Catholic — without the infallible pope.
The communion that declined Vatican I: when the pope was declared infallible in 1870, these parishes kept the faith of the undivided first millennium instead — synodal governance, married clergy, and full sacramental life without Rome's last word.
DeitiesOne God in three persons
Founded1870 CE · Utrecht and the German-speaking lands
AfterlifeResurrection and judgment
TextsBible · The councils of the undivided church
The map
The Old Catholic Church’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 1870 CE The Old Catholic Church
No pope is infallible.
Vatican I claimed too much: councils and the whole church discern truth together, as the first millennium did.
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The undivided church is the standard.
The faith of the seven councils, before East and West parted — catholicity measured by antiquity, not by Rome's latest word.
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The altar is open.
Married clergy from the start; in most Old Catholic churches today, women at the altar and all the baptized at the table.
held by most
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The Mass, unbroken but unbowed.
The same Eucharist as Rome's — celebrated in the vernacular, by clergy who may marry, under bishops the parishes elect: sacrament kept, monarchy declined.
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