Isabell Bostwick This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Old Catholic Church - our Archbishop

   www.oldcatholic.org/archbishop - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/27/2006   Last Visited: 12/20/2007

   The Most Rev'd James E. Bostwick was born August 14, 1949, in Watertown, Wisconsin, the son of Lawrence and Isabell (Roedl) Bostwick. He attended Queen of the Apostles Seminary, a Roman Catholic institution run by the Pallatine Fathers and Brothers, for four years and graduated in 1969, then entering the Pallatine Fathers and Brothers in Phelps, Wisconsin, where he was vested as a religious brother for a year and a half. Changes brought about by Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church -- the turning around of the altar to face the people, communion in the hand and numerous other jolts -- forced the Archbishop to leave.
   
   In 1972, he began to attend Holy Cross Seminary under the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Church of America (OCCA), finding with the OCCA the traditional liturgy and teachings which had been so hastily abandoned by the Roman Catholic Church. He studied under Archbishop Walter Xavier Brown for three and a half years and was ordained to the priesthood April 10, 1976.
   
   After ordination, the Archbishop was made pastor of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Angels in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, where he remained until 1981.
   
   Our Lady of Hope, in DeForest, Wisconsin, was opened in 1981, and the Archbishop served as pastor there.
   
   On September 19, 1992 he was consecrated to the episcopacy by Archbishop Brown and made Bishop Coadjutor with the Rite of Succession. On November 1, 1997 he was appointed Archbishop of the Old Catholic Church of America, and was Installed on November 1, 1997 (see Events page for photos of the Installation).
   
   Over the years, His Excellency has served as a counselor in drug and alcohol abuse-related fields. Among other things, he has paid visits to nursing homes to offer Mass, has conducted a Deacon's Mass at prisons, and has been increasingly involved with the administration of the OCCA.
   
   As the new Archbishop and Metropolitan for the Old Catholic Church of America, His Excellency has had to oversee the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.