Old Catholic

American  

noun

1. a member of any of several European churches professing to be truly Catholic but rejecting certain modern Roman Catholic doctrines, dogmas, and practices, especially the dogma of papal infallibility.

2. a member of any of several minor churches, especially in the U.S., differing from the Roman Catholic Church chiefly in their rejection of the ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

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Old Catholic British  

adjective

1. of or relating to several small national Churches which have broken away from the Roman Catholic Church on matters of doctrine

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noun

1. a member of one of these Churches

Etymology

Origin of Old Catholic

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Old Catholic

Bilgri left the church last year and joined the Old Catholic Church, which emerged in the Netherlands in the 19th century and lets priests marry and allows same-sex relationships.

From Reuters ● Apr. 12, 2021

Where his predecessor as a Quebec hero, Maurice Richard, was a man of the Old Catholic and agricultural dispensation, Béliveau was a hero of a new and more self-empowered Quebec.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 9, 2014

Even Mother Vittoria has a predecessor in the Old Catholic Church — Mother Teodora Tosatti, who was ordained in 2006 in a ceremony in Bonn, Germany.

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2010

Maria Longhitano, a member of the breakaway Old Catholic Church, says she hopes her ordination will break down "prejudice" in the Roman Church.

From BBC ● May 13, 2010

The town is adorned with a marble monument commemorating the war of 1870-71, a handsome fountain, and a statue of the Old Catholic bishop Reinkens.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 2 "Bohemia" to "Borgia, Francis" by Various