Any of a group of Western Catholic churches that separated from Rome after the First Vatican Council promulgated the doctrine of papal infallibility (186970).
Old Catholic churches in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, and elsewhere joined together in 1889 to form the Union of Utrecht. The Old Catholics accept the Bible, the Apostles' and Nicene creeds, and the seven sacraments . Their chief authority in church government is the conference of bishops. They have long used the vernacular in public worship; confession to a priest is not obligatory, and in some Old Catholic churches the celibacy of the clergy is optional.