upon Dominique Marie Varlet (a Franciscan Missionary Bishop) to consecrate Cornelius Steenoven as Archbishop of Utrecht. What had been de jure autonomous became in fact an independent Catholic Church.

Following the first Vatican Council, 1870, (at which the Church of Holland was refused admittance) a considerable dissent, mostly among German, Austrian and Swiss Catholics, arose over the definition of Papal Infallibility. The dissenters, holding the General Councils of the Church infallible, were unwilling to accept the dogma of Papal Infallibility. Many of these Catholics formed independent communities which became known as "Old Catholic".

They are called "Old Catholic" because they adhered to the pre-reformation teachings of the General Councils of the Church. The Old Catholic Communities appealed to the Archbishop of Utrecht to consecrate bishops for them; he did. Eventually these communities united under the leadership of the Archbishop of Utrecht, forming the Utrecht Union of Churches. The Archbishop of Utrecht, later, consecrated Father Arnold H. Mathew, a former Roman Catholic priest, as Regionary Bishop for England. His mission was to establish a community for Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics. Bishop Mathew consecrated an Austrian Noble, Prince Rudolph Edward de Landes Berghes in 1913 to work among the Scottish. Because of World War I, and being a citizen of a hostile country, Prince de Landes Berghes went to Canada and the United States for refuge. Subsequently, Bishop Mathew unwisely withdrew from the Utrecht Union, finding them too liberal.

Bishop Berghes, in spite of his isolation, was able to plant the seed of Old Catholicism in the Americas. He consecrated a Capuchin Franciscan priest as bishop: Carmel Henry Carfora. From this the Old Catholic Church in the United States evolved into local and regional self-governing dioceses and provinces along the design of St. Ignatius of Antioch - - a network of Communities.

Old Catholic, Old Roman Catholic and Independent Catholic are terms used to identify those Catholics in the United States not associated with ethnic communities, i.e., the Polish National Catholic Church, nor the Roman Catholic Church. The terms "Old Catholic" and "Old Roman Catholic" are not interchangeable; variations of viewpoint exist between them. However, Old Roman Catholics do call themselves "Old Catholic". The diocese established by Archbishop Carfora in the 1920's at Chicago was called the "Old Roman Catholic Diocese in the United States", rendering the term "Old Roman Catholic".

A more modern, but incorrect, appellation is "Independent Catholic" which refers more toward a system of ideas. There are several other lines of Apostolic Succession in the United States derived from Anglican, Orthodox and Roman sources. These have become intertwined, in some cases, with the Old Catholic lines of succession.

The name "Old Catholic" has become a generic term in the United States.

Old Catholics adhere to the traditions of the Church from Apostolic times to the present. The ecumenical Councils express what Old Catholics believe. Old Catholics, tracing their Apostolic Succession through the Roman Catholic community, and some through the Orthodox and Anglican communities, to the Apostles, participate in the full sacramental ministry of the Catholic Church. (Old Catholic orders and sacramental services are recognized as "valid" by Roman, Orthodox and Anglican authorities.)