Thursday, March 27, 2014

Keeping the Ancient Faith


The Old Roman Catholic Church is rooted in Orthodox Christianity as found in the early Church before the great schism of 1054. It is deeply rooted in the Orthodox Faith passed down through the ages "handed once to the saints" (Jude 3). It is with that unalterable Faith rooted in Holy Tradition (not traditions of men) but that which has been Divinely Revealed through the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, namely Christ our Saviour and the Deliverer of our souls.

The Old Roman Catholic Church, in virtue of its 1911 Statement of Faith with Orthodoxy, continues to transmit this Holy Tradition, as given to the Church by Christ, transmitted to the holy Apostles and faithfully passed down through the ages without any additions or subtractions. Those claiming to be Old Roman Catholic, yet maintaining traditions of men or innovations of doctrine and dogma are not to be considered properly as Old Roman Catholic. One is Old Roman Catholic in virtue of the profession of the Orthodox Christian Faith, as continuing to be expressed in a Western culture and heritage in the Old Roman Catholic Church.

The purpose of the Old Roman Catholic Church and our adherence to authentic Orthodox Christian Faith is the salvation that has been afforded to every person by the death of Our Saviour on the Cross and His Glorious Resurrection. The Church is the refugium peccatorum (the refuge of sinners) and the hospital for our souls. Our Orthodox Christian Faith as Old Roman Catholics is available to everyone. Christ desires us to be united through Him by being united to His Church, allowing ourselves to be transformed by His life-giving Grace and the power of the All Holy Spirit.

It is by this reality, the Old Roman Catholic Church is truly evangelical because we adhere, without exception to the ancient Christian Faith; we adhere to the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah, the only Messiah and Savior of Mankind; that Jesus died for our sins, and that He triumphed over death by His Death, and Gloriously Resurrected from the dead.

The Old Roman Catholic community of St. George - Archdiocese of the United States of America.


Adapted from Christ: Light of the East, Msgr. Joseph Thomas, PhD

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