THE OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Starokatolická církev v České republice

Introduction

The Old Catholic Church is part of the one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Christian Church. It follows the belief, tenets, teachings and practice of early Christians. It has no property and does not want to have more than is necessary for the securing of basic needs. The word “old“ in the name of the church expresses the spirit of originality, openness and confidence – the spirit of the first Christian communities.

It avows the alternative catholicism, which has always been present in the Czech history: the tradition of Cyril and Methodius, the legacy of Master Jan Hus and the Czech Church in Both Kinds of Jan Rokycana.

History

The Old Catholic Church as a movement of Christians who had not accepted the dogma of the First Vatican Council came to being in the territory of the present Czech Republic after 1870, its Bishopric being established in Varnsdorf (North Bohemia). The priest Anton Nittl and the first administrator of the church  P. Miloš Čech (died in 1922), brother of the famous poet Svatopluk Čech, were important personalities of the beginnings of the church. After Čech´s death Alois Pašek, the South Bohemian priest, was elected and ordained a Bishop. He died in 1946. After the administrator V. J. Ráb, who was head of the church at the time of the communist coup in 1948, in 1950 the Synodal Council elected  PhDr ThLic Augustin Podolák. The year 1968 brought the reanimation of the church – Dr Podolak was elected and ordained a Bishop. The short period of the church flourishing was supressed after the occupation of the country when political opression of the 1970s began. As early as 1971 Bishop Podolák was deprived of state permission for his public activity and the leadership of the church was taken over by the people who collaborated with the regime and who devastated the church spiritually, sacramentally as well as materially. Under Bishop Podolák the church, however, continued its living in informal structures. After the November Revolution of 1989, the brave activity of bishop Podolák and the priests who were faithful to him, as well as believers, resulted in summonning the Synod of Restoration (29th April 1990), which opened the work of the restoration of the church. Bishop Podolák, however, died on 7th January 1991 and the 39th Synod (on 23rd February 1991) elected his successor – his disciple and the closest co-worker, ThMgr Dušan Hejbal. Despite all the difficulties, which the legacy of the preceeding period has brought to the newly elected Bishop and the Synod Council, the church has been experiencing the time of new development. The new concept of the leadership of the church brings new forms of pastoration as well as new social activity. Many people, particularly young ones, found their spiritual home in this church. The candidates of priesthood and pastoral woman assistants are getting ready for their demanding ministry. The jubilee 40th Synod (11th November 1995) confirmed by its unanimous decision the correctness of the started way and also cleared up the position of the church in the international Old Catholic community. Bishop Hejbal was ordained on the 27

September 1997. The celebration with the participation of a great number of Bishops and representatives of the Oikumene took place in the cathedral church of St. Lawrence in  Prague.

The Old Catholic Church is not yet large in number. It is, however, aware of its spiritual significance as a possible bridge for the reapprochement of different Christian traditions in the spirit of its ecumenical ecclesiology. It takes part in the work of the Ecumenical Council of Churches and other ecumenical activities. It is open in its social work as well. Despite all obstacles it proved its vitality and gained credit by its principality.

Mission

The Old Catholic Christians did not accept the teachings of the infallebility and the divine origine of Papal power, which was declared at the First Vatican Council in 1870 as the doctrine that is strange to original Christianity.

The Utrecht Declaration of the Old Catholic Bishops of 1889 expresses what the church believes. It preserves the early Christian principle, which is characterized by St. Vincent of Lerine (before the year 450): “We keep to what all people have always and everywhere believed. This is really true catholic.“ According to this it preserves the belief of the early Church, as it remained expressed in ecumenical Creeds and in generally acknowledged dogmas and resolutions of the ecumenical councils of the Church of the first millenium. All later doctrines are accepted by the OCC only in what they are consistent with the doctrines of the early Church.

The OCC preserves the accepting of the Christ´s Body and Blood, which are really present in bread and wine, in both kinds, by all believers and since the beginning of the church its worship has been in mother tongue.

In accordance with the practice of the Church of the first millenium it does not impose celibacy as a condition of the ordination and makes possible for its deacons, priests and Bishops to live in a marriage and have a family. It does not exclude the divorced from the accepting of sacraments and with kindness it considers the possibility of their remarriage.

Organisation

Priests of the OCC are elected by their parish communities, the  Bishop is elected by the Synod consisting of priests and lays. This democratic, Episcopal and synodal principle enables the true realization of the priesthood of the faithful and the right of every member of the church to take part in decisions on all the matters of the life of the church.

The international Old Catholic community comprises the autonomous Old Catholic Churches in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the U. S. A., Canada, Chroatia, France, Sweden, Denmark and Italy, which are associated on the basis of voluntariness and parity in the so called Utrecht Union. The OCC in the Czech Republic is also in sacramental community with the Old Catholic Church of Mariavites, the Independent Catholic Church in the Philippines and with the Anglican Church. It also strives for full sacramental reapprochement with other churches, which stand on the apostolic doctrine in full apostolic succession.

The OCC CR issues the magazine Communio.

Statistics

a number of believers:3.200,  parishes: 10,  extension communities: 2

clergy:  1 Bishop, 11 priests, 3 deacons, 5 pastoral assistents (men and women)

Addresses:

Bishop´s office and the Synodal Council of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic   

Biskupský ordinát a synodní rada Starokatolické církve v ČR
Hládkov 3
169 00 Praha 6

phone/fax: 02/24 32 51 87
e-mail: stkat@comp.cz

http://www.starokatolici.cz