http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch02254

John Stroud is partly right — this group isn’t an Eastern Catholic church but rather a so-called ‘Old Catholic’ church, one of perhaps hundreds of thousands of tiny, idiosyncratic fringe groups, usually made up of former Catholics or former Anglicans who like to dress as clergy and give themselves big fancy titles like ‘Metropolitan Archbishop of the Western Hemisphere’. Usually these groups are ‘paper churches’ with more clergy than congregations. Lately more of these groups have been calling themselves ‘Orthodox’ (‘they’re not under the Pope and neither are we, therefore we are Orthodox too’) but they are not really part of the Orthodox Churches.

Such groups also are called ‘vagante’ groups, named after medieval ‘wandering’ bishops deprived of office (disciplined) who went around ordaining men and doing other bishoply things uncanonically.

Some of these groups appear traditionalist, with the Tridentine Mass, etc. (but often are quite liberal underneath these trappings); many are fronts for gays or New Agers who like to play church.

Catholicism MIGHT consider the orders of SOME of these dubious clergy to be valid, and the Orthodox consider them outside the Church and so do not recognize them as having grace. The best advice for the good of one’s soul is to *stay away* from these silly shenanigans.

http://oldworldrus.com

Rusnak is absolutely correct: there are scores of these "churches" out there, and odds are all the "clergy" listed by them is their entire membership. They remind me of being a child and dressing up in bedsheets and towels and "playing Mass" on an old table, using the stem and cup from an unused perculator for a "chalice" and saltine crackers for the "bread".

They all now seem to be into elaborate websites and one can easily find a myriad of them simply by typing "Old Catholic" in Search. They're quite fun to explore and, like Rusnak says, range from one weird thing to another, having everything from "tridentine masses" and hybrid "western rite Orthodox liturgies", mixed with women "priests" and funky new-age beliefs. For some reason, they do seem to attract an inordinate number of homosexuals (the clue is, but not always, such lines as "open to all people"; "inclusive" or "tolerant" of "all lifestyles", etc.).

Dear ‘Nobody’,

ROTFL! ‘Patriarch’ Cliff presiding over a garage!

You’re right: for someone who knows what’s what, the Web is a very fun way to learn about these fake churches from a safe distance. A lot of them do have elaborate websites.

Another giveaway of a ‘vagante’ group is if its website refers to the group’s ‘lines’ of apostolic/episcopal succession, often including long lists of who consecrated whom (these characters often are ordained and consecrated multiple times so they can claim better ‘lines’ of succession), down to the present poobah, His All-Beatitude Mar Fatuus I, OSB (a.k.a. postman Cliff Clavin). Real Catholic and Orthodox groups don’t do this.

The chorbishop is Charlie Brown. (I'm not kidding!)

Gordo, sfo

Their "pope" was "crowned" in a hotel meeting room. Imagine: from St. Peter's to Ho-Jo's! They keep their location secret, have no parishes (save wherever the "pope" is) and have even set up their own Vatican-style bureaucracy. I wonder if they have an Eastern Churches Congregation?

We could all go on pilgrimage to see them....if we knew where they were.