Declaration of Utrecht,
1889
of the Old Catholic Bishops of the Neatherlands,
Germany and Switzerland
We adhere faithfully to the
Rule of Faith laid down by St. Vincent of Lerins in these terms: "Id
teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est etenim
vere proprieque catholicum." ("We hold that which has been believed
everywhere, always, by all; for that is truly and properly catholic.") For
this reason we preserve in professing the faith of the primitive Church, as
formulated in the oecumenical symbols and specified precisely by the unanimously
accepted decisions of the Oecumenical Councils held in the undivided Church of
the first thousand years.
We therefore reject the decrees of the so-called Council of the Vatican, which
were promulgated July 18th, 1870, concerning the infallibility and the universal
Episcopate of the Bishop of Rome, decrees which are in contradiction with the
faith of the ancient Church, and which destroy its ancient canonical
constitution by attributing to the Pope the plentitude of ecclesiastical powers
over all Dioceses and over all the faithful. By denial of this primatial
jurisdiction we do not wish to deny the historical primacy which several
Oecumenical Councils and Fathers of the ancient Church have attributed to the
Bishop of Rome by recognizing him as the Primus inter pares ("First
among equals").
We also reject the dogma of the Immaculate Conception promulgated by Pius IX in
1854 in defiance of the Holy Scriptures and in contradiction to the tradition of
the centuries.
As for other Encyclicals published by the Bishops of Rome in recent times for
example, the Bulls Unigenitus and Auctorem fidei , and the Syllabus of 1864, we
reject them on all such points as are in contradiction with the doctrine of the
primitive Church, and we do not recognize them as binding on the consciences of
the faithful. We also renew the ancient protests of the Catholic Church of
Holland against the errors of the Roman Curia, and against its attacks upon the
rights of national Churches.
We refuse to accept the decrees of the Council of Trent in matters of
discipline, and as for the dogmatic decisions of that Council we accept them
only so far as they are in harmony with the teaching of the primitive Church.
Considering that the Holy Eucharist has always been the true central point of
Catholic worship, we consider it our right to declare that we maintain with
perfect fidelity the ancient Catholic doctrine concerning the Sacrament of the
Altar, by believing that we receive the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus
Christ under the species of bread and wine. The Eucharistic celebration in the
Church is neither a continual repetition nor a renewal of the expiatory
sacrifice which Jesus offered once for all upon the Cross: but it is a sacrifice
because it is the perpetual commemoration of the sacrifice offered upon the
Cross, and it is the act by which we represent upon earth and appropriate to
ourselves the one offering which Jesus Christ makes in Heaven, according to the
Epistle to the Hebrews 9:11-12, for the salvation of redeemed humanity, by
appearing for us in the presence of God (Heb. 9:24). The character of the Holy
Eucharist being thus understood, it is, at the same time, a sacrificial feast,
by means of which the faithful in receiving the Body and Blood of our Saviour,
enter into communion with one another
(I Cor. 10:17).
We hope that Catholic theologians, in maintaining the faith of the undivided
Church, will succeed in establishing an agreement upon questions which have been
controverted ever since the divisions which arose between the Churches. We
exhort the priests under our jurisdiction to teach, both by preaching and by the
instruction of the young, especially the essential Christian truths professed by
all the Christian confessions, to avoid, in discussing controverted doctrines,
any violation of truth or charity, and in word and deed to set an example to the
members.
By maintaining and professing faithfully the doctrine of Jesus Christ, by
refusing to admit those errors which by the fault of men have crept into the
Catholic Church, by laying aside the abuses in ecclesiastical matters, together
with the worldly tendencies of the hierarchy, we believe that we shall be able
to combat efficaciously the great evils of our day, which are unbelief and
indifference in matters of religion.
Utrecht, 24th September 1889
+Heykamp
+Rinkel
+Diependaal
+Reinkens
+Herzog