The Particular Church Beyond Rome

By †Gabriel O. Obiano, D.D.

When many people hear the word Catholic, their minds immediately travel to Rome. For centuries, Rome has occupied a visible and influential place in Christian history. Yet Catholicity did not begin in Rome, nor is it confined to Rome. To speak honestly about the Church is to recognize a deeper and broader reality: there exists a particular Church beyond Rome, rooted in apostolic faith, sacramental life, and legitimate ecclesial authority.

Who Are the Old Catholics?

Old Catholics are not a modern invention, nor are they a breakaway movement born of protest. They are communities that consciously preserved the faith, worship, and ecclesial structure of the undivided Church, especially as it existed before later centralizations of authority. Old Catholic traditions stand firmly on Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, the ancient Creeds, and the sacramental life of the Church.

To be Old Catholic is to remain Catholic as the Church originally understood herself: local, apostolic, sacramental, and governed by bishops who are successors of the Apostles, not administrators of a distant center.

Old Catholics affirm:

The Holy Trinity

The full divinity and humanity of Christ

The authority of Sacred Scripture

The Seven Sacraments

Apostolic succession

The centrality of the Eucharist

What distinguishes Old Catholic life is not a rejection of catholicity, but a refusal to reduce catholicity to a single administrative center.

Catholicity Is Bigger Than Rome

Catholicity means universality, not uniformity. In the early centuries, the Church flourished in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. Each was fully Catholic, each governed locally, and each shared the same faith while expressing it within its own context.

To be Catholic does not mean to be Roman. Rome is a particular church, not the whole Church. Its history, contributions, and theology are significant—but they do not exhaust the meaning of catholicity.

The idea that affiliation with Rome alone determines whether a Church is valid or illicit is a later development, not an ancient principle. The early Church never taught that one see possessed universal authority over all others in matters of sacramental validity.

Validity and Licitness: Who Decides?

One of the most misunderstood issues in ecclesiology is the question of validity and licitness.

In Old Catholic understanding:

Validity concerns whether a sacrament is truly confected.

Licitness concerns whether it is done according to the law of the Church.

Neither validity nor licitness is determined by Rome for churches outside her jurisdiction.

In Old Catholic canons, validity depends on:

Proper matter and form

Proper intention

A validly ordained bishop in apostolic succession

Licitness, on the other hand, is determined within the particular jurisdiction by its own canons and ecclesial authority. No external see—Roman or otherwise—has the canonical right to declare another autonomous Old Catholic Church invalid or illicit.

A sui juris church governs itself. Its bishop answers to Christ, the Gospel, and the canons of his Church, not to another jurisdiction. Another see may disagree, but disagreement does not equal jurisdiction.

No See Judges Another See

A fundamental principle of Old Catholic ecclesiology is this: one bishop does not rule another bishop’s see. Communion is built on mutual recognition, not domination.

Therefore:

One Old Catholic jurisdiction cannot declare another illicit.

One bishop cannot impose authority over another bishop’s territory.

One church cannot invalidate another church’s sacraments simply by refusal of recognition.

This is not chaos; it is the ancient catholic order restored.

What It Means to Be Truly Catholic

To be Old Catholic is not to be “less Catholic.” It is to be Catholic in the original sense of the word. As I stated before now, to be Old Catholic is to be part of the original Catholic Church—to live the faith as handed down by the Apostles, preserved by the Fathers, and expressed in sacramental life.

True catholicity is measured by:

Faithfulness to Christ

Fidelity to Apostolic Tradition

Integrity of sacramental life

Pastoral responsibility within a local church

Rome does not own catholicity. Christ does.

Beyond Rome, Yet Fully Catholic

To speak of the particular Church beyond Rome is not to reject Roman Catholics as brothers and sisters. It is simply to affirm a truth long buried under misunderstanding: the Church of Christ is larger than any single institution.

Old Catholics stand as witnesses to this truth. They remind the world that catholicity is not granted by permission, nor revoked by disapproval. It is received from Christ and lived faithfully in each local church.

The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic—not because Rome says so, but because Christ established her so.

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