Gerardus Gul

Gerardus Gul, actually Gerrit Gul ( born October 27, 1847 in Egmond aan Zee, † February 9, 1920 in Utrecht) was from 1892 to 1920, the eleventh Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht.

Life

Youth and the first activities

After studying at the Old Catholic Seminary in Amersfoort, he was ordained by Hermann Heykamp on 21 November 1870 priests. After a short time in the parishes Amsterdam ( Willibrord and St. John), Zaandam (St. Mary Magdalene ) and Utrecht ( St. James ), as well as a professor of theology at the seminary in Amersfoort in 1886 he was pastor of the Church of St. Vitus in Hilversum, where the secret hideaway old church ( schuilkerk ) was replaced by a new church and a rectory. From 1890 he was a member of the Metropolitan Chapter.

Episcopate

On February 23, 1892 he was elected to succeed John Heykamp Archbishop of Utrecht, after this election was the first time does not request confirmation by the Pope. The bishop ordained Gul on May 11, 1892 in Hilversum, consecrator was Casparus Johannes Rinkel, Bishop of Haarlem, together with the Bishop of Deventer Cornelius Diependaal, the German Bishop Joseph Hubert Reinkens and Swiss Bishop Eduard Herzog. As Archbishop Gul chose the motto: " No truth without love." Gerardus Gul experienced in his episcopate, the end of the isolation of the Old Catholics in the Netherlands. He took part in the consecration of bishops by Nicolaus Bartholomeus Peter Spit, Antoni Stanislaw Kozlowski, Josef Demmel, Jacobus Johannes van Thiel, Franciszek Hodur, Arnold Harris Mathew, Jan Maria Michał Kowalski, George Moog, Nicolaas Prins and Henricus Theodorus Johannes van Vlijmen, through him the Apostolic Succession was so common outside of the Old Catholic Church. Gul was in connection with the " Petite Église » in France and the Old Catholic Churches in Nantes and Paris. A planned trip to St. Petersburg was impossible because of the war. Progress also learned ecclesiastical life. Of particular importance was the introduction of the vernacular in the liturgy (1909). Even the Church Associations came to fruition eg the Old Catholic Fund for Assistance, who worked within the church, and the association " Peter Buys " that should carry the principles of the Old Catholic Church to the outside.

The introduction of a Synod also took place under his episcopate.