The Metropolitan Archdiocese of St. Thomas the Apostle

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of St. Thomas the Apostle welcomes you!!

The Holy Catholic Church International
...a World-Wide Community of the Faithful

The mission of our Church is unification based on uncompromising allegiance to sound doctrine. Our firm foundation for building a unified church is therefore the truth given us by the apostles and the early Church fathers.

We are part of the” Church Catholic”: the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Thus we share core beliefs with the Roman Catholic Church, the conservative Old Catholic Rites,  the Orthodox community, the Anglo-Catholic churches, conservative Episcopalians, and others who adhere to the principles of faith and morals believed everywhere, always, and by all.

We strongly assert that division in the Body of Christ causes our Lord to grieve; He prayed that we might all be one. Further, there is no disputed issue among these various expressions of the faith that is important enough to justify separation. Those who hold valid lines of apostolic succession, celebrate a real Eucharist, and uphold historic standards of faith and morals are welcome with us and should be welcome with each other.

We honor the education and dedication of men serving the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches, perhaps others who have avoided “tickling ears” doctrine and other major departures from Holy Tradition. There are some conservative ministers in these denominations who lack only the apostolic succession to become one with us.  A few already have, and we pray that many more will come. For well-educated ministers, we streamline the educational process by designing a program unique to the individual candidate according to his needs.

Another reason for our existence is that many of the independent "Catholic" churches have gone wild in their departure from Holy Tradition, not to mention doctrine. We hope to be a stabilizing force in this very large arena.

We are inviting independent priests whose churches have departed from the unchanging doctrines which have been historically believed "always, everywhere, by everyone".
 
We hope to be a doorway through which detached Roman Catholic priests can return to the altar and through which former Roman Catholic people can reclaim their faith.

We love our Blessed Mother deeply, along with all the saints, on whose intercession we rely for help. We hold to the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. We honor the fathers and doctors of the church.

We believe that there is only one church; even though it has many parts, it is not divided regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.

Our beloved, late John Paul II, in fact, proclaimed that all churches possessing the Apostolic Succession and having a valid Eucharist are "true particular churches". The statement has been endorsed as well by our present Holy Father, Benedict XVI.  [Dominus Iesus]

We believe in Holy Scripture as the inspired word of God when correctly interpreted by knowledgeable people in its completeness with all 73 books, not 66 as in the Protestant translations that reflect the editing, omissions, and other errors of Martin Luther. We look to Holy Tradition as an authentic source of God’s revelation of Himself to men and hold that Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition complement each other.

We practice all seven Holy Sacraments, with the Holy Eucharist ranking as highest of all, by which Christ gives of His very self to men, women, and children in a perpetual sacrifice. No-one can perform this mystery except for a validly ordained priest with historic lines of apostolic succession.

Also see The Credo.

High Regard for Women
Although we do not ordain women to any ecclesiastical office, we highly honor their very strong and unique callings to various forms of religious life.

BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
Also see WHO WE ARE

As previously stated, the Holy Catholic Church International (HCCI) identifies with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the Old Catholic churches, the Holy Orthodox Community, and others, and thus believes the undeniable, that the Church is visible and alive; that Christ Himself established the Church in order to lead and feed His flock through the ages, mainly through the Apostolic Succession.

The Issue of Celibacy
 
We believe it is sometimes best for a priest not to marry but only if called by God to be single.Since our doors are open to Orthodox and Anglican clergy, we are not in a position to forbid marriage. Forced celibacy as a condition for the priesthood has led to all kinds of problems. However, celibacy does not increase the incidence of pedophilia; in fact, most pedophiles are married.

We sternly caution that a priest cannot allow marriage to interfere with his primary calling to the priesthood.

By permitting certain marriages that do enhance a man’s ministry, we have become a home for Roman Catholic priests who had previously abandoned their first calling because they could not manage the requirement for celibacy.

We receive these priests as teachers, not as students. They are their own gift to us.

On Homosexuality

We do not claim to know why most people are "straight", some are "gay" and others identify themselves as "bi-sexual". We do know that the Lord we worship loves all of his children and that He endured the cross for all men and women.

He commands that we love each other as we love ourselves. We also believe therefore that hatred for an individual or a group is far more serious a sin than is a homosexual act. 

We do not believe that gay marriages exist; therefore it is impossible to endorse them.

We think that God hates all sin and that any sexual act outside the bonds of Holy Matrimony is a sin. Adultery and fornication are sins, and homosexual acts are a form of fornication.

We will not consider for the priesthood any man who intends to persist in fornication of any kind.

We believe in Holy Scripture.

We regard as inspired texts the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Second Vatican Council states: “For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit…they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself. “ These books “firmly, faithfully, and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.” [Declaration “DOMINUS IESUS” On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Paulist Fathers]Most tragically, however, there are countless under-educated or uneducated preachers who know very well what Holy Scripture says but have a very restricted understanding of what it means. They gather great numbers of people unto themselves to hear a single man’s (or woman’s) opinion as though it had some reliable value. Totally ignored are the scholars of ancient times who walked with the very writers of the gospels.