Ut Unum Sint

Ultrajectine Orientalium Catolicam Ecclesia

Pastoral Letter on Catholic Unity within the Old Catholic Community

Archbishop Andre' J. W. Queen, SCR, Provincial Ordinary, Western United States

To all of our brothers and sisters in the Ultrajectine Diaspora, Greetings and Blessings In the Lord Jesus Christ.

A Call For Old Catholic Unity

In this new century, this new millennium, there is hope and anticipation of re-unification. In this hope, there is also an urgent need as well. Archbishop Arnold Mathew, of blessed memory, who wrote the historic “Prayer for Catholic Unity” eloquently expressed this hope. Today, more than ever, we have failed to achieve it.

Compromise In Faith, An Obstacle To Unity

With the proliferation of new separate communions, comes the ever-increasing difficulty of seeing unity realized. With some communions shrinking, desperation has overtaken apostolic teaching, and the Deposit of Faith has been substituted with secular political correctness and social theology. Where this has happened, despite protestations to the contrary, the historic apostolic lines of succession have already been lost, and exist only in the minds of those deceived. Surely, without a jealous protection of the spiritual gifts given the Ultrajectine Church, human folly can cause them to be lost forever. We must tenaciously cling to that faith believed always, by everyone, everywhere; or be relegated to the vast and barren wasteland, where there are no spiritual gifts to sustain us. Only human hubris can cause the loss of so momentous a gift to the Ultrajectine Church only our own weakness, folly and fear can lead us, as it did Adam, from our own spiritual Eden, into the vast wasteland.

Our Christian Inheritance

God calls us to Holiness. We are called to a spiritual station and charge, for the sake of others. We are called, both as a spiritual family under the Divine Fatherhood of God, and as the Bride of Christ, one body, to live out our baptismal vows. I ask all Old Catholics to embrace the ancient faith as one voice in unity. Let us bring all of our individual gifts to the table and offer them as one family united. Where there is valid teaching, let us cling to it; where there is innovation based in human reason apart from ancient Church teaching, let us flee far from it. Let the Bridegroom, in all things, find his Bride ready, and without spot.

The teachings given the Church are Sacred, having been breathed from the mouth of God as Christ taught the Apostles. These teachings have been passed down in the Church through both written and oral teaching, and faithfully taught throughout the ages. The Church’s prohibitions are not recent, as evidenced by the Church’s stance on abortion, “You shall not procure abortion, nor destroy a newborn child” which is found in the Didache of 140 A.D. Likewise the prohibitions against homosexuality, adultery and divorce are also ancient. Both Holy Writ and Sacred Tradition speak of the male-only priesthood, and the early Fathers of the Church defended this understanding of Holy Orders against pagan and heretical sects throughout the entire nearly two thousand year period of Christianity, anchoring the ordained priesthood of the New Testament, as fulfillment and completion of the Levitical Priesthood of the Old Testament, established by that perfect High Priest, who is Christ Jesus.

Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition, Not two teachings, but one.

The validity of Sacred Tradition, written not on papyrus, but in the hearts of His people, professed in the daily life of the Church, is of co-equal dignity and sanctity with Holy Writ. Scripture and Tradition both expressions of the one true faith, having come to the Church from God, both inspired by the Holy Spirit, complement and not compete against, one another. Where would we be without Sacred Tradition? For If we lack Sacred Tradition, we lack the teaching of the Holy Trinity, the order and Rite of the ancient Liturgy, an understanding of our own Apostolic Succession, and much that lives and gives life to the fullness of Catholic faith.

Both Scripture and Tradition, having been shown of equal validity and sacred inspired character, form our Catholic faith. Our faith, having thus been firmly established by Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition, what proper basis can there be, for adopting other teachings, which are contrary to it?

The Folly Of Human Arrogance

Some secular intellectuals have argued that people have evolved and developed; that we are not as base as our earthly predecessors of two thousand years ago. Some have even gone so far to say that the ancient teachings of the Ten Commandments, as well as the teachings of Christ Himself, do not apply today, to the modern, sophisticated society of today. Objectively, nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ called us to repent from the evils of this world, and He re-affirmed the eternal and sacred law of the Ten Commandments. Have we then, done away with adultery, fornication, murder, thievery, lying, homosexuality, divorce, hypocrisy, idolatry and the like? Have we done away with even one of these terrible sinful burdens on mankind? We have not, and because we have not, although our technology has evolved from the primitive, our sinful nature has not. We have, in our intellect, minimized and marginalized God’s Word, preferring our own, fallible, finite wisdom, and thus mankind pays the price and reaps the result of its sinful ways.

Sexual promiscuity marginalizes the horrific loss of sexual innocence of our youth. High rates of teen pregnancy, drug use, an inability to love, trust or bond with others, and teen suicide, are the legacy passed on. Adultery claims almost half of all marriages, and makes a gift of them to divorce. Arbitrary and capricious marriages make a mockery of what is a sacramental re-birth of that first marriage, of Adam and Eve anew. Through the horrific sin of abortion, the enlightened man has murdered more lives than in any war, and wreaked horrors more terrible even than the Shoah. This world has thrown away an understanding of womanhood as blessed, and the bringing into the world of a new human being, as a sacred act, in which the blessed woman is called by God to cooperate in forming a new person who inherits, though the Blessed Virgin Mary’s selfless act, the gift of her son Jesus Christ, which is salvation through Him, for all mankind. Our world has legalized so-called “same-sex marriages”, and espouses homosexuality under the guise of diversity and equality, teaching children, whose consciences have yet to be formed, that such conduct is proper, appropriate and acceptable, and even that they may themselves, be so disposed. In the intellect of man, this world has not evolved, but rather devolved, to doing and enabling others to do, all that Christ taught us not to. Any Church therefore, that seeks to be socially acceptable, and politically correct, digresses into an incongruous religious social group, which sacrifices the supernatural love of God, for the unnatural lusts of this World.

Lest we believe we play no part in this widespread disease, we must bear the burden caused by our own complacency and nonfeasance. The Church militant cannot afford to yield even one inch in our struggle against the present evil that so grips this world. So that we may be ever ready to meet our foe in spiritual warfare, and emerge victorious in Christ, our spiritual armor, breastplate and sword must be well cared for – that is, our knowledge of our Catholic faith must be deep, founded in the written Word of God and spiritually emboldened by Sacred Tradition, which is the heart and life of the Church.

Do Not Be Deceived

Let us shun then, those who would ask to nullify sacred teaching, or worst, those who would add foreign words or phrases to the sacred texts of Scripture, forcing the divinely inspired writers to say something in them, that they never intended. We must proclaim the truth boldly, and not be meek. It is not by faith alone that we are saved, and we know that faith, without works, is dead. If our faith does not yield a heart within us that is given to proclaiming the Word of God, and a body, which does not act on that faith, then we do not live faithfully; we lie, and the Truth is not in us. It is not enough to say we are Catholic, our faith compels us to live as Catholics, struggle as Catholics, and at many times throughout history, die as a result of our Catholic faith.

True unity comes through faith, through a united profession and adherence to the one True Faith, believed always, by everyone, everywhere. True unity requires acceptance and adherence to the totality of the faith, whole and not partial. True unity requires true compassion, in which we call our brother back from the edge of the fiery pit and away from sin; instead of false compassion, which turns a blind eye to sin and classifies it as “none of my business”, a twenty-first century, evolved version of “am I my brother’s keeper”. For as surely as Cain murdered Abel physically, we murder our brothers and sisters spiritually by allowing them to walk blissfully through the gate of Gehenna, and into its depths, when we leave them wallowing in sin.

We Are Called To Holiness

A call to unity is also a call to Holiness. It is a call to renew one’s promises to God and walk the path of the Cross, ourselves. A call to unity is a call to attack, derision, hatred and loss, all for the sake of the kingdom, all because you believe. You may suffer loss for the sake of the kingdom, yet He will restore you a hundredfold. Turn away from that which causes you to compromise your faith, turn away any who would seek to draw you away from orthodox faith, not with a hand, but with blinding Truth, that is, the Word of God. Have no lot with the evil in this world, which creeps into the heart of man slowly, yet over time pollutes and claims his immortal soul. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

Our friendship, companionship, kinship and communion are offered to those brethren in the faith, in the Ultrajectine Diaspora, and our true compassion for those lost in sin, who seek God’s love and compassionate forgiveness.

Given at my Provincial See in the City of Chicago, on Sunday, May 18th, the Fourth Sunday after Easter, in the year 2003, in the Fifth year of my Episcopate.

Andreas Ioannes Gulielmus Reginius

ESBN: 24211-060127-159248-94