Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who self-identify as Catholic (most often as Old Catholic or as Independent Catholic) and form "micro-churches claiming apostolic succession and valid sacraments", in spite of not being affiliated to the historic Catholic churches such as the Roman Catholic and Utrechter Old Catholic churches. The term "Independent Catholic" derives from the fact that "these denominations affirm both their belonging to the Catholic tradition as well as their independence from Rome."
It is difficult to determine the number of jurisdictions, communities, clergy and members who make up Independent Catholicism, particularly since the movement "is growing and changing in every moment." Some adherents choose Independent Catholicism as an alternative way to live and express their Catholic faith outside the Roman Catholic Church (with whose structures, beliefs and practices Independent Catholicism often closely aligns) while rejecting some traditional Catholic teachings.
Independent Catholicism may be considered part of the larger independent sacramental movement, in which clergy and laity of various faith traditions—including the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion and various non-Catholic Christian churches—have separated themselves from the institutions with which they previously identified. Within this movement, various independent churches have sprung from the Eastern Orthodox Church, but the members of these independent Eastern Orthodox groups most often self-identify as Independent or Autocephalous Orthodox and not as Independent Catholic.
Some Independent Catholic churches have joined the International Council of Community Churches, a denomination based in Frankfort, Illinois, in the United States. In doing so it gives them a place and voice in organizations such as Churches Uniting in Christ, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and the World Council of Churches.
History
Early episcopal consecrations without papal approval
Beginning in 1724, Dominique Marie Varlet (1678–1742), the Roman Catholic Bishop of Babylon, consecrated four men successively as Archbishop of Utrecht without papal approval. The cathedral chapter of Utrecht, which elected these men, had previously obtained an opinion from Zeger Bernhard van Espen (1646–1728) and two other doctors of canon law at the University of Louvain, which said that the chapter had the right, in special circumstances, to elect its own archbishop and have him consecrated without the consent of the pope, and that, in the case of necessity, one bishop alone might validly consecrate another. Nineteen doctors of the theological faculties at Paris, Nantes, Rheims and Padua approved of this opinion. This consecration by Varlet caused a theological controversy and schism within the Catholic Church, which now possessed bishops who were validly consecrated without the permission of the pope. This schism marked the birth of the movement that would later be known as the Old Catholic Church (a term coined in 1853 for the Catholics of Utrecht), and it marked the beginning of an era in the Western Church, in which validly-consecrated bishops enjoyed apostolic succession but were not subject to the rights and responsibilities of the Catholic Church.
First departure from the Catholic Church
The sharing of apostolic succession in the west outside the Catholic Church was largely confined to the Church of Utrecht for over a century. After the (First) Vatican Council in 1870, many Austro-Hungarian, German and Swiss Catholics rejected assertions of universal jurisdiction of the pope and the declaration of papal infallibility, and their bishops, inspired by earlier acts in Utrecht, decided to leave the Roman Catholic Church to form their own churches, independent of Rome. Now independent of the pope, these bishops were sometimes referred to as autocephalous (or self-governing) bishops or episcopi vaganti (wandering bishops). These validly-consecrated bishops enjoyed apostolic succession, and they continued to share valid lines of apostolic succession with the priests and deacons they ordained. In 1889, they formally united as part of the Utrecht Union of Churches (UU).