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Overview
Ultrecht
England and U.S.
Recent
Autonomy Declared
Bishop for England

The Old Roman Catholic Church
in North America

Origins and Development
Part III

Shortly after the death of Archbishop Carmel Henry Carfora, the North American Old Roman Catholic Church evolved into five autonomous, but cooperating ecclesial bodies, one of which is the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America. As the ecclesiastical descendants of the Catholic Old Diocese of Utrecht, the ecclesial bodies which constitute the Old Roman Catholic Church retain and exercise the papal grants given that See by Pope Eugene III and Pope Leo X.

The jurisdiction of the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America extends to three dioceses: The Diocese of Michigan and the Central States, The Diocese of Guadeloupe (The French West Indies), and the Western Regionary Diocese, each with its own Bishop Ordinary. The Synod of the Midwestern Province of the Old Roman Catholic Church (English Rite) created the Diocese of Michigan and the Central States in 1975 from the territory formerly administered by Archbishop Robert Alfred Burns. With the death of Archbishop Burns in November 1974, the Provincial Synod confirmed the succession of The Most Reverend Andrew G. Johnston-Cantrell and elected The Most Reverend Francis P. Facione, Ph.D. as Titular Bishop of Devon and Coadjutor to Johnston-Cantrell who consecrated Bishop Facione on St. Andrew's Day in 1974.

Burns

Johnston-
Cantrell

Facione

Archbishop Johnston-Cantrell resigned his office on January 5, 1975 whereupon Bishop Facione succeeded as Presiding Bishop. The Provincial Synod, during its meeting on April 19, 1975, confirmed Bishop Facione's succession and elected him Titular Archbishop of Devon as well as first Bishop of Michigan and the Central States.

In order to effect more perfect unity within the Old Roman Catholic Church, the Western Regionary Diocese, created by mandate of Archbishop Carfora in 1945 as an autonomous diocese, entered into union with the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America in 1989. The Western Regionary Diocese was under the administration of Archbishop Frederick L. Pyman, S.O.A.R. As a further sign of visible unity, the Synod of the Western Regionary Diocese elected the Right Reverend Donald R. Currie, a priest of the Diocese of Michigan and the Central States, bishop-elect. He was to succeed upon Archbishop Pyman's planned retirement. Tragically, Bishop-elect Currie died June 21, 1990, prior to the date of his consecration. Archbishop Pyman died on January 23, 1993. The Synod of the Western Regionary Diocese elected The Most Reverend Patrick H. King, second Bishop of the Diocese. He was consecrated to the episcopacy and installed on June 5, 1993.

Currie

Pyman

In order to promote further visible unity of the Old Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Guadeloupe, French West Indies, affiliated with the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America on January 21, 1998. Created a diocese on September 29, 1994, The Diocese of Guadeloupe is under the administration of The Most Reverend William Francis Luke Amadeo Iezzi who had been appointed Missionary for the West Indies in 1981 by Archbishop Edgar Ramon Verostek and the Good Samaritan Franciscans of New Jersey.

 

 


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