Congregation claims National Catholic Movement

[dpillie]

I was reading about a local candidate for office who claims to be a Catholic priest. I thought that was odd and when researching more about him I saw that he is from the National Catholic Movement which claims they are a valid denomination. I know there are some national churches but this seems off, especially given what they are preaching. Can anyone help me parse this out - are they a valid parish?

This is from their website (http://raphaelnwi.org/what-is-nationalindependent-catholicism/):

Within the United States today, there are only two authentic national denominations with unquestionable validity: The Polish National Catholic Church (with Old Catholic European lines of Succession) and the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (Brazilian National Catholic Church lines of succession). Our parish is in Communion with the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. Both of these churches have approximately the same representation in the United States of approximately 200 parishes. You may receive the sacraments in either church with full confidence.

 

[Fauken]

are they a valid parish?

From their website:

For this reason, in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, National/Independent Catholic parishes are seen as “separated” from Rome, (the official theological term for this is schismatic), but maintaining valid sacraments, rather than separated and “theologically defective” like Protestant denominations (the official theological term for this is heretical).

That tells me everything I need to know. They can claim valid sacraments all they want, they are in opposition to the Church, and to be avoided.

 

[Genesis315]

There’s no such thing as an independent Catholic–it’s pretty much the definition of schism.