Karl Rodig

Rodig graduated with a Master's degree in Theology from the University of Salzburg in 1986. On 1st July of the same year he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Cathedral of Saints Rupert and Vergilius[1] and became a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in Austria.[2]

In 1989 he left his position as a clergy in the Roman Catholic Church because of disagreements with the Church's policy on clerical celibacy; he subsequently earned his Ph.D. in dogmatic from Duquesne University in 1993 and left the Missionaries of the Precious Blood on 5 June 1995.[3] In 1998 he received his Doctorate in Ministry in 1998 at St. Thomas University, Florida.[1]

On 29 May 1999 Rodig was consecrated a bishop in Miami by Bishop Orlando Hyppolitus Lima y Aguirre of the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America, assisted by Bishops David Dolence and Joseph J. Gouthro.[4] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit claims that he was excommunicated latae sententiae by the Roman Catholic Church following such consecration, but Rodig denies this.[2][5] In 2007 he established, alongside several other parishes from different Catholic Rites, the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ (ECCC), of which he was elected Primate Archbishop.[1]

In 2010 he bought St. Anthony Church in Detroit from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and renamed it "The Cathedral Abbey of St. Anthony", which became ECCC's National Cathedral and International Headquarters. The Church has parishes in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.[1][6]

He is a consultor for the Worldwide Catholic Church Reform Movement.[1]