Groupings
Many, but not all, independent Catholic clergy claim descent from the Old Catholics of Utrecht, although Utrecht does not officially accept their orders. Like Orthodoxy, Utrecht holds that ordinations can only be done within the church as a whole and with appropriate authority. Some independent groups in North America began life as Protestant and/or Charismatic congregations; for example, the Charismatic Episcopal Church came into being when charismatic fellowships rediscovered both sacramentalism and the historical apostolic succession. Another group, the Evangelical Orthodox Church, found its way into mainstream Eastern Orthodoxy: one part joined the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1987, other parishes later entered the Orthodox Church in America, whilst a remnant, which does not claim traditional apostolic succession, kept the name EOC and continued as an independent communion. Since the orders of the EOC were not regarded as valid by the Orthodox bishops, the reception of clergy into mainstream Orthodoxy was always accompanied by ordination.
The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church was founded in the 1940s when Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa withdrew from the Roman Catholic Church in protest against that church's perceived support of Nazis who had fled to Latin America and its neglect of the needs of the poor. Duarte Costa went on to consecrate other bishops in Europe as well as North and South America. Several independent Catholic bodies trace their apostolic succession through Duarte Costa, including the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America.
A number of liturgical churches are sometimes regarded as independent Catholics, but do not fit neatly in this category. Continuing Anglican Churches are sometimes included in this grouping, but this is controversial, especially with regard to the larger Anglican bodies, and these Continuing Churches do not count themselves as being within the independent Catholic movement. Traditionalist Catholic groups that are in irregular standing with the Holy See (such as the SSPX, not Traditionalist groups in full communion with the Pope, such as the FSSP) are sometimes regarded as independent Catholics, but they do not see themselves in this manner; rather they regard themselves as being the true Church, believing that Catholicism has embraced teachings which are schismatic, or even heretical since the Second Vatican Council. A similar controversy exists regarding the Old Calendar Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions, including the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and bodies which split from mainstream Orthodoxy specifically in order to maintain the Old Liturgical Calendar. There have been attempts to construct broader categories to include many of these groups, for example the Independent Sacramental Movement, but most of these groups would be uncomfortable with such a characterisation.
Evangelical Catholic groups such as the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church (formerly the Evangelical Community Church-Lutheran,) describe themselves as Lutheran, rather than Catholic, because of their Lutheran heritage and the fact that they accept those clauses of the unaltered Augsburg Confession which agree with their understanding of the Roman Catholic magisterium. Others, such as the Antiochian Catholic Church in America, do describe themselves as Catholic, while claiming that their doctrine is based, with variations, on that of a church that has been unrelated to the Roman Catholic Church for centuries.
The Polish National Catholic Church is occasionally referred to as an independent Catholic church; however, the PNCC rejects this designation. The PNCC derives its orders from the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht but is no longer in communion with Utrecht or the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. These relationships ended because the PNCC rejects the ordination of both women and sexually active homosexuals. Whilst no longer in communion with any other body, the PNCC remains a relatively substantial denomination, maintaining active dialogue with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. It is also a member of the World Council of Churches.
A very few independent groups have grown to a larger size (e.g. the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, with 27 centres in the United States and 6 in Europe, and the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America, with 10 centres) but the majority consist of one or two bishops, a few priests and deacons, and a small number of adherents. In numerous cases, bishops have been consecrated without having any priests under their jurisdiction, and some bishops have undergone several consecrations in an attempt to secure a more diverse claim to apostolic succession.
Read more about this topic: Independent Catholic Churches