The Old Catholics are a body of Christians committed to the Person of Jesus Christ and His teaching. We accept and believe the testimony of His Apostles, eyewitnesses of His Life, Death and Resurrection from among the dead. They passed on to succeeding generations their own testimony about Jesus Christ and His life. By the proclaiming of His Gospel and the giving of their own testimony (called the Apostolic Tradition), the Church, which the Lord instituted, was built up. Old Catholics are an historic part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and have their origins in the Ancient Catholic Church of the Netherlands.
The Ancient Catholic Church of the Netherlands, armed with the protection of the papal concessions, continued to minister even through the Reformation. During this period of strife, the Church in the Netherlands, as in many other countries, was forced to “go underground” in order to survive. But survive and remain extant, it did. Eventually, the Archbishop of Utrecht and other Church leaders reached an informal agreement with the civil government, whereby it could again function openly without interference from the Reformers.
