Catholic Charismatic Church of Canada - History

History

The apostolic lineage of the Catholic Charismatic Rite was founded on August 15, 1968. It began under the mandate of Pope Clement XI, Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of the West, in 1693 when James Goyon de Matignon, Bishop of Condon consecrated Dominique Marie Varlet as Bishop of Ascalon (in partibus) and Coadjutor to the Bishop of Babylon, Persia. Bishop Varlet in turn consecrated Peter John Meindaerts as Archbishop of Utrecht without a papal mandate, which created a rift with Rome and an end to full communion with the Roman Church. Meindaerts was one of the primary founders of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, independent from and considered excommunicated by Rome. From 1693 (legendary date, historically since 1723) to the present day, the Union of Utrecht Church has expanded throughout Western Europe, North America, Central America, and South America. The apostolic descendants of the Union of Utrecht Church include the Old Catholic Church, the Polish National Catholic Church, the Catholic Church of Brazil, and the Catholic Charismatic Rite, among others.

The Catholic Charismatic Rite was established and organized by then-Archbishop Andre Barbeau in 1968. The Catholic Charismatic Rite was a response to the modernism that was being felt in the Church and to statements in the reports of Vatican II, inviting new rites and patriarchies. The CCR was conceived as such an undertaking, a progressive-conservative patriarchy: a new stem of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Archbishop Barbeau founded the Catholic Charismatic Rite “…to assist the Roman Catholic Church in its mission as a supplemental rite.” With the founding of the CCR, Archbishop Barbeau became known as Patriarch André I. Immediately, after the Church’s establishment, Patriarch Barbeau prepared documentation for Pope Paul VI concerning this supplemental rite and his own promise of obedience and allegiance to the Bishop of Rome. Barbeau was previously ordained a Roman Catholic priest on November 21, 1940 and served in that capacity for 28 years in the Archdiocese of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1968, Barbeau left the Roman Catholic Church and was consecrated a bishop and the first autonomously appointed patriarch of the new Catholic Charismatic Rite by pro-uniate Old Catholic Bishop Charles Brearley of the Old Holy Catholic Church of England. Barbeau served in this capacity until his death on February 14, 1994. Succeeding Barbeau is Archbishop Andre Letellier, who was installed shortly after Barbeau's death in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Cité de Marie.

The Catholic Charismatic Rite is not affiliated with the Old Catholic Church or any independent Catholic movement in America because it sees the majority of ministers of these sects as causing division and teaching strange doctrines. In matters of faith and morals, the Catholic Charismatic Rite observes the teachings of the Holy See of Rome. The Catholic Charismatic Rite seeks to preserve a proper freedom by focusing itself as an avenue for ministering to Catholics who find themselves unchurched for a variety of reasons. It is ecumenical and seeks to promote unity by welcoming people of various religious traditions who are searching for a spiritual home. The Catholic Charismatic Rite is an apostolic and sacramental church and seeks to promote the truth of the Gospels as such. It seeks to express the “Body of Christ” in caring, non-legalistic, pastoral communities.

After its creation, the Catholic Charismatic Church immediately erected faith churches and faith communities in Canada and in several northeastern states in the United States; by the early 1990s the church's jurisdiction had spread as far south as Florida and later into the southwest including Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas.