American Catholic Church and Rent A Priest

[PoliSciProf]

I am interested in authoritarive information on the American Catholic Church because I have a distant relative who has clearly renounced his Roman Catholic faith but for the sake of family harmony (not achieved) was married by someone in this sect. Their web site is self-serving and clearly not in harmony with Church doctrine. However, I know little about this group and would appreciate the thoughts and comments of readers of this forum. Ditto Rent-A-Priest which I discovered by browsing the web.

 

[1ke]

What else do you need to know except that these are Catholics who have left Rome (or possibly were never part of Rome and came from another heretical or schismatic group calling themselves Catholic) and are now in **heresy **including approving of divorce/remarriage, contraception, homosexual sex, abortion, and ordinationi of women?

Rent-a-priests are those who left the Church (or got kicked out) without permission (and got married), left and were laicized but now practice “outside” the church, or those illicitly (or possibly invalidly) ordained by one or another schismatic or heretical sect.

 

[Irish_Melkite]

I am interested in authoritarive information on the American Catholic Church because I have a distant relative who has clearly renounced his Roman Catholic faith but for the sake of family harmony (not achieved) was married by someone in this sect. Their web site is self-serving and clearly not in harmony with Church doctrine. However, I know little about this group and would appreciate the thoughts and comments of readers of this forum.

Prof,

I’m a student of the Old Catholic and Independent Catholic movements and would be happy to give you some background, but first you’d need to specify by which of the ACC bodies your relative was married. The name “American Catholic Church” goes back to Rene Joseph Vilatte, a man whose episcopal and presbyteral progeny fostered the birth of myriad bodies in the OC/IC genre. However, the name is used - in just that simple configuration - by at least a half-dozen distinct Churches of which I’m aware. Some have arguably valid, though illicit, orders and sacraments; others have gone so far from the reservation, that such is doubtful, even under the Augustinian theory of apostolic succession which offers wide latitude.

So, if you can provide some specifics, I’ll be happy to try and fill you in on the particulars of the body with which your relative got involved.

Many years,

Neil