THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
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and accepting the teaching of the holy Scriptures as understood by the fathers, doctors, and confessors of the first eight centuries of the undivided Christian Church throughout the world.
II. A validly ordained ministry in the apostolic succession is not alone sufficient for Christian and Catholic unity. For we must also accept the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds without addition (of the Filioque) or subtraction from the faith.
III. We also acknowledge and accept the dogmatic decrees of the seven ecumenical councils as the fundamental basis of unity in the Christian faith, and, in addition, all orthodox definitions of the synods of Bethlehem [see JERU- SALEM, SYNOD OF] and of Trent, concerning the seven sacraments, as clear and concise statements of the doctrines taught by the Catholic Church throughout the world.
IV. We reject the authority and deny the infallibility of any patriarch who claims, contrary to the canons of the seven ecumenical councils, supreme and sole jurisdiction over the one holy Catholic and apostolic Church of Christ.
V. The monastic life among Orthodox Catholics is a devout life of voluntary sacrifice to God, and of willing service and love toward men. We do not adore the images of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints, but venerate them as representing sacred persons.
VI. We believe firmly, according to the inspired teaching of the holy Scriptures, that there is only one Mediator of redemption between God and man, Christ Jesus (I Tim. ii. 5). We believe also that the intercessory prayers of the saints, who are our glorified brethren in the Church Triumphant, are joined with those of us who are in the Church Militant on earth, for we are united in that one communion of saints of the creed.
VII. Finally, we permit no dissent from the orthodox doctrines of our faith, for no one may add to, or take away from, the fundamental faith of the one holy Catholic and apostolic Church of Christ.
The Orthodox Catholic Church, therefore, invites all clergy and Christians in the Western patriarchate who seek to assist and support the
3. Aims movement for Christian union, not
of the only of the separated non-Roman com- Orthodox munions organized since the sixteenth, Catholic seventeenth, and later centuries, but Church. also of all divisions, Eastern and Wes-
tern, older or younger, larger or smaller, of the one holy Catholic Church to study seriously that fundamental faith of the undivided Christian Church of the seven ecumenical councils. Only by returning freely and fully to the primitive apostolic principles, and to that traditional orthodox teaching developed carefully and consistently from them, which preserved, for generation after generation, the unity in the faith of the Christian Church during the passing perils of those destructive divisions, can sectarianism, heresy, and schism be restrained, averted, and resisted in the present and the future, as it has been historically in those past ecclesiastical periods. Finally, the archbishop _ of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America, with his two senior suffragans, has recently reaffirmed the same principles promulgated by the Orthodox Catholic episcopate of Europe in their Utrecht Declaration (for which see below) in the following pastoral addressed to the clergy and Christians throughout the western world:
Declaration of faith and ecclesiastical principles solemnly promulgated for the purpose of aiding in the reformation of the Latin Church, and the reorganization of the Roman Curia, according to the spirit of the primitive Christian Church in the Western Patriarchate, of orthodox and glorious memory.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the eternal, consubstantial, and undivided Trinity.
We, Joseph Réné Archbishop Vilatte, Stephen Bishop
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Kaminski, and Paul Bishop Miraglia—by the grace of God and the free suffrages of our faithful, through the Apostolic Succession transmitted lawfully, validly, and canonically to us from that venerable Patriarchal See of the Hast, founded in Antioch by the blessed Apostle Peter himself, which, with its indisputable apostolic authority, rights, and powers, has been continued without interruption unto this day—validly consecrated bishops of the Catholic Church, joined in ecclesiastical union, and canonically assembled in the name of the Lord, in the orthodox Catholic Cathedral
.of Buffalo, on this the Feast of the Cireum-
4. Pas- cision of Christ commemorated in the year
nineteen hundred and ten, do hereby solemntoral of ly affirm, repeat, and declare anew, that our Vilatte, Faith and Teaching is the apostolic, ortho-
Kaminski, dox, and catholic doctrine as it has been truly defined, confirmed, and established by the seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Church. Moreover, in the canonical exercise of our apostolic mission and authority, and especially for the strengthening of our faithful, and the perfecting of our ministry in the several divisions of the Western Patriarchate, viz.,in America, Europe, and Africa, we accept and declare the general authority of the use of the Latin Rite. For from the Western Ritual books we are able not only to extract and teach truly and faithfully the apostolic and primitive orthodox doctrine of the Church of Christ, but also, by means of their careful explanation and use, to restore it more and more to its former exalted state. Furthermore, we exhort with our whole heart and in boundless charity all those who call themselves Christians, who believe and hope in Christ the Incarnate Son of God and Savior of men, that while preserving and defending all consistent spiritual liberty which is the fruit of righteousness, we may truly become more and more one in faith, hope, and love, offering without ceasing continual prayers and devout petitions to the compassionate and most high God, beseeching him, the eternal Father of us all, to have mercy on those who are commonly called unbelievers, materialists, and rationalists, the members of whom through the grievous circumstances of our times, are increasing more and more, and to illumine the darkness of their doubting restless minds, so that, converted and led by the Holy Spirit, they may be restored to the communion of the Church of Christ.
Finally, let us both labor for Christian and fraternal unity, and pray ever more fervently to the Triune God imploring the hastening of that coming day which is to bring the longawaited triumph of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, that glorious future day when all faithful followers of the Incarnate Son of God shall become united again, one fold and one shepherd, who is the risen and ascended Christ alone.
May the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, through the ceaseless proclamation of the holy and eternal Gospel of Christ, favor and assist us in our work for his Glory in the Church Militant on earth. Amen.
Given in the city of Buffalo on the day, month, and year designated above.
To this document may be appended the Utrecht Declaration, to which allusion has already been made:
We, Johannes Heykamp, Archbishop of Utrecht, Casparus Johannes Rinkel, Bishop of Haarlem, Cornelius Diependaal, Bishop of Deventer, Joseph Hubert Reinkens, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church of Germany, and Eduard Herzog, Bishop of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, assembled on this four and twentieth day of September, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, at the archiepiscopal
residence at Utrecht, having invoked the
5. The assistance of the Holy Spirit, address the Uirech? Dee following Declaration to the Catholic Church: : ~ “Having assembled in conference in relaration. sponse to an invitation from the undersigned
Archbishop of Utrecht, we have determined henceforward to hold consultation together from time to time on matters of common interest, in conjunction with our assistants, councilors, and theologians. We deem it fitting that, at this our first meeting, we should set forth a brief declaration of the ecclesiastical principles on which we have hitherto exercised our episcopal office, and shall continue to exercise it in the future, as we have already in separate declarations repeatedly taken occasion to state.