Official Record of Apostolic Succession of

Msgr. Aglipay himself) continued to be asked. The Protestant Episcopal Church in The United States of
America provided the answer in 1948.
The Protestant Episcopal Church, looking back on its history, found that it had completely missed the mark
when it refused to establish a vital episcopacy in Mexico in the late 1920's. After an assignation attempt on
the life of the Mexican President and his cabinet members (allegedly traced to the Roman Catholic prelates
and clergy in Mexico), Presidente Plutarco Elias Calles vowed to establish a Mexican National Catholic
Church separate from and independent of Rome.
The Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA turned down the Mexican request and Presidente Calles finally
obtained the Apostolic Succession for the Mexican National Catholic Church from Msgr. Carmel Henry
Carfora, Archbishop of Chicago of the Old Roman Catholic Church.
Although three Bishops were consecrated to initiate the Mexican hierarchy (Jose Joaquin Perez y Budar,
Antonio Lopez Sierra and Dr. Macario Lopez Valdes), the "Nationalistas" (as they were called), failed to
replace The Church of Rome in Mexico and today only one remnant parish in Mexico and the East Los
Angeles parish of Bishop Emil F. Rodriquez y Fairfield remain. Unlike the Filipinos, the Mexicans demanded
continued celibacy in their national independent Church and were unable to recruit new priests.
Near the turn of the nineteenth century, some Protestant Episcopal Bishops (such as Charles Chapman
Grafton, who became Bishop of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin in 1888), espoused the so-called "Three Branch
Theory" of the Church. The idea was that one branch was The Church of Rome, another branch was the
Orthodox Church under Constantinople, and the third branch was The Church of England. Thus, it was
thought, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. would eventually become the TRUE American
Catholic Church; and in a time before The Church of Rome was firmly established in the United States,
PECUSA had high hopes.
It was the echo of this Branch Theory of Bishop Grafton that prevented the PECUSA from acting in the case
of Mexico, and thus lost to the non-papal Christians the whole country of Mexico which, having cast out The
Church of Rome and Her clergy, might have brought into the country the enlightenment that PECUSA
claimed was Hers. But they did nothing until it was too late to do anything. The ideal was one branch only
per country, and this idea blinded PECUSA's eyes at that time.
PECUSA did not again want to miss the opportunity for missionary advancement. When, after several years
of correspondence, Isabelo de los Reyes, Jr., became the leader of the Philippine national Church, PECUSA
set aside the Branch Theory for one of "side-by-side" jurisdictions in the same land.
On April 7, 1948, Isabela de los Reyes, Jr., and two other native bishops were consecrated to the Sacred
Episcopacy by Bishop Norman S. Binstead of the PECUSA Missionary District of The Philippines, assisted
by his suffragan (Bishop Robert F. Wilner) and the Rt. Rev'd Harry S. Kennedy (PECUSA Bishop of
Honolulu).
The three newly consecrated Philippine prelates then consecrated all the other native Bishops and ordained
all priests and deacons according to the PECUSA rite.
The Apostolic Succession obtained by the Philippine Independent Church was that of PECUSA - from The
Church of England. A few years later, when European Old Catholics assisted in Filipino Episcopal
consecrations, the Old Catholic Lines of the European Bishops were added.
For many years the Independents and the Philippine Episcopalians walked side by side in harmony.
However, over the years, differences developed. The "High Church" versus the "Low Church" problems of
the Episcopalians in the USA did not appear as such in The Philippines, the conflicting parties rather
seemed to be grouped as Pro-Protestant (or Pro-PECUSA) and Pro-Catholic.
More recently groups have favored former President Ferdinand Marcos who, as an infant, was baptized into
the Independent Church by Msgr. Gregorio Aglipay himself. President Marcos had helped finance the
Aglipay National Shrine which served as the Cathedral of Bishop Manuel Lagasca. Even as President
Marcos often favored the Independent Church until his conversion and political position as a Roman