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Christcatholic Church Basel-Stadt
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The Christcatholic Church is a Catholic Church independent of Rome which acknowledges the diversity of teachings and traditions. It has about 600 parishioners in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. The Christkatholische Church is recognised by the Canton as a public body corporate (established church).
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It was during the First Vatican Council of 1870 that the Pope's jurisdictional primacy over the Catholic Church and his infallibility were proclaimed. A minority of Catholics protested so vehemently against the new dogmas that they were excommunicated. In response, they founded their own Church, the Christcatholics, which views itself a continuation of the Old Church of the first millennium. For this reason, Christcatholics are also known as Old Catholics.
The Christcatholic Church does not recognise authoritarian Church discipline. Instead, it sees itself as a "Rome-free" Catholic Church with an episcopal, synodal, "democratic" and open structure. In Switzerland it constituted itself in 1874 in an independent diocese (the seat of the diocese is Berne). The Church has had a parish in the Canton of Basel-Stadt since the year 1877, centred on the Predigerkirche at Totentanz, whose parish house is the Formonterhof at St. Johanns-Vorstadt 27.
By "acknowledging the diversity of teachings and traditions" the Christcatholic Church recognises that the foundation of its faith is not unalterable circumstance, but is instead the basis for continuous debate, enquiry and topicality in an age of change, including scope for reinterpretation. In 1984, for example, the diocesan synod reintroduced women deacons. In 1999, following a process of discussion that had lasted over two decades, women were readmitted to the offices of the priesthood and episcopate. The first woman priest was ordained in the year 2000.
Right from the outset, Christcatholics have worked to promote the ecumenical movement, with the objective of Church reunification. Today the Christcatholic Church of Switzerland has about 15,000 members.
Tasks
The principal tasks of the threefold parish team (vicar, deacon, parish worker) comprise the provision of pastoral care, the celebration of church services with sermons, the provision of religious education in small, informal groups, regular visits of parish members to the various hospitals and old people's homes in the region and - as a consequence of the Church's status as a recognised public body corporate - representing the Church vis-à-vis the canton, as well as in the maintenance of ecumenical and inter-religious relations.
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