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"Since we are an independent Catholic church, we are not subject to the Vatican’s jurisdiction and man-made rules. We have therefore returned to many of the practices of the early church which have been abandoned by Rome. One is optional celibacy. Priests and bishops are free to marry. Another is the participation of the laity and clergy in the selection of their own bishops. Like the early church, we celebrate the Eucharist in the home. In fact, the majority of our churches are home churches. And even when there is a church building, it is owned by the local parish who paid for it, not by the bishop. We have attempted to divorce the hierarchy (who don’t get paid) from money and power, and return them to being the servants of the people, as Jesus intended. Like the early church, we ordain women to all levels of the clergy. We have also embraced the pacifist tradition of the first three centuries. We preach (and hopefully practice) nonviolence.

Most importantly, we differ from Rome in philosophy or attitude. We are attempting to recover the joy of the early church. We hope that "These Christians, how they love one another" applies to us. Essential to this quest is breaking free of legalism, racism, sexism, autocracy, dogmatism, and judgmentalism.

We leave decisions on birth control to the husband and wife. We embrace the divorced and remarried. (Yes, divorce usually involves sin ... but it is not an unforgiveable sin! We emphatically reject a hypocritical requirement for annulments.) We accept those whose sexual orientation differs from our own. And we don’t impose mandatory celibacy on them any more than we do our priests. We spend more time attempting to root out social injustice than we do worrying about someone’s concept of impurity. We base our social conscience on Amos and Isaiah rather than on Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In other words, we choose to follow Jesus, not the Pharisees."
[Source: "A Call to Decision", a sermon by Archbishop Robert Bowman of the United Catholic Church. Full text available here.]

One of the best short introductions to Independent Catholicism is in Meet the Ultrajectines: A Brief Introduction to Old Catholic Thought by the Most Revd. Raphael J. Adams of the Old Roman Catholic Church of North America. In a follow-up article, Bishop Adams deals comprehensively with some issues that have marred the relationship between Independent Catholics and their Roman Catholic brethren. If yours is a Roman Catholic or, indeed, conservative Anglican perspective, you may find The Last Word, also known as He's Mad as Hell and He's NOT Taking it Anymore! illuminating.

Independent Catholics are in every respect Catholic although not accepting papal jurisdiction. So we are not Roman Catholics. We understand Catholicism in the terms of the Vincentian Canon of 434 A.D., which contains the following,

"Therefore, because of the intricacies of error, which is so multiform, there is great need for the laying down of a rule for the exposition of Prophets and Apostles in accordance with the standard interpretation of the Church Catholic.

(3) Now, in the Catholic Church itself, we take the greatest care to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all [emphasis added]. That is truly and properly 'Catholic', as is shown by the very force and meaning of the word, which comprehends everything almost universally. We hold to his rule if we follow universality, antiquity, and consent. We shall follow universality if we acknowledge that one Faith to be true which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations, which it is clear that our ancestors and fathers proclaimed; consent, if in antiquity itself we keep following the definitions and opinions of all, or certainly nearly all, bishops and doctors alike. . ."
St. Vincent of Lérins

Sections below (click on a link to go to that section):
>>History of the Old Catholic Church of the Utrecht Succession
>>Nature of Independent Catholic beliefs
>>Independent Catholic formation and ordination

History of the Old Catholic Church of the Utrecht Succession
The text of the section that follows is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material from a composite-authored Wikipedia article that can be found in full here.

The Old Catholic Church is a community of Christian churches. Many of these were German-speaking churches which split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870s because of the promulgation of the dogma of Papal Infallibility as promoted by the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870. The term 'Old Catholic' was first used in 1853 to describe the members of the See of Utrecht that were not under Papal authority. While some European Old Catholic Churches are a part of the Union of Utrecht, there are many more that are independent, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands
St. Willibrord was consecrated to the Episcopacy by Pope Sergius I in 696 at Rome. Upon his return to the Netherlands, he established his See at Utrecht. In addition, he established the dioceses at Deventer and Haarlem. The Church of Utrecht also provided a worthy occupant for the Papal See in 1552 in the person of Pope Hadrian VI, while two of the most able exponents of the spiritual life, Geert Groote, who founded the Brothers of the Common Life, and Thomas a Kempis, who is credited with writing The Imitation of Christ, were both from the Dutch Church.

Granting the petition made by the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II and Bishop Heribert of Utrecht, Blessed Pope Eugene III, in the year 1145, granted the See of Utrecht the right to elect successors to the See in times of vacancy. This privilege was affirmed by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The autonomous nature of this See was further demonstrated when a second papal grant by Pope Leo X, Debitum Pastoralis, conceded to Philip of Burgundy, the 57th Bishop of Utrecht, that neither he nor any of his successors, or any of their clergy or laity, should ever be tried by a tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church, and that if any such tribunals where called against them, those tribunals would be, ipso facto, null and void. This papal concession, in 1520, was of the greatest importance in the defense of the rights of the Church of Utrecht. During the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands remained under attack and the dioceses north of the Rhine and Waal eventually were dissolved and suspended by the Holy See. Protestants had occupied most church buildings, and those left were confiscated by the government of the Dutch Republic of Seven Provinces which favored Calvinist Protestantism.

However about one third of the population north of the Rhine in the Netherlands, remained staunchly Catholic. The 17th century Popes appointed one bishop at a time to be Apostolic Vicar for territories of the Dutch Republic who, governing from the city of Utrecht, sacramentally served the needs of the Dutch Roman Catholics, who secretly celebrated Holy Masses in private homes, farm houses, or small chapels which resembled ordinary sheds rather than parish churches. The Apostolic Vicar of Utrecht thus had to serve from many hundreds of thousands to up to a million of Catholics. German and Belgian missionaries secretly helped out.

In 1691, the Jesuits took the step of accusing the Apostolic Vicar of Utrecht, Petrus Codde, of favoring the so-called Jansenist heresy. The Holy Father, Pope Innocent XII appointed a Commission of Cardinals to investigate the accusations against Apostolic Vicar Codde, violating the previous Debitum Pastoralis. The result of this inquiry was a complete and unconditional exoneration of the Apostolic Vicar.

Undaunted by the decision of the Commission, the new Pope, Clement XI, summoned Codde to Rome in 1700 to participate in the Jubilee Year whereupon a second Commission was appointed to try Codde. The result of this second proceeding was again a complete and unconditional acquittal. Pope Clement XI decided to issue an order which suspended the Apostolic Vicar in 1701 and appointed a successor to the Apostolic Vicariate of Utrecht, despite the ruling of the Commission.

Bishop Petrus Codde resented the attempts by the Papacy and the Jesuits to interfere with the affairs of his diocese. The Dutch refused to accept the replacement the Pope had appointed, and Codde continued in his office; however he resigned in 1703.

A replacement Archbishop, Cornelius van Steenoven, was elected by dissatisfied clergy in 1723. Van Steenoven was consecrated a bishop by a missionary bishop who was appointed by the Pope to a titular see in Lebanon, but never went to the Middle East. The consecration was done without the Apostolic Mandate of the Pope according to the right previously granted to the See of Utrecht. However, Van Steenoven and his successors were not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church and the Popes of Rome appointed Apostolic Vicars, while excommunicating the bishops who had taken by their own declaration the See of Utrecht. This was the beginning of the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands, also known as the Ancient Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Church of the Old Episcopal Order.

Van Steenoven on his own behalf appointed and consecrated bishops to the Sees of Deventer, Haarlem and Groningen, which had all been vacant since the dissolution of the Roman Catholic diocesan structure in the Northern Netherlands due to the rise of Protestantism and the eighty years lasting Protestant Dutch Rebellion against Spanish (Catholic) rule. These appointments were again made without the consent of the Roman Pontiff.

Most of the Dutch Catholics, who since 1600 had been mainly served by regular missionary priests, not by secular clergy, did not follow the Old Catholic bishops of Utrecht and remained in full communion with the Holy See in Rome.

Pope Pius IX, in 1853, established his own Roman Catholic hierarchy in the Netherlands, to rival the hierarchy established by the Old Catholic See of Utrecht. Thereafter in the Netherlands the Utrecht hierarchy was referred to as the 'Old Catholic Church', to distinguish it from the 'new' Catholic Church, the hierarchy of which had been more recently re-established by Pope Pius IX.

Impact of the First Vatican Council
After the First Vatican Council in 1870, considerable groups of Austrian, German and Swiss Catholics rejected the teaching on papal infallibility, and left to form their own churches outside union with Rome. These churches were supported by the Archbishop of Utrecht, who ordained their priests and bishops; later the Dutch were united more formally with many of these Austrian, German and Swiss Catholics under the name "Utrecht Union of Churches".

In the spring of 1871 a convention in Munich attracted several hundred participants, including Church of England and Protestant observers. The most notable leader of the movement, though maintaining a certain distance from the Old Catholic Church as an institution, was the important church historian and priest Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger (1799–1890), who had already been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church over the affair. Despite never formally becoming a member of the Old Catholic Church, Döllinger requested and took last rites from an Old Catholic priest.

The convention decided to form a new church, to be called the "Old Catholic Church" to distinguish themselves from what they saw as novelty in the Roman Catholic Church. At their second convention, they elected the first Old Catholic bishop, who was ordained by the Archbishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands. In 1874 they abandoned the requirement of priestly celibacy. The church received some support from the government of the new German Empire of Otto von Bismarck, whose policy was increasingly hostile towards the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870s and 1880s, especially during the Kulturkampf period from 1871–1877.

The development of the Old Catholic Church since this time has been one of two main geographical divisions. In Continental Europe, Old Catholics have come together to form the Utrecht Union, centred on Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and some other countries. The Utrecht Union has taken a more liberal stance on most issues, including the ordination of women, than Rome. It entered into communion with the Anglican church in 1931. Outside Continental Europe, and notably in the United States and the United Kingdom, Old and Independent Catholicism has become a largely decentralised movement.

Independent Catholics in the United States and United Kingdom
Soon after Old Catholicism's momentous events at the end of the 19th century, Old Catholic missionaries came to the United States.

In the area of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Joseph Rene Vilatte began working with Catholics of Belgian ancestry. He was ordained a deacon on 6 June 1885 and priest on 7 June 1885 by the Most Rev. Eduard Herzog, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church of Switzerland. After his ordination, Fr. Vilatte worked diligently on behalf of his congregations in Wisconsin, providing the only Catholic presence in his very rural part of the state.

In time, he petitioned the Old Catholic Bishop of Utrecht to be consecrated a bishop so that he might confirm children and perform other ministrations for his people. His petition was not granted. Determined to meet the spiritual needs of his people, Father Vilatte sought opportunities in the Eastern Church.

He was consecrated a bishop on the 28 May 1892 under the jurisdiction of the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch. A number of western orthodox churches such as the African Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Catholic Church of America are descended from Bishop Vilatte as founder by virtue of his ordinations and consecrations.

Many Independent Catholic bishops in the United States trace their Apostolic Succession to Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew and the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain. ++Mathew, who was a retired Roman Catholic priest and had received a Doctorate of Divinity from the Pope, was consecrated bishop on 28 April 1908, by Archbishop Gul, assisted by the Bishops of Deventer and Berne, in St. Gertrude's Cathedral at Utrecht. Bishop Mathew sent pioneers to the United States including Bishop James Ingall Wedgwood (1892-1950) and Prince (Bishop) Rudolph de Landas Berghes et de Rache (1873-1920).

Bishop de Landas arrived in the United States on 7 November 1914. He hoped to bring the various Old Catholic jurisdictions into one church organization under Archbishop Arnold Mathew of England. Bishop de Landas contributed greatly to the growth and development of the Old Catholic Church during his active years. He ordained and consecrated other pioneers including William Francis Brothers and Carmel Henry Carfora.

With the passing of the original organizers from the ecclesiastical scene, the Independent Catholic Churches in both the United States and the United Kingdom have evolved from a centralized administration with structured oversight of ministry to a local and regional model of administration with self-governing dioceses and provinces. This local model more closely follows the ancient tradition of the early Christian Churches as a communion of communities each laboring together to proclaim the message of the Gospel.

Today, the largest of these Independent Catholic communities in the United States is the Polish National Catholic Church. In the United Kingdom, communities include the Old Catholic Church in Europe, the Traditional Roman Catholic Church, the Old Roman Catholic Church of Great Britain (1975 branch), the Celtic Catholic Church, the British Old Catholic Church (Ecclesia Apostolica Jesu Christi), the Holy Celtic Church and The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church, with several Continuing Anglican and non-Catholic tradition churches also deriving their orders from Old Catholicism. There are many more groups that could be mentioned here. The terms "Old Catholic", "Old Roman Catholic" and "Independent Catholic" are used widely, and some communities express strong preferences for one or another for particular reasons. Those which define themselves as Traditional Catholic are generally those who oppose Vatican II and sometimes much earlier developments in Rome. There are also Old Catholic communities describing themselves as being in the Orthodox tradition, and those in the Continuing Anglican tradition. Although communities generally enjoy friendly relations (see below), they also value their separate and distinct natures. They are separate for a reason, and unification movements have generally been found unsuccessful. Communities vary from ultrajectine to ultramontane in character, with some regarding the Roman Catholic Church as having become too liberal, and others regarding it as excessively conservative. Some historical notes on the modern Celtic churches may be found here. At the time of writing, there are estimated to be between thirty and forty Independent Catholic bishops resident in the United Kingdom.

The European Old Catholics of the Utrecht Union, being in communion with the Church of England, are not willing to antagonize their Anglican cohorts by recognizing a competing English-speaking Independent Catholic movement. For this reason, most Independent Catholic communities in the United States and United Kingdom, while existing as continuing churches in the Utrecht Succession (via ++Mathew or +Verostek) do not have any formal relationship with the current Utrecht Union. The term "episcopi vagantes" (wandering bishops) has been used to describe the bishops that are thus not formally united to the mother church while continuing in its succession. Although outwardly this term is a benign and often accurate description of the missionary and tentmaker nature of Independent Catholic ministry, it has nevertheless been used from time to time by others to attack and denigrate those concerned. For this reason clergy in the Independent Catholic movement may regard the use of this term as pejorative and some consider it offensive. More information about the long history of independent bishops within the Church is given here.

It has been estimated that there are eight million non-Roman Catholics in the world today, some of whom are in quite large jurisdictions (such as the Apostolic Catholic Church of Brazil) and others in smaller denominations. The Polish National Catholic Church, another large jurisdiction, was formerly in communion with the Utrecht Union but broke away from it in 2003 concerning the ordination of women, and is now another of the many independent (or autocephalous) Catholic jurisdictions in the world today.

The American Catholic Union organises Sursum Corda - An Agape In Celebration of Old and Independent Catholicism. Information about the 2003 event in Chicago is here.

Nature of Independent Catholic beliefs
Virtually all Independent Catholic churches worship according to a set liturgy, one either derived from a mainstream historic Christian rite, such as the Syriac, Byzantine, or Roman. Sometimes they use a liturgy that is some combination of two or more of these historic liturgies or one that is unique to the Church in question. By definition, all such churches are episcopal in polity, being led by bishops and priests who are assisted by deacons. Virtually all hold to some type of sacramental understanding of the Christian faith closely related to that broadly held in common by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, and the Anglican Churches. Virtually all also affirm the text of the Nicene Creed, usually with the filioque, but interpretations vary widely.

However, these churches are divided with regard to the ordination of women, the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians, the acceptability of same-sex marital unions, abortion, contraception, divorce, and other issues which are also controversial in more mainstream sections of Christianity, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, or Orthodox. Unlike most of their more conventional counterparts, though, these Churches, usually being quite small, tend to be fairly internally homogeneous with regard to these and other issues; in other words, divisions on these and other questions are between these Churches, not so much within them.

These churches represent a variety of doctrines. Some Independent Catholic churches, such as the Liberal Catholic Church, and the Church of Antioch – Malabar Rite are characterized by a theosophical, gnostic or New Age orientation. Others are conservative, following extremely traditional Roman Catholic or Old Calendar Orthodox positions. Still others describe themselves as "Evangelical Catholic" and are more or less High Church Lutherans.

Many of these churches, possibly turning necessity into virtue, have intentionally embraced an "Ignatian" model of parish organization, in which a bishop, not a priest, is the pastor of a parish and is assisted by a group of priests, an intraparish presbyterium, as well as by one or more deacons. This model was often prevalent during the first centuries of the Christian church. Given this, it is rare, while nonetheless possible, to find Independent Catholic clergy who are supported financially in their work. Most Independent Catholic clergy are "tentmakers," pursuing their ministry as a part-time, volunteer calling while engaging in some other occupation in order to support themselves and their families.

Independent Catholic formation and ordination

Formation
Independent Catholic formation varies in nature and duration between dioceses. In the United States, formal arrangements sometimes exist with established seminaries. The Liberal Catholic Church International has its own well-established distance learning seminary, St Alban Theological Seminary, founded in 1923. The Home Temple, organised by Bishops Lewis and Willa Keizer, offers a homestudy course of preparation for ordination that may appeal to those interested in the more progressive, liberal and esoteric aspects of the Independent Catholic movement, as may the Beloved Disciple Seminary of the Contemporary Catholic Church. Other seminaries include Sophia Divinity School of the Church of Antioch, founded by Archbishop Herman Spruit in 1958, and the Old Catholic Seminary of the Apostolic Church of Jerusalem (Old Catholic). The traditionalist Old Roman Catholic Church of Great Britain (1975 branch) maintains St Gregory's College in Margate, UK. These seminaries are of necessity and conviction private and endorsed by their particular denominations rather than holding governmental accreditation. Smaller congregations, as also in the United Kingdom, may also form private seminaries that prepare men, and sometimes women also, to receive ordination. An older alternative to this is private formation provided directly by a bishop, perhaps assisted by other clergy. Most communities offer formation on a part-time basis, and efforts are made to ensure that ordinands are not prevented from study by reason of financial cost. Related to this, the programmes of the ecumenical NationsUniversity, which are offered without or at nominal fee, are worthy of mention as an inexpensive means towards a sound Biblical grounding.

The nature and formality of formation will depend on the theological position of the diocese in question as well as practical factors. Some dioceses substitute for seminary studies periods of supervised ministry in the field. Since Independent Catholic ordinands, often being older when they pursue ordination than ordinands in other churches, tend to bring with them an enhanced level of experience and understanding of life, it can be argued that this background balances to some extent the relative informality of the ministerial training many receive. Ultimately the responsibility for discernment of vocation and preparation for its fulfilment rests with the supervising bishop, who will be concerned to see that those newly ordained have the knowledge and support necessary to cope with a role that is often highly demanding in spiritual, intellectual and physical terms.

Ordination and consecration
Ordination and consecration in the Independent Catholic tradition often takes place in public services. But it does not always have to be so, and on occasion these sacraments occur in private. Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan,  Universal Primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion tackles the issue head-on in an article here:

"The nonsense about consecrations or ordinations being public is Lambeth propaganda....It was said to counteract the Order of Corporate Reunion and the work of A.H. Mathew. The common practice for consecrating an RC bishop in Europe in the 16, 17, 18th centuries was to do it at the morning conventual mass in a monastery. Usually there was only one bishop and two neighboring abbots. The priest-abbots acted as co-consecrators. They were done very early in the  morning without any fanfare. This was common practice because travel was  difficult.

The RC church has also regularly practiced clandestine ordinations of  bishops especially in war, or in persecution. Here is a link to clandestine consecrations...  http://www.apostolische-nachfolge.de/geheimhierarchie.htm The practice is to have one who is known and one who is clandestine so that if the known bishop is killed or imprisoned another is available to the church. A classic case is the now Cardinal Husar who was secretly consecrated. Two recently beatified Polish priests were only recognized as bishops at their beatifications.

So please stop spreading the Lambeth nonsense about consecrations having to be public events. Even Orthodox and Eastern Rite consecrations are typically done in monasteries because the bishop is a monk first  -- with  only clergy participating. Baptisms are often private events....so are confessions and so often is viaticum. Sacraments can be private encounters with Christ."

An interesting modern example of ordination in private was the late Cardinal Basil Hume's ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood of the former Anglican Bishop of London, now Fr. Graham Leonard, who had been received into the Roman Catholic Church. An account of the background to this ordination is here. The ordination took place in Cardinal Hume's private chapel, as recounted here. Cardinal Hume in conversation with Archbishop Illtyd Thomas of the Celtic Catholic Church, an independent denomination, expressed the opinion that ordination and consecration in private oratories was fully valid.

In addition to this, consecration and ordination per saltum (by leap) is found in twentieth-century Independent Catholicism, though it is rarer today. Being based solidly on historical precedent within the Roman Catholic Church, it is as valid as the more conventional method. Some further thoughts on this are on a separate page.