The "American Catholic Church"?

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elts1956

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Hello, I have heard the Catholic Church here in the U.S. being called the “American Catholic Church”. Is this another incident of either the media, or dissident Catholics trying to further split us off from the Church in Rome?

I have also seen two websites; I am sure there are many more, one calling themselves, The American Catholic Church and the other Faithful Catholics. These two groups, “claim” they will be holding a convention to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church here in the U.S. in the year 2011.

Are these groups legitimate? I wouldn’t think they are, unless approval has been received from the Vatican. These folks seem to forget the Catholic Church is not a democracy.
 
elts1956 said:
Hello, I have heard the Catholic Church here in the U.S. being called the “American Catholic Church”. Is this another incident of either the media, or dissident Catholics trying to further split us off from the Church in Rome?

I have also seen two websites; I am sure there are many more, one calling themselves, The American Catholic Church and the other Faithful Catholics. These two groups, “claim” they will be holding a convention to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church here in the U.S. in the year 2011.

Are these groups legitimate? I wouldn’t think they are, unless approval has been received from the Vatican. These folks seem to forget the Catholic Church is not a democracy.
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The only time I’ve ever heard “American Catholic Church” used is when the listener understands that the term is refering to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. If this understanding is not present, it sounds very suspicious to me and I would have no part of any group that attempted to define the Roman Catholic Church in the United States as a culturally exclusive or nationalistic institution. Personally, I look with a jaundiced eye upon any convention that advertises itself as seeking to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church in the U.S. It sounds negative and one sided to me, and I know enough about the Church to know there are many good things about the Church in the U.S.
 
I’m pretty sure when people refer to the “American Catholic Church” they are talking about the Catholic Church in the US.
 
Tsuwano said:
The only time I’ve ever heard “American Catholic Church” used is when the listener understands that the term is refering to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. If this understanding is not present, it sounds very suspicious to me and I would have no part of any group that attempted to define the Roman Catholic Church in the United States as a culturally exclusive or nationalistic institution. Personally, I look with a jaundiced eye upon any convention that advertises itself as seeking to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church in the U.S. It sounds negative and one sided to me, and I know enough about the Church to know there are many good things about the Church in the U.S.
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I agree. That is why I am looking at these groups with suspician.
 
Tsuwano said:
The only time I’ve ever heard “American Catholic Church” used is when the listener understands that the term is refering to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. If this understanding is not present, it sounds very suspicious to me and I would have no part of any group that attempted to define the Roman Catholic Church in the United States as a culturally exclusive or nationalistic institution. Personally, I look with a jaundiced eye upon any convention that advertises itself as seeking to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church in the U.S. It sounds negative and one sided to me, and I know enough about the Church to know there are many good things about the Church in the U.S.
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thunderballs75 said:
I’m pretty sure when people refer to the “American Catholic Church” they are talking about the Catholic Church in the US.
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Then “I” think they should phrase it, “Catholics in America, or U.S.” My position is that the Catholic Church is faithful to Rome. Describing it as the American Catholic Church is a divisor. Go to the two websites I mentioned before. If you can’t find my post just put in “The American Catholic Church” in a search machine. I didn’t realize these creatures exist until now. It will make your boots rattle.

Now whether the lay group calling themselves, The American Catholic “church”? and Faithful Catholics are legit. or not, I can’t tell. I don’t believe a group of lay people can have a “conference” regarding Church policy or maybe even doctrine and come up with answers approved by the Church in Rome. As I said previously, the Catholic church isn’t a democracy, never has been, never will be.
 
elts1956 said:
Then “I” think they should phrase it, “Catholics in America, or U.S.” My position is that the Catholic Church is faithful to Rome. Describing it as the American Catholic Church is a divisor. Go to the two websites I mentioned before. If you can’t find my post just put in “The American Catholic Church” in a search machine. I didn’t realize these creatures exist until now. It will make your boots rattle.

Now whether the lay group calling themselves, The American Catholic “church”? and Faithful Catholics are legit. or not, I can’t tell. I don’t believe a group of lay people can have a “conference” regarding Church policy or maybe even doctrine and come up with answers approved by the Church in Rome. As I said previously, the Catholic church isn’t a democracy, never has been, never will be.
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I just did as you suggested and “googled” the American Catholic Church. Evidently, there is an independent church which styles itself as “The American Catholic Church in the United States” and seems to have emerged from the “The Old Catholic Church.” They are not in communion with Rome, but claim to have apostolic succession and the seven sacraments. I don’t know if this is the group that is holding the convention you mentioned above, but I won’t have anything to do with them.
 
Tsuwano said:
I just did as you suggested and “googled” the American Catholic Church. Evidently, there is an independent church which styles itself as “The American Catholic Church in the United States” and seems to have emerged from the “The Old Catholic Church.” They are not in communion with Rome, but claim to have apostolic succession and the seven sacraments. I don’t know if this is the group that is holding the convention you mentioned above, but I won’t have anything to do with them.
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Hello Tsuwano. Good for you. From what I have seen of these websites they seem to be of groups of dissident Catholics, perhaps former clergy.

I do think it necessary to look at these sites as long as one knows what s/he is looking at. For instance the mission statement of one church calling itself the American Catholic Church has this contained in it.

accus.us/
The American Catholic Church in the United States seeks to reach those who may have felt alienated by their prior church experiences. We believe that who a person is and how a person has chosen to live, does not separate them from the love and compassion of God; thus, The American Catholic Church rejects artificial barriers to the reception of the Sacraments based on marital status, sexuality or orientation. In particular, we place no artificial barriers in the way of the reception of Baptism, when a parent sincerely desires that their child be received into the Mystical Body of Christ.

This is sick.

Such websites as the National Catholic Reporter support dissidents of just about any stripe. Most of them are dissidents pushing for church reform in the area of married priests and women clergy.
 
elts1956 said:
Hello, I have heard the Catholic Church here in the U.S. being called the “American Catholic Church”. Is this another incident of either the media, or dissident Catholics trying to further split us off from the Church in Rome?

I have also seen two websites; I am sure there are many more, one calling themselves, The American Catholic Church and the other Faithful Catholics. These two groups, “claim” they will be holding a convention to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church here in the U.S. in the year 2011.

Are these groups legitimate? I wouldn’t think they are, unless approval has been received from the Vatican. These folks seem to forget the Catholic Church is not a democracy.
Click to expand...
After posting this thread and then sweeping the websites, I am surprised how many dissident groups calling themselves Catholic there are. There is to be a “conference” of these folks including groups such as Voice of the Faithful and others to take place in 2011, forgot the month. They are going to discuss how the church “has gone wrong” in denying marriage to ordained priests, denying to have women clergy and several other items on their agenda which simply do not coincide with Church teaching.

Anybody else out there come across folks like these? And the number of “reformed” Catholic Churches is astounding.
 
elts1956 said:
Hello, I have heard the Catholic Church here in the U.S. being called the “American Catholic Church”. Is this another incident of either the media, or dissident Catholics trying to further split us off from the Church in Rome?

I have also seen two websites; I am sure there are many more, one calling themselves, The American Catholic Church and the other Faithful Catholics. These two groups, “claim” they will be holding a convention to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church here in the U.S. in the year 2011.

Are these groups legitimate? I wouldn’t think they are, unless approval has been received from the Vatican. These folks seem to forget the Catholic Church is not a democracy.
Click to expand...
Just another group of liberal Catholics. I will have nothing to do with them either! Both their websites, especially the American Catholics, make it look like they have made a new Church, which is preposterous. Faithful Catholics seem to take on the stance of revealing every priest that has had problems in a very uncharitable manner. We would do best to steer clear. :onpatrol:
 
elts1956 said:
After posting this thread and then sweeping the websites, I am surprised how many dissident groups calling themselves Catholic there are. There is to be a “conference” of these folks including groups such as Voice of the Faithful and others to take place in 2011, forgot the month. They are going to discuss how the church “has gone wrong” in denying marriage to ordained priests, denying to have women clergy and several other items on their agenda which simply do not coincide with Church teaching.

Anybody else out there come across folks like these? And the number of “reformed” Catholic Churches is astounding.
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Just take a look at the LCWR: Leadership Conference for Women Religious.

lcwr.org/

They have had some very weird stunts relating to “renewal” in the Catholic Church. I think they are feminists. It’s weird how they talk about oppression. This is a part of their mission statement:
The scope of the conference’s concerns is broad and includes collaborating in Catholic church and societal efforts that influence systemic change, studying significant trends and issues within the church and society, utilizing our corporate voice in solidarity with people who experience any form of violence or oppression, and creating and offering resource materials on religious leadership skills. We serve as a resource to our members, as well as to members of the public seeking information on leadership for religious life.
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Corporate voice? Since when did serving God become a business venture? :hmmm:

If I want a good Catholic website for women religious, I look at the CMSWR: Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. They are more traditional and are recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as being faithful to the Magisterium. I don’t see anything about “noticing trends in the Church.”

cmswr.org/
 
Ok, I just got the heeby-jeebies! I was looking at the LCWR website, and they have a book called “Women and Jurisdiction.” This is the description:
This LCWR study was undertaken to provide descriptive data to enhance understanding of the manner in which the non-ordained participate in the practice of jurisdiction in the United States. The project is one of the ways in which LCWR has contributed to dialogue about ways in which those who are not ordained can participate more fully in governance in the Roman Catholic Church.
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HUH??!?!?!?!?!? :tsktsk:
 
elts1956 said:
After posting this thread and then sweeping the websites, I am surprised how many dissident groups calling themselves Catholic there are. There is to be a “conference” of these folks including groups such as Voice of the Faithful and others to take place in 2011, forgot the month. They are going to discuss how the church “has gone wrong” in denying marriage to ordained priests, denying to have women clergy and several other items on their agenda which simply do not coincide with Church teaching.

Anybody else out there come across folks like these? And the number of “reformed” Catholic Churches is astounding.
Click to expand...
I have come across several unusual websites lately. There is one website which I looked at since I am discerning religious life that takes on the persona that women should have more leadership in the Church. I don’t like that idea at all–call me a pious conservative, if you will–but that idea is just creepy.

Their newsletter in January suggested a “partnership” with Obama/Biden during his transition into the White House. :confused: Very much of what they wrote sounds like a liberal democracy. Yuck!
 
LilFranciscan25 said:
Just another group of liberal Catholics. I will have nothing to do with them either! Both their websites, especially the American Catholics, make it look like they have made a new Church, which is preposterous. Faithful Catholics seem to take on the stance of revealing every priest that has had problems in a very uncharitable manner. We would do best to steer clear. :onpatrol:
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I don’t think it is wise to label these folks as either “liberal” or “conservative.” There are groups all along the political and religious spectrum who seek to express their own view of what it means to be the Church in opposition to the teaching authority of the Church as realized in the Holy Father and those bishops in communion with him. Folks on the “conservative” end of the spectrum are just as prone to canonize their own vision of the Church as those on the “liberal” end.
 
They appear to reject the legitimacy of the papacy in that they continue to fall Pope Benedict XVI the Bishop of Rome and restrict his authority to that jurisdiction. They also reject some of the moral teaching of the Church as being “legalistic”.

Any group in such a state is to be avoided. What little validity they can achieve is no more profitable than was Judas Iscariot’s grace of being an apostle.
 
Tsuwano said:
I don’t think it is wise to label these folks as either “liberal” or “conservative.” There are groups all along the political and religious spectrum who seek to express their own view of what it means to be the Church in opposition to the teaching authority of the Church as realized in the Holy Father and those bishops in communion with him. Folks on the “conservative” end of the spectrum are just as prone to canonize their own vision of the Church as those on the “liberal” end.
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I did not mean liberal as in political at all. I meant liberal as “let’s do what ever we want.” I could not care less about politics.
 
Although these forms of churches should be avoided as far as thinking and believing their doctrine is the true form, I also believe people should be aware of them.

I have read some articles which the media and individuals identify the Catholic Church here in the US as “The American Catholic Church”. To me, this is another example of the liberal left trying to divide us. I think it should be feared.

Some think this title is only a way of describing the Church in the US, but I think it goes deeper than that.
 
The difference between the Catholic Church in the Philippines and here in America is shocking, to say the least.

Richard
 
elts1956 said:
Hello, I have heard the Catholic Church here in the U.S. being called the “American Catholic Church”. Is this another incident of either the media, or dissident Catholics trying to further split us off from the Church in Rome?

I have also seen two websites; I am sure there are many more, one calling themselves, The American Catholic Church and the other Faithful Catholics. These two groups, “claim” they will be holding a convention to discuss “all that is wrong” with the Catholic Church here in the U.S. in the year 2011.

Are these groups legitimate? I wouldn’t think they are, unless approval has been received from the Vatican. These folks seem to forget the Catholic Church is not a democracy.
Click to expand...
I think I found the group you are speaking about. They are calling themselves the American Catholic ***Council ***not the American Catholic Church. They seem to be a reconstituting of VOTF with a few other dissident groups represented on their “council”.

Their declaration states “We seek reform of the governing structures in our Church so that they reflect the better aspects of the American experience.”

Besides being way in left field on their plans, they somehow think that turning our world-wide Church into an Americanized institution would be a good thing. :confused::eek:
 
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