Cathedral of St. Anthony 

Come and join
our Faith Family

We are an Ecumenical and Authentic Catholic Congregation, welcoming all of God's people, and we mean it.

Though authentically Catholic, we are less rigid toward some traditions that divide us, finding a pastoral care toward our entire human condition that unites us and values our very existence. Primate Archbishop Dr. Karl Rodig leads the ECCC (Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ), a worldwide Catholic Church Communion; he is also a Consultor for the Worldwide Catholic Movement "Catholic Church Reform International" (over 4 Million strong). A signed letter was sent to Pope Francis on November 1st, 2013. He was also at the Synod in Rome in October of 2014, attending discussion groups, and the opening mass with Pope Francis at St. Peter's. Our Cathedral Abbey of St. Anthony is also a member of the Roman Catholic movement of "Elephants in the Living Room" which seeks to keep the ideas and reform issues of the Second Vatican Council alive, seeking active dialog and Reform.


We are an Ecumenical and Authentic Catholic Congregation, welcoming all of God's people, and all people of good will, and we mean it.


You looking for a New Church, because:

  • You are divorced and remarried

  • you are a woman and have the call to the Catholic Priesthood (See also in the international Website of the ECCC <www.ecumenicalccc.org>, the articles about women ministry in the early Christian centuries, including literature) See also:

  • you are seeking a church that is inclusive and affirming

  • you are disappointed with some independent churches that due to lack of real spiritual authority, are tragically prone to an accommodation to only a spirit of the age.

  •  other personal reasons you might have.

You are welcome into our Church!


The Church must be concerned not just with herself and her relationship of union with God, but with human beings as they really are today.

(Saint Pope Paul VI. concluding the Second Vatican Council, December 1965)


More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving.

Pope Francis


“A proposal of goals without an adequate communal search for the means of achieving them will inevitably prove illusory.  The important thing is to not walk alone, but to rely on each other as brothers and sisters, especially under the leadership of the bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral discernment"  (EG. n.33)

Pope Francis


(The Christian faithful) have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful. (Canon 212, 3)


The Church or people of God . . . fosters and takes to itself, insofar as they are good, the ability, riches and customs in which the genius of each people expresses itself.

 (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 13)


It is necessary to take seriously believers’ sense of faith, precisely with regard to our current topic. We here in the Consistory are all celibates; most of the faithful, however, live out their belief in the gospel of the family in concrete families and sometimes in difficult situations. Therefore, we should listen to their witness and also listen to what pastoral coworkers and counselors in pastoral care to families have to say to us. And they do have something to say to us.

Walter Cardinal Kasper at the Consistory, February 2014 




WE HONOR ST. MARY MAGDALENE IN THE EARLY CHURCH, SHE IS CALLED:

APOSTLE OF THE APOSTLES

Holy Tradition testifies that when the Apostles departed from Jerusalem to preach to all the ends of the earth, then Mary Magdalene also went with them. A daring woman, whose heart was full of reminiscence of the Resurrection, she went beyond her native borders and went to preach in pagan Rome. Everywhere she proclaimed to people about Christ and His teaching. When many did not believe that Christ is risen, she repeated to them what she had said to the Apostles on the radiant morning of the Resurrection: “I have seen the Lord!” With this message she went all over Italy.

Tradition relates that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberias (14-37 A.D.) and proclaimed to him Christ’s Resurrection. According to Tradition, she brought him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: “Christ is Risen!” Then she told the emperor that in his Province of Judea the unjustly condemned Jesus the Galilean, a holy man, a miracle worker, powerful before God and all mankind, had been executed at the instigation of the Jewish High Priests, and the sentence confirmed by the procurator appointed by Tiberias, Pontius Pilate.

Mary repeated the words of the Apostles, that we are redeemed from the vanity of life not with perishable silver or gold, but rather by the precious Blood of Christ.

Thanks to Mary Magdalene the custom to give each other paschal eggs on the day of the Radiant Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians over all the world. In one ancient Greek manuscript, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of St Athanasius near Thessaloniki, is a prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the blessing of eggs and cheese. In it is indicated that the igumen in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: “Thus have we received from the holy Fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy Apostles, therefore the holy Equal of the Apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering.”

Mary Magdalene continued her preaching in Italy and in the city of Rome itself. Evidently, the Apostle Paul has her in mind in his Epistle to the Romans (16: 6), where together with other ascetics of evangelic preaching he mentions Mary (Mariam), who as he expresses “has bestowed much labor on us.” Evidently, she extensively served the Church in its means of subsistence and its difficulties, being exposed to dangers, and sharing with the Apostles the labors of preaching.

According to Church Tradition, she remained in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years following his departure from Rome after the first court judgment upon him. From Rome, St Mary Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus where the holy Apostle John unceasingly labored. There the saint finished her earthly life and was buried.

Her holy relics were transferred in the ninth century to Constantinople, and placed in the monastery Church of St Lazarus. In the era of the Crusader campaigns they were transferred to Italy and placed at Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Part of the relics of Mary Magdalene are said to be in Provace, France near Marseilles, where over them at the foot of a steep mountain a splendid church is built in her honor.


We are open to Diversity in Christian thought and Practice

Yet, we are not promoting total theological faddism (because not all the latest possibilities of modern thoughts are superior or normative to good Christian tradition of faith and life, and its understanding of reality).

Such thinking has become the going thought in some independent catholic churches, because of their ministers' inadequate theological and biblical education, and lack of spiritual formation.



Please see also about Reform issues in our "Manifesto", under Documents

Our Cathedral Abbey of St. Anthony is also the headquarter of the worldwide Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ, and the New Order of St. Francis and St. Clare.We are present in the five global continents and share an ecumenical perspective to our diverse and good Catholic Traditions. As we strife for Unity among the different Catholic Rites and Christian Churches, our members are Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Orthodox, Old Catholics, Lutherans, and Christians of other denominations as well.

Yes, there are more "Catholic Rites" besides the Roman Catholic Rite in the world, like the  Eastern Orthodox Catholics, the Anglican Catholics, Greek Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, Polish National Catholics, Coptic Catholics, Ecumenical Catholics, Old Catholics, Chaldean, Maronite, Episcopalians, St. Thomas Christians in India, Melkite, etc.  Please see also list of Orthodox and Independent Catholic Churches below.**

Remember when we pray the Nicene Creed, we pray, "...We believe in the On Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church", this we do in a Spirit of Unity.  No one prays, "We believe in the One Holy Roman Catholic Church" The Roman Rite together with all other Catholic Rites and Christian Churches, are part of the "ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH."

If you come from a Western Roman Catholic heritage, you will find very little difference from the worship and liturgy you are familiar with.  We celebrate the seven sacraments.  All of our bishops can trace their apostolic succession back to the Apostles, the same as the major Catholic Rites.


We invite you, "Taste and See" for yourself The Ecumenical Catholic experience of faith in action. Let us pray:

Lord, we remember times when we felt out of place,
- among people wealthier or better educated than ourselves;
- when we returned to church after staying away for many years;
- because we were not as successful as our brothers and sisters;
- in a strange country where no one understood what we said.

It was like when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come to Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus and noticed that his disciples
were eating without first washing their hands.
We too were made to feel that we were unclean
because we did not respect the traditions of the elders.

       We thank you that you sent someone like Jesus who protected us
- one of our parents, an uncle, an aunt or a grandparent,
- a teacher or community leader,
- a friend who understood what we were going through,
- a book that touched us.
They taught us that what counts in life are the things that come from within,
these are the things that make us unclean.
We were able then to recognize what is merely custom
and in fact keeps people far from the truth of themselves.

Lord, forgive us members of your Church because we have and still focus on being loyal member of your Church only keeping its laws,
while we have put aside your first and only commandment of universal love and compassion, and therefore we keep ignoring sexism, racism, elitism, homophobia, cultural imperialism and religious intolerance, all these evil things which come from within the worst of the human heart and make humanity unclean. 

Lord, we thank you for sending us always great people of our times, so we can see again:

Church discipline had become a reinforcing tool to the false values of our culture
- laws on divorce and remarriage were weighted against deprived families;
- liturgical rules reinforced the superiority of Western culture;
- seminary studies did not reverence traditional religions of Africa and Asia;
- sexual morality favored men,
-pretentiousness is being used against minorities,
- the laity were deprived of our teachings on mysticism.

Professor Bernard Haring, Hans Kueng, and other prophetic figures were the presence of Jesus among us, showing that judgements were being passed by an elite, isolated from the reality of people's experiences like the Pharisees and scribes coming down from Jerusalem.
      
What were called the customs of the elders were rules concerned with external cleanliness which the humble could not live up to.

       And, yes, sometimes doctrines were put forward as if they came from You when in fact they were only human regulations; your commandment of universal love was put aside.      

We thank you that Jesus was in them, calling your Church to listen - all of us -
and understand that nothing which comes to us from outside can make us unclean;
only the things that come from our hearts make us unclean

Lord, we pray that in our parishes and our liturgies
we will give every opportunity to the marginalized,
      
- allow those without much education to read!
- that our sisters and brothers in the LGBT know that they are not just welcomed,
but that we affirm them among us with our love and friendship!-ensure that foreigners will not remain strangers to us!
      
In this way we will not honor you only with lip service but our hearts will be close to you, our worship will be precious to you, and we will be following your teachings, not mere human regulations.

Lord, your Will is that we should live with people very different from us
- those of other religions
- ancestral cultures of Africa, Asia, and  Latin America,
- different ethnic groups
- the world of high technology
- the youth culture of today
-people of different orientations.

Help us not to become like Pharisees and scribes coming to Galilee from Jerusalem, noticing how others do things differently from us.

Help us to discern what in our culture is merely human regulations
which do not make anyone clean or unclean,
so that we will repent of paying only lip service to the lofty principles we proclaim
and recognize that so much of what we call holy is worthless
and that many of what we call doctrines are only human regulations.

Lord, we thank you that in our time
the Bible has become once more the soul of your Church's theology,
enabling us to recognize that many of what we called biblical doctrines
were no more than human regulations.

Lord, we thank you for moments of deep prayer
when you showed us clearly that the laws we were breaking
did not make us unclean because they were only human regulations,
that we could go beyond them and find our purity of heart.



ECCC Statement:

Dignity and respect towards minorities: With the vast majority of Christians and bothers and sisters of other religions we affirm: Because God is the creator of life, we respect the Sanctity of life and Dignity for every human being born in to this world. We manifest the moral right for every person to pursue a fulfilled and just life in society. We reject all inflammatory stereotypes, hate propaganda, and the incitement of violence toward minorities, caused by ignorance, false fears, and extremism. We call for their legal protection and the need for a more informed conscience.


ICEC DECLARACION:

Afirmamos la Dignidad y el Respeto junto a la vasta mayoria de los Cristianos y los hermanos y hermanas de otras religiones: Debido a que Dios es el creador de la vida, respetamos la Santidad de la vida y la Dignidad inherente a todo ser humano que venga a este mundo. Manifestamos el derecho moral de cada persona a una vida justa en la sociedad. Rechazamos todo tipo de estereotipos, odio racial y el proselitismo hacia la discriminacion excitacion a la violencia en contra de las minorias, los falsos temores y el extremismo causados por la ignorancia. Hacemos un llamado hacia la protecion legal y la necesidad de una conciencia colectiva mejor informada.


Explanation of the International Coat of Arms of the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ

It is taken from the Ephesians 1:10 and expresses our church's desire to strive for unity among all churches through prayer and active dialog. The bottom of the Coat of Arms shows the symbol of Christ, Christos (the two letters the from the Greek alphabet, Chi and Rho, meaning "Christ"). Christ, also the Alpha and Omega (beginning and end). The Son of God who brings salvation, is the one who calls upon all people on this earth (seen in upper site of coat of arms) to again come near to God, the creator of the Universe. The band of the Fleur de lis, (the flower of the lily), a heraldry sign of innocence is by which Christ works through us in the world as seen in the upper half of the coat of arms. On top of the coat of arms we see in the center the cross sign that we are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross; on the left and right side we see the praying hands symbolizing the worship of all people coming together with Christ in our midst to praise him for our salvation. Above we see the Holy Spirit who gave birth to the church, and through the Holy Spirit the church has experienced reforms throughout the ages. The Sunrise is the sign of the "aggiornamento" (the dawning of a new day) that Pope John XXIII. proclaimed, enjoining us to read the signs of the times.

Spiegazione dello stemma Internazionale della ECCC Si è ricavato dalla lettera agli Efesini 1:10 ed esprime il desiderio della nostra chiesa a lottare per l'unità fra tutte le chiese con la preghiera e i dialogo aperto. Sul fondo dello stemma compare il simbolo di Cristo, Christos (le due lettere dal greco, Chi e Rho, che significa "Cristo"). Cristo, anche l'Alfa e l'Omega (inizio e fine). Il Figlio di Dio, che porta salvezza, è colui che invita tutte le persone su questa terra (si guardi la parte superiore dello stemma) a tornare a Dio, il creatore dell'Universo. La banda dei fleur de lis, ( fiore del giglio), un segno araldico di innocenza mediante il quale Cristo opera attraverso di noi in tutto il mondo come si vede nella metà superiore dello stemma. In cima allo stemma si vede al centro il segno della croce per indicare che siamo salvati attraverso il sacrificio di Gesù Cristo sulla croce; sul lato sinistro e destro vediamo le mani in preghiera che simboleggiano il culto di tutte le persone che insieme unite con Cristo al centro lo lodano per la nostra salvezza. Sopra vediamo lo Spirito Santo che ha dato alla luce la chiesa, e per mezzo dello Spirito Santo la Chiesa ha sperimentato le riforme nel corso dei secoli. L'Alba è il segno dell’ "aggiornamento" (l'alba di un nuovo giorno) che Papa Giovanni XXIII ha proclamato, ci incoraggia a leggere i segni dei tempi.




**ORTHODOX OLD/INDEPENDENT CATHOLICISM


Old (Roman) Catholic


Independent Catholic


ORTHODOX ORIENTAL CHURCHES


ANGLO-CATHOLICISM

Traditional Anglican 'continuing' Anglican communities who hold orthodox values and traditions

TAC - Traditional Anglican Communion

NOT ORTHODOX/CATHOLIC

Unorthodox Tradition The following churches seem to have a valid apostolic succession, they adopt positions that differ from orthodox Catholicism (Roman & Non-Roman) i.e. agendas akin to New Age thought, Liberalism, (e.g. Women's Ordination etc)


Ecumenical Communion of Catholic and Apostolic Churches (EECAP):

  • American Old Catholic Church - Bishop Dan Gincig

  • The American Catholic Orthodox Church. (Bishop Owen Augustine)American Catholic Church - Bishop Peter Hickman

  • The Anglican Church of the United States (Bishop Heron Sam)

  • The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (Bishop Mike Owen)

  • The Ecumenical Catholic Church (Bishop Ivo Verbeeck)

  • The Free Catholic Communion (Bishop Michael Milner)

  • Eglise Catholique Eucharistique Canada - Bishop J Roger LaRade

  • Eucharistic Catholic Church USA - Bishop Robert Mary Clement


Emergent Catholic Church International - includes:

Union of Utrecht:


Uunorthodox Anglican/Episcopalian

Unknown we think holds valid Apostolic Succession but we are uncertain of faith, teaching and practice



August 17th, 2016

From the Office of the Holy See of The Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ

Clarification about False and defamatory statements of the Roman Catholic Archdioceses of Detroit from August 11th, 2016.

It came to our attention that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit has circulated false statements about the Presiding bishop of the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ, Dr. Karl Rodig. It is sad to say the least that we still facing such attacks from the RC against other Churches who are not in alignment with the Roman Catholic Church. It is bewildering to see how false statements are being used to badmouth our Church that is Catholic, but not Roman Catholic (The reader may know that there are many different Catholic Rites in the World, the Roman Catholic Rite is the largest one among them, but not the only one.)  

We see in this just an other sign that the Spirit and the Joy of the Gospel are completely missing. Instead of working together in an ecumenical Spirit, we see church politics as usual.                                                              

Let us no longer live in the dark ages of the Church, no longer experience of a Church that has caused so much pain and suffering among the faithful throughout the ages. Church history should teach us the lessons not to repeat the past.


This is a response to the false and defamatory statements of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese (AOD) of Detroit:

  1. Bishop Dr. Rodig was not dismissed by the Congregation of the Precious Blood as stated by the AOD. Back in 1989, Fr. Karl Rodig asked his Provincial of the Congregation of the precious blood to grant him a year of leave of absence, it was extended for two more years. The Provincial wanted him back, but Fr. Karl Rodig decided to leave for good. Then the process for granting Fr. Rodig's request was set in motion through the canonical process by John Paul II., because his decision was based on his consciousness to get married (he did not wanted to live a double life as many of his priest colleagues do...He believes that celibacy should be optional!)
    In 1995, under Pope John Paul II., the Vatican issued a statement for Fr. Rodig to seek an other Roman bishop in order to continue as a Roman priest. The Vatican has never excommunicated Dr. Rodig.  (It is sadly to say that the way excommunication is being used by some church leaders in our days reminds us more on the dark ages of the Church...It would be better to see that one is leaving the church for conscious reasons...)
    In the meantime, Dr. Rodig became an independent catholic priest. He had many friends among the Roman priests in Miami in the 1990s. In 1999 he received a letter to his episcopal consecration of good wishes from Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus, ++McCarty, and he continued to have good friendships with high-ranking members of the Miami RC Archdiocese...Bishop Rodig works with Roman Catholic Reform Movements, and was invited to attend part of discussion session for the Synod in Rome in 2014.

  2. Dr. Rodig was not consecrated by Archbishop McCormick as stated by the AOD statement (+McCormick was never present). Bishop Karl was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Dr. Hypolitus Orlando Lima and two co-consecrators of the Old Catholic Church. Our Apostolic lines are impeccable. A professor of the Catholic University of Washington DC, and a Catholic Bishop have confirmed them.

  3. Dr. Rodig did not take on the title Archbishop as stated by the AOD, but received the title after the consecration from Archbishop Lima. He hardly uses it. Just Bishop Karl.

  4. The statement by the AOD to see the Old Roman Catholic Church as schismatic is just again an other political way of dealing with other Christ-minded Catholic Christians who follow Christ Jesus with their heart and soul...
    Worldwide we are The Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ, and we follow Christ, serving the poor, striving for social justice, and reaching out to all of God's people who seek a new spiritual home, healing, and to see a more active ecumenical dialog for unity among all Christian Churches...

We have many Roman Catholic priest friends, including bishops who appreciate our presence as we appreciate them as our sisters and brothers in Christ!

Bishop Rodig often says: "Where is Christ in all of this?"  How true it is.