Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland

The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht of Old Catholic Churches. The Union of Utrecht was founded by some Jansenists, and expanded with an influx of discontented Roman Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council (1869-1870). The church is a national Swiss church and recognised (as are the Evangelical Reformed and the Roman Catholic churches) in 11 cantons by the government. Since 1874, the University of Bern has had its own Christian Catholic theological faculty, which is now one part (as the Christian Catholic section) of the Faculty of Theology. The strongest concentration of Christian Catholics lies in the cantons of Solothurn, Aargau, Zurich and Geneva.

Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
ClassificationCatholic
TheologyUltrajectine
GovernanceEpiscopal
LeaderHarald Rein
AssociationsInternational Old Catholic Bishops' Conference
RegionSwitzerland
HeadquartersBern
Branched fromRoman Catholic Church
Congregations33
Members9,184 As of 2018[1]
Ministers44
Christian Catholic bishop's church, Ss Peter and Paul in Bern
Church with Bernese Alps in the background

In 1841 the Zürich Catholic community planned to build a church to commemorate the 1270s Augustinian abbey church. As the whole community was expelled from the Catholic church, the Augustinerkirche at the Münzplatz became its present parish church. Ferdinand Stadler (1813–1870), an architect born in Zürich, was charged with the construction of a new church building.[2]

In 2009, Bishop Harald Rein was elected as the head of the church. Prior to this, he served as a parish priest and as vicar general of the church. On September 12, 2009, he was consecrated in Zurich by Archbishop Joris Vercammen of Utrecht.[3]

Old Catholic Bishops of Switzerland

The following bishops have overseen the Old Catholic Church in Switzerland.

  • Eduard Herzog (1876-1924)
  • Adolf Küry (1924-1955)
  • Urs Küry (1955-1971)
  • Léon Gauthier (1972-1986)
  • Hans Gerny (1986-2002)
  • Fritz-René Müller (2002-2009)
  • Harald Rein (2009 to present)
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References
  1. Bundesamt für Statistik: Religionslandschaft in der Schweiz. Archived 2020-06-08 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Augustinerkirche Zürich" (in German). Augustinerkirche Zürich. Archived from the original on 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
  3. Bischof Harald Rein


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