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Liberal Catholic Movement


The Liberal Catholic Movement refers to those Churches whose foundation traces back to the founding bishops of the Liberal Catholic Church. It is different from the Roman Catholic Church. The Liberal Catholic Movement is one of the most recognized Old Catholic groups in the United States, with an estimated total worldwide membership of 45,000.

The founding bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church was J. I. Wedgwood who was ordained as a priest in the Old Catholic movement on July 22, 1913 by Arnold Harris Mathew (whose membership in the Union of Utrecht was terminated in 1910). Thus all Liberal Catholic churches claim to trace their apostolic succession back to Rome through Old Catholicism.

In 1941, there was a schism in the Liberal Catholic Church in the United States, surrounding a controversy involving Bishop Charles Hampton who, while he was himself a Theosophist, wished to keep adherence to Theosophical tenets optional for the clergy. This was in keeping with what was taken to be the original intent of the church's founders who, although they were Theosophists, wanted the church to remain primarily open to everyone.

The controversy surrounding Bishop Hampton led to a legal battle in the United States which eventually split into two different divisions, both of which claimed to be the Liberal Catholic Church. Frank W. Pigott, the church's 3rd Presiding Bishop in England, who held to a more Theosophical ideal for the church, removed Hampton and then ordered the confiscation of certain church property at the regionary headquarters in California and forced the resignation of those clergy under Hampton who refused to support his new episcopal replacement. At the time the majority of Liberal Catholics in the United States supported Hampton and saw his removal from the office of regionary and the other subsequent proceedings as a breach of canon law and a violation of some of the laws of California under which the church had been incorporated in America. These clergy continued on their own and won the right to be called the Liberal Catholic Church in the United States (while being called the Liberal Catholic Church International in the rest of the world). Those who followed Bishop Pigott in England became known in America as The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States of America. Both divisions have similar structures of government and administration.


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