INDIPENDENT CATHOLICS FROM ROME

It is not our intention to narrate the History of Independent Catholicism: there is an extensive bibliography that documents how one can be "with Peter" without being "sub Petrum", as well as several explanatory texts of the relative theology (bibliographic indication under this paragraph *). We simply want to illustrate a proposal, a more authentic way of living and expressing one's Christian faith, the same one that was transmitted to us by the Apostles and taught with love and conviction by our parents, albeit often loaded with the encrustations of a difficult history. and burdened by anachronistic formalisms. In the name of Jesus, we want to free ourselves from these and make the seed that was planted in our hearts bear fruit.

Before briefly describing our values, let us take note of the terrible contradictions that foul the waters of the movement of independent Catholics, quoting the authoritative scholar Massimo Introvigne: << the phenomenon ... of the "small churches", which are not born - in most part of the cases - from a theological (or "political") dissent clearly recognizable in its doctrinal framework, but rather from the search for an "autonomous" episcopate by individual characters who generally manage to gather a rather modest number of followers, and who, moreover, seek their legitimacy not only in the Catholic world, but also in the Orthodox or Anglican world ... from the prevailing doctrine in the Catholic world according to which a bishop, even if separated from communion with Rome, retains the power to consecrate bishops and ordain priests. Such bishops and priests will be consecrated and ordained illicitly, but validly; and each bishop consecrated illicitly will in turn be able to validly (and illicitly) consecrate other bishops and ordain other priests >> Introvigne himself admits that there are among the leaders and leaders of the independent Churches "... simple adventurers, ready to exploit the confusion of the public for sometimes purely utilitarian purposes ...) >> while, in other cases, they are << ... romantic figures who dream of recreating ancient and lost forms of Christianity, often in perfect good faith >> (from CESNUR website).

Unfortunately, what has been said is true, especially for Italy and the European countries, even if there are ecclesial movements and realities that, aware of all this, are trying to remedy this. The reality of independent and progressive Catholicism is radically different in other parts of the world, especially in the USA, where there are compact and rooted movements, rooted in the territory that testify how it is possible to reconcile Catholicism and inclusiveness (for example, the movement linked to the claim of ordination female).