We are committed to Catholic Tradition.
The Catholic Church believes that “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God . . .” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 97).
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church reasons that:
“The apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority.” (Par. 77)
“This living transmission, accomplished through the Holy Spirit, is called tradition…” (Par. 78)
“Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (Par. 82)
Within the Catholic scope of Tradition, many doctrines have been “revealed” to the Church over the centuries. For example, there is the veneration of Mary, her Immaculate Conception and her bodily Assumption into heaven. There is also the Apocrypha, Transubstantiation, praying through the intercession of the saints, Purgatory, to list a few. Protestantism generally differs with Catholicism in these beliefs.
L’Église Catholique Eucharistique – The Eucharistic Catholic Church (ECE-ECE) embraces Catholic Tradition while holding what are considered to be “progressive views” on certain issues.
The authentically Catholic progressive finds empowerment through God’s grace. The sensible progressive also knows that memory, gratitude, and prudence are essential for the good of the whole, be it for an individual, the community, or for the larger society. The well-known expression, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water” applies to the progressive Catholic.
The dynamic of reform within Tradition has existed throughout the history of Catholicism. The Desert Fathers, the Trappists, and the Capuchins, among others, all played reforming roles, often with a bent toward recovering authentic tradition, in that, they worked to reform their traditions – to become something more radical, closer to the original intent. Yet they all combined it with the commitment to conserve those things that were valuable and good in their traditions.
Following their example, progressive Catholicism is truly Catholic when it seeks God’s will to change what must be changed, and safeguarding and renewing what must be kept.
We choose to live as active witnesses in exile.
As individuals, members of the ECE-ECC have made a decision to live out their Catholic Christian vocations and lives in a Church which allows them the possibility of living authentic lives according to their consciences.
We have taken a position of active witness in relation to these deeply held beliefs. Rather than advocate from within the Roman Church, we have chosen to “actualize” those beliefs outside of the institution. While this conscious choice separates us from our parent institution, our exile brings freedom to live authentically as a child of God and pursue a deepening commitment to spirituality and mission.
Our active witness is not carried out in a reactive manner, where every action and decision of the parent institution propels the exiled into renewed action fed by anger. Rather, our active witness is characterized by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, discerned through a practice of daily meditation and liturgical prayer centred on the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus offered to us in the Eucharist. This latter characteristic implies and necessitates an individual attention to the development of an adequate level of psycho-spiritual maturity.
We profess the Catholic Christian faith.
Our Statement of Faith holds to orthodoxy as it is to be found in the Tradition of the Church, and specifically in the Roman Tradition. This Tradition is constituted of the statements of Faith found in the Nicene-Constantinople Creed as expressed and validated by the Council of Trent. As such, we profess the following:
With firm faith I believe and profess all and everything which is contained in the creed of faith, which the holy Catholic Church uses; namely:
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages; God from God, light from light, true God from true God; begotten not made, of one substance with the Father; through whom all things were made; who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was made incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made human. He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, died, and was buried; and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven; He sits at the right hand of the Father, and He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and of His kingdom there will be no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who equally with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified; who spoke through the prophets. And I believe that there is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins; and I hope for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
I resolutely accept and embrace the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions, liturgies and other practices of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I accept Sacred Scripture as the inspired word of God given to numerous authors in differing circumstances. I acknowledge that, while its many writings are of different characters and therefore of unequal pertinence, Sacred Scripture in the light of the message of Christ is normative for the conduct of our lives in accord with God’s will.
I also acknowledge that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and that they are necessary for the salvation of the human race, although it is not necessary for each individual to receive them all. I acknowledge that the seven Sacraments are: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony; and that they confer grace. I also accept and acknowledge the customary and approved rites of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of these sacraments. I accept each and every article on original sin and justification declared and defined by the Catholic Church.
I likewise profess that in the Mass a true, proper and propitiatory sacrifice is offered to God on behalf of the living and the dead, and that the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially present in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and that there is a change of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into blood; and this change the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation. I also profess that the whole and entire Christ and a true Sacrament is received under each separate species.
I firmly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained there are helped by the prayers of the faithful. I likewise hold that the saints reigning together with Christ should be honored and invoked, that they offer prayers to God on our behalf, and that their relics should be venerated. I firmly assert that images of Christ, of the Mother of God ever Virgin, and of the other saints should be owned and kept, and that due honor and veneration should be given to them.
I believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in her glorious Assumption into Heaven.
I affirm separation in conscience and in fact from the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff. At the same time, I accept and profess the universal primacy of honour of the Bishop of Rome as successor of Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. I affirm his title of Vicar of Christ as one of honour alone, as pertains to his ministry of guidance and unity of the Church universal. I promise him prayers for God’s guidance.
I further state that I accept the following teachings and disciplines to be held by l’Église Catholique Eucharistique – the Eucharistic Catholic Church:
Respect for the diversity of religious and spiritual traditions by which persons of good will seek to know God;
Equality of sexual orientations, whereby is found in homosexual, bisexual and transgendered people the creative purpose of God and whereby is found in the conjugal relationship of all couples the Sacrament of God’s love;
Call of all people to all ordained ministry in the Church;
Recommitment through a second marriage of once divorced people;
Compatibility of artificial contraception with the procreative nature of Matrimony and with the prevention of sexually transmittable infections; and,
Beginning of human life at conception and ending at natural death.
We hold to Apostolic Succession.
“Far be it from me to speak adversely of any of these clergy who, in succession from the apostles, confect by their sacred word the Body of Christ and through whose efforts also it is that we are Christians.” — St. Jerome: Letters 14:8 (A.D. 396)
The ECE-ECC is an autocephalous (self-governing, independent) Church in Apostolic Succession. The term “apostolic succession” refers to the doctrine in Catholic and Orthodox churches that holds that certain spiritual powers, who Jesus Christ first entrusted to the twelve apostles, is passed on in an unbroken line of succession from apostle to bishop to bishop, and from these bishops to the priests who assist them in their pastoral duties. The validity of apostolic succession is a key factor in determining the sacerdotal powers of the Church. Apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles. All over the world, all Catholic bishops are part of a lineage that goes back to the time of the apostles, something that is impossible in Protestant denominations (most of which do not even claim to have bishops). Apostolic succession is supplied through the consecration/ordination of bishops by validly consecrated bishops. It is therefore known as ‘tactile’ in the sense that the consecration involves the laying on of hands by bishops on the one being consecrated.