Dharma Lineage

 

The Dharma Lineages of Khenpo Gurudas Sunyatananda can be traced back to Swami Abishektananda, OSB, who was trained in the Advaita tradition; to Morehei Ueshiba Sensei, through Robert Danza Sensei and Marianne Donoghue Sensei; to Maharaji Neem Karoli Baba, through Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati (Tenzin Yangchen); and to Onisaburu Deguchi-san, spiritual leader of the Omoto-kyo School of Dharma, through Morehei Ueshiba and Robert Danza Sensei.

He received the Kalachakra empowerment from Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,in October of 1991, having previously completed his initial studies of the meaning of Tantra, and having been determined to be of the proper motivation and experience to receive the empowerment.

His Tsawa Lama in the Tibetan Tradition is Lama Thubten Yeshe, while other influential teachers, who have transmitted essential empowerments include his ordaining Lama, Jampal Choden, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

Within the lineage of the Christ Dharma, the spiritual lineage of Khenpo (recognised and known in Catholic circles as Archbishop Francis-Maria of the Immaculata) can be traced directly back to Rav Yeshua (Jesus the Nazarene) himself, in unbroken succession, through the disciples James, John, Judas-Thomas, Thaddeus and Bartholomew.
In 1145 C.E., the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III and Bishop Heribert of Utrecht petitioned the Roman See (Pope Eugene III) for the right to elect successors to the Archepiscopal See of Utrecht in times of vacancy. This petition was granted, and confirmed during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The autonomous character of the Church in the Netherlands was further reaffirmed by a second grant in 1520 by Pope Leo X, Debitum Pastoralis. This meant that, unlike anywhere else in the Roman Catholic Church, the archbishop of Utrecht could consecrate bishops without permission or approval from the Pope, just as the Orthodox and Oriental Churches have always done.

Following the First Vatican Council in 1870 (to which the bishops of the Netherlands Church were refused admittance), considerable dissent arose among the Catholics bishops, especially in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, over the proposed dogma of papal infallibility. The dissenters held the Church in General Council to be infallible (as the earliest Church believed), not the Pope acting alone in matters of faith and morals. Many of the dissenting bishops formed independent communities that came to be known as Old Catholic because they sought to adhere to the beliefs and practices of the catholic (universal) Church of the apostolic era existing prior to 1054 (see Declaration of Utrecht). The Old Catholic communities collaborated with the Archbishop of Utrecht, who consecrated the first bishops for these communities. Under the leadership of the Church of Holland, these Old Catholic communities joined together to form the Utrecht Union of Churches. The Old Catholic Church expanded rapidly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Holland. Old Catholic communities were also established in Poland, France, and throughout the world. In 1990 there were about 500,000 Old Catholics in the United States and about 15 million world-wide.

The lineage (apostolic succession) of our University’s Spiritual Director and Founder, Khenpo Gurudas Sunyatananda (Archbishop F. Franciscus-Mariae del’Immacolata Salvato) is derived directly from the Ultrajectine (Utrecht) Old Catholic Church, as well as from the pre-cursors to the Roman Catholic Church (Eastern Orthdox, Coptic, Syrian, Nestorian and Thomasine Catholic Churches).

The Apostolic Succession of His Eminence +Francis-Maria of the Immaculata from the North American Old Catholic and Roman Catholic Church is as follows:

Carmel Henry Carfora consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate on 17 Oct. 1926

Jose Macario Lopez Y Valdes who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate on 27 March 1930

Alberto Luis Rodriquez Y Duran who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate on 12 March 1955

Emile Federico Rodriguez Y Fairfield who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate on 12 May 1990

George Augustus Stallings Jr. who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1996

Carlos Enrique Harvin who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate on 18 Jan. 2004

Francis-Maria of the Immaculata at Imani Temple, Washington, D.C.

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The Apostolic Succession of His Eminence +Francis-Maria of the Immaculata from the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil is as follows:

Dom Carlos Duarte Costa
Patriarch, Igreja Catolica Apostolica Brasileira (1945)
Who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1945:

** Salomâo Ferraz
Who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1951:

Manoel Ceia Laranjeira
Who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1969:

Viktor Ivan Busà
Who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1972:

Frederick Charles King
Who sub-conditionally consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1954:

Emile Federico Rodriguez y Durand (Fairfield)
Who consecrated to The Sacred Episcopate in 1990:

George Augustus Stallings
(African-American Catholic Congregation)
Who consecrated to the Sacred Episcopate in 1996

Carlos Enrique Harvin
(African-American Catholic Congregation)
Who consecrated to the Sacred Episcopate on 18 January 2004

Francis-Maria of the Immaculata at Imani Temple, Washington, D.C.

** Bishop Salomâo Ferraz was invited to participate in Vatican Council II, where he was recognised as a bishop in proper standing, despite his being married and a member of the autocephalic Catholic movement. He was later received back into the Roman Catholic Church, as a married Catholic Bishop, and received the burial of a regular member of the episcopate when he died. The validity of Salomâo Ferraz’ orders provides ipso facto validity for those in his succession.