Independent Catholic Diocese of the Order of Port Royal

Port Royal- Independent Catholic Diocese

Port Royal- Independent Catholic Diocese The opinion of Port Royal, our point of view is a historical one: 1. Our roots are to be found in the critical catholicism of the 16t-17th century: the Tridentine Council had got stuck in his endeavours for catholic plain truth, didn`t go beyond a discussion about some prospects for what should enable catholicism to find the transition into a New Age. 2. Centre of reflection upon a solid catholicism and religious life in that time was indeed the convent of Port Royal and its cultural-intellectual surroundings (Antoine Arnauld, Blaise Pascal, Quesnell etc.). Not anyone of the Port Royalists wanted something else except the Tridentine Council to be completed. 3. The will of reform, however, the good intention of Port Royal,this came into conflict with the politics of Louis XIV, and finally the aims became dissoluted into heavy moralizing between Port Royal and the Jesuit Order. The false accusation of the "jansenistic heresy" brought many many Port Royalists to take refuge in flight abroad,or led them to death by goverment power. In 1712 the monastery of Port Royal was made an excemple,was raided and razed to the ground. 4. The Bishopric of Utrecht granted asylum to the Port Royalist`s, wich tock strong interest and influence in the noted evolution that led to the independency of the Utrecht bishopric. At the "Provincial Council of Utrecht 1763" (we say: 1.Port Royalistic Council),Port Royal co-determinated for the last time on the theological stage, but then mergel in the bishopric, loosing its own strenght, by adaption. 5. With the rising of Old Catholicism, Utrecht more and more withdrew from its original aims. 6. In the thirties of this Century there rose a consideration back to the aims of Port Royal, within the Christ -Catholic Church of Hungary, which led to the foundation of the reconstituted Order of Port Royal and its canonical confirmation in 1946 by the Archbishop of the Christ-Catholic Church of Hungary, +THOMAS FEHERVARY. In 1956, after the Hungarian uprising, this Port Royal II was forbidden by the communist rulers, and it went with the deposed Archbishop +THOMAS FEHERVARY into underground. 7. In 1962 the order of Port Royal came to Germany , and in 1965 a Diocese of the Order was established. THOMAS FEHERVARY emigrated to Canada , where he revived the Hungarian Christ-Catholic Church - in Exile- 8. In Germany, the Order understood itself until 1990 merely as a contemplative one, without any effect on puplic catholic life. Only after the Election of Father Peter Falk (deacon 1962 , priest 1963) as Abbot in 1990, the Order changed its politics. Around the Residencies of the Members of the Order developed Community Churches: 1991 St.Kevin in Korschenbroich , 1993 St.Luke in Buchloe and 1996 St.Mary in Vintl/Italy. Since 1997 the Order is represented with a Mission in Dresden and in London (UK). 9.At Easter 1996 the convent and the communities of St.Luke ,St.Kevin and St.Mary elected the abbot of Port Royal, Peter Falk, as bishop of diocese.Consequently He was consecrated Bishop on request of the Convent by the abbot-bishop Dr. Robert M.Dittler OSB, San Francisco/USA .