Guarding the Old Faith: The Story of the Old Roman Catholic Church, See of Caer-Glow

A Comprehensive Historical and Doctrinal Introduction

Our Mission: First Things First

The Old Roman Catholic Church exists for one purpose: to guard the Old Faith—the Catholic Faith as it has been believed always, everywhere, and by all, until such time as the institutional Church returns to orthodoxy, or Our Lord returns in glory.

We are not revolutionaries. We are not protesters. We are not separatists seeking our own empire. We are custodians of a treasure that was entrusted to us when others abandoned it. We hold what Catholics have always held, believe what Catholics have always believed, and worship as Catholics have always worshiped.

If you are troubled by what you see in the modern Catholic Church, if the Pachamama idols in the Vatican gardens disturbed you, if “gay blessings” confused you, if communion distributed like crackers at a potluck scandalized you, if the seamless garment philosophy that equates abortion with air conditioning seems absurd to you—you are not alone. And you are not crazy. What you are witnessing is not the development of Catholic doctrine but its abandonment. You face a choice between two incompatible visions of Christianity, two different religions that happen to use the same vocabulary. You can take the red pill of uncomfortable truth, or the blue pill of comfortable complicity. You can worship the God of Athanasius—eternal, immutable, transcendent—or the false deity of Teilhard de Chardin, evolving alongside creation. These are binaries. You cannot have both.

This document tells our story: how we came to be, why we exist, what we believe, and where we see the Church (and Western Civilization) heading. It is a long story, and necessarily complicated, because truth is not always simple and history rarely moves in straight lines. But if you are seeking authentic traditional Catholicism, not as a museum piece but as a living Faith that can restore Christian social order, read on.

Part I: Understanding What We’re Fighting For

The Central Question: How Much Arsenic Can You Put in Orange Juice?

Before we dive into centuries of ecclesiastical history, you need to understand the theological crisis we face. It is not primarily about Latin versus English, or whether the music is solemn. The crisis runs much deeper.

Part II: Our Historical Origins—The Complicated Truth

The See of Utrecht: Ancient Roots (696-1700)

Our story begins not in protest but in mission. In 696 AD, Pope Sergius I consecrated the Anglo-Saxon monk Willibrord as bishop and sent him to evangelize the Netherlands. Willibrord established his See at Utrecht…

Part III: The English and American Mission (1908-1976)

Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew: Vision and Vindication (1908-1919)

In 1908, Archbishop Gerard Gul of Utrecht consecrated Arnold Harris Mathew as a bishop to serve High Church Anglicans in England who recognized that Pope Leo XIII was correct: Anglican orders were invalid.

Part IV: Our Position Today—Where We Stand and Why

Our Doctrinal Position: The Faith of Our Fathers

We hold without reservation:

  1. All twenty Doctrinal Councils in their de fide (of the faith) aspects, from Nicaea (325) through Vatican I (1870)
  2. The Immaculate Conception of Our Lady (defined 1854)
  3. Papal Infallibility as properly understood (defined 1870): When the Pope, as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church ex cathedra, he possesses infallibility…

Part V: The Crisis We Face—Two Incompatible Religions

The God Question: Athanasius vs. Teilhard

The deepest issue is not liturgy or discipline but theology proper, our understanding of God Himself.

The God of Athanasius (and Augustine, Aquinas, the Fathers, the councils):

  • Eternal, outside time
  • Immutable (unchanging)…

Part VI: Why We Cannot Simply “Obey and Wait”

The SSPX Dilemma: Invoking Authority You Reject

We deeply respect the Society of St. Pius X. Archbishop Lefebvre’s courage in 1988, consecrating bishops without papal mandate to preserve tradition, parallels our own history. We believe he will be vindicated and perhaps canonized.

But there is an internal tension in the SSPX position we cannot ignore:

  • They invoke the Pope and the diocesan bishop in the Canon of the Mass
  • Yet they do not obey the Pope or the bishops they name…

Part VII: Who We Serve and Why You Should Care

Our Target Audience: The Disillusioned and Seeking

We exist for:

Baptized Catholics who know something is wrong: You attend Mass, receive communion, raise your children in the faith—but you sense the disconnect. The homilies sound like TED talks or Leftist tropes. The music belongs in a coffee shop. The catechesis your kids receive contradicts what you learned. You’re told to “accompany” people in sin rather than call them to conversion.

Part VIII: Addressing Common Objections Directly

“But You’re Not in Communion with Rome!”

True. Neither were many saints during crises:

  • Athanasius during the Arian crisis
  • The Frankish bishops under various antipopes
  • Saint Catherine of Siena while there were multiple papal claimants
  • Saint Vincent Ferrer

Part IX: Our Vision for the Future

What We Hope For: Restoration, Not Replacement

We do not want to be a permanent separate jurisdiction. We’re not building an alternative church. We’re preserving the real Church until the institutional Church returns to itself.

Best Case Scenario: A future pope, let’s call him Pius XIII or Leo XV, recognizes that Vatican II’s implementation was a disaster. He:

  • Restores the traditional Mass as normative
  • Repudiates the syncretism of Assisi and similar events…

Part X: Conclusion – The Red Pill or the Blue Pill

We’ve given you the complete story, the historical complexity, the theological depth, the practical reality. It’s not simple. It’s not easy. But it’s true.

You face a choice:

The Blue Pill: Comfortable Compromise

  • Attend the local parish, don’t ask hard questions
  • Assume the hierarchy knows best…

Final Word: The Faith of Our Fathers

This Faith, the Catholic Faith, is worth preserving. It’s worth fighting for. It’s worth suffering for.

It formed saints and martyrs. It built Western Civilization. It produced the greatest art, architecture, music, philosophy, and theology the world has known. It transformed pagans into Christians, barbarians into gentlemen, slaves into brothers.

And it can do so again, if we preserve it intact through the current dark age.