A short history

The Austrian Nobleman, who was raised to the Episcopate by Bishop Arnold Harris Mathew (pictured below and to the right) on June 29, 1913 was known to the world as Rudolph Francis Edward St. Patrick Alphonsus Ghislain de Gramont Hamilton de Lorraine-Brabant, Prince de Landas Berghes et de Rache, Duc de St. Winock. The British Foreign Office arranged for his departure from England in September of 1914 to prevent his being interned during the war as an "enemy alien." Such an act would have been highly embarrassing since the Prince was related to nearly every royal house in Europe.

He came to America and, as was common in those days for many Old Catholic clergymen in America, was licensed to function in the Episcopal Church. He assisted in the consecration of Hiram Richard Hulse as the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Cuba on January 12, 1915 as is record in the Episcopal Church Annual (c.f. 1953 Annual.)

Bishop Rudolph de Landas Berghes took up residence at St. Dunstan's Abbey, Waukegan, Illinois and raised Abbot William H. F. Brothers to the episcopacy on October 3, 1916. The following day he consecrated Carmel Henry Carfora as a bishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church of America. He also with Bishop Carfora consecrated Stanislaus Mickiewicz, a former Polish National Catholic priest, in 1917.

Two years later Bishop de Landas Berghes resigned and retired to an Augustinian monastery in Villanova, Pennsylvania where he was reconciled to the Holy See and where he died on November 17, 1920.

Bishop Carfora had originally come from Italy as a Roman priest to work with the poor in America but found his work hampered by undue restrictions from his superiors and so left the Roman communion. He established several parishes in the United States and , being a volatile man, often embroiled himself in quarrels and squabbles concerning jurisdiction and church polity with his clergy. It seems that instead of taking the time and patience to work out difficulties, he would discover men with whom he thought he could work better and so would ordain or consecrate them bishops to supply clergy to his latest endeavors, often ignoring earlier efforts and the men he had ordained. Bishop Carfora was never averse to doing publicly that which tact would require be done privately and as a result the whole world would be a bemused spectator at what was essentially a "family affair." This gave rise to many speculations about his work and the Old Catholic Church here in the United States which no doubt contributed to many of the problems encountered by Old Catholicism in its efforts to establish itself in the new country.

One of his most fruitful associations was that formed with Francis Xavier Resch. Carfora consecrated Francis Resch as bishop on December 8, 1940 who eventually became the archbishop of the Old Catholic Church of America.

Francis Resch was a graduate of Southern Normal university in Huntington, Tennessee and received his degree in languages. He taught Latin and German in the public high school at Earlsboro, Oklahoma in 1912. He married Christine Agnes Dienhart, an Episcopalian, on May 1, 1912, who bore him two children. The first child died in Earlsboro, but the second child, Frederick Sylvester born December 31, 1913 lived to become an Episcopal priest and served in a parish in Kingman, Arizona.

Francis Resch published a newspaper in Earlsboro and later moved it to Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1913. He was superintendent of schools at Leadville, Arkansas from 1930 to 1962 later moving to Kansas City, Missouri where he qualified for the priesthood under Bishop Paul Francis Cope who ordained him March 5, 1939. Bishop Cope was consecrated by Archbishop James Bartholomew Ranks of London who came specifically for that purpose to America and thus the Old Catholic Church of America was officially launched in May 1925.

As an Old Catholic priest, Father Resch was anxious to promote the growth and impact of the Church. Bishop Cope was, in the new priest's opinion, too conservative and deliberate, so yielding to the influences brought to bear upon him by Carforian clergy, withdrew from Cope's jurisdiction to that of Carfora. He describes this in a letter dated August 19, 1942 to Father Charles Bauer of Chicago:

"the growth of the church was very slow because of the Archbishop's great care and solicitude against taking in men who were not worthy of the trust. He hesitated taking men into the church until I came along...but because his hesitancy to expand and reach out, I withdrew and went over to the North American Old Roman Catholic Church. I was consecrated a bishop in that church by Carfora. I soon learned that I had made a great mistake in joining that church. I went back to Archbishop Cope, to bask again in the sunshine of a saintly man, a man of whom anyone could be proud, After coming back, he told me that he had intended to consecrate me to the bishopric and prevailed upon me to accept the office of auxiliary bishop, which I did. The Archbishop is very conscientious, and he has kept the church free from all evil influences."

Accepting Carfora's consecration of Resch as valid, Cope appointed Resch his auxiliary on June 15, 1941. He was insistent that the church distinguish itself as legitimately and theologically Old Catholic: "There are at the present time so many of the independent churches that it is hard to distinguish one from the other. There is only one way to know the Old Catholic Church of America and to distinguish it from the others, and that is by its purity of purpose, it honesty and its upright Christian polity." And again "We want to guard against Carforism. Our Church is clean and pure. Every man is a gentleman. Every man is a priest, a shepherd of souls. The Church is young and small but it is holy and without spot. The size of the church is less important than the nature and kind of clergy it possesses. We teach and believe all that ancient and historic Catholic Christendom teaches.

Bishop Resch served the church well in Missouri and in Mississippi later coming to Illinois where as an Old Catholic priest he served in Episcopal parishes. He served for awhile in St. Margaret parish, Park Fall, Diocese of Eau Claire, Wisconsin and then in Good Shepherd parish, Momence, Illinois as listed in the 1953 Episcopal Church directory.

He succeeded Cope as Archbishop of the church and established the headquarters in Illinois. He was a man of education and breeding fitting Newman's definition of a gentleman in all respects. He struggled to fulfill his charge as Archbishop, keeping the church solvent by committing his financial resources as well as his talents to the mission of the church. He consecrated Walter Xavier Brown as bishop August 25, 1963 who succeed him as Archbishop upon his retirement.

Archbishop Brown was born in Portage, Wisconsin, November 9, 1931, the son of Henry and Alice (nee Parks) Brown. He was educated in Wisconsin schools, completed his undergraduate studies in Illinois and received his seminary training at the St. Augustine Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood by Richard Arthur Marchenna August 21, 1961 and elevated to the episcopacy by Resch two years later in 1963. Upon the retirement of Archbishop Resch, he succeeded him as the Archbishop of the Old Catholic Church of America.

Having served as coadjutor with the right of succession until Archbishop Brown's retirement effective November 1, 1997, Archbishop James Edward Bostwick has assumed the role of Metropolitan, being solemnly installed at a Mass of Ember Saturday in Advent, December 20, 1997. He is the son of Lawrence and Isabell (nee Roedl) Bostwick. He was born in Watertown, Wisconsin August 14, 1949 and was educated at Queen of Apostles Seminary in Madison, Wisconsin and receiving his degree from Holy Cross Seminary, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was ordained to the priesthood April 10, 1976. He was consecrated bishop September 19, 1992 at St. Nicholas Cathedral, Watertown, Wisconsin.