Martin Griffin was born an Episcopalian; he spent his high school and college years studying Roman Catholicism because he "felt a call to the priesthood," and he became a Franciscan friar after college.

But Griffin "didn't feel at home" in the Roman Catholic Church, and chose to leave it in 1998.

Instead, he joined the American Catholic Church, one of many independent Catholic or "Old Catholic" churches in the United States that are not part of the Roman Catholic Church. By some estimates there are more than 200,000 independent Catholics in the United States alone, compared with 77 million Roman Catholic Church members.

Like other moderate and independent Catholic churches, the American Catholic Church tries to be inclusive, diverse and "pastorally sensitive to the needs of the people," said Lou Bordisso, presiding bishop of the California Diocese for the American Catholic Church, who ordained Griffin this summer as Father de Porres.

"I didn't feel the (Roman Catholic) communal life was strong enough to meet my emotional, social and spiritual needs," said Griffin, who is the principal at San Pasqual High School in Escondido. He researched other churches for years before choosing the American Catholic Church.

Griffin, of Chula Vista, said independent Catholic churches respect the pope, but don't believe in papal infallibility, which means the Pope can't err when defining the church's moral and religious beliefs. However, they do practice the same seven sacraments as Roman Catholics, and believe in the apostolic succession of bishops.

Clerical celibacy is optional among independent Catholics, and married people may be ordained, according to the Web site for Independent Catholic Churches International (www.independentcatholics.org). Also, contraception is treated as a matter of personal conscience between husband and wife.

Bordisso, of Vallejo, said he considers the American Catholic Church to be "interdependent" with Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as other religions.

"I think interdependency is the whole business of having a working relationship, and having a pastoral outreach and mutual respect for each other," he said.

Women may be ordained as priests in the American Catholic Church, and the clergy often work "secular jobs" while they serve the church. Bordisso is a family and relationship clinician.

For Griffin, life as an independent Catholic priest is enjoyable. He works with high school students during the week and is associate rector to about 20 parishioners on the weekend. He works for St. John the Beloved, a part of the moderate Catholic Church of America, another independent Catholic Church. Since Griffin is American Catholic, but San Diego County doesn't have a church, he received special permission from Bordisso.

Griffin said he was drawn to becoming an American Catholic priest because the church focuses on "salvation and not condemnation."

"Our belief is that we aren't called to judge, but we are called to bring the gospel to those who want to receive the sacraments of the church," he said.

Bishop Thomas Abel is presiding bishop over St. John the Beloved in Hillcrest and All Saints Parish in Carlsbad, both part of the Catholic Church of America. "We typically attract individuals who have felt sidelined or not a part of the Roman Catholic Church," Abel said.

"They should not be sidelined with the church, but should be drawn in so that they can live out their sacraments," he said.

Abel said the Catholic Church of America is smaller than the American Catholic Church, but they share similar beliefs.

"We can love people who are hurt and broken, and we try to minister to them," he said. "We think that the power of the Eucharist (Holy Communion) is so strong and loving that it has that saving grace."

Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, declined to comment on the independent Catholic churches in order to "avoid controversy."

Julie Byrne is the Msgr. Thomas J. Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies at Hofstra University in New York. She has studied independent Catholic churches for five years and is working on a book called "The Other Catholic Church." According to Byrne, there isn't an organization in the United States that oversees all of the independent Catholic churches, and they aren't as well known as the Roman Catholic Church.

She estimates that at least 230,000 people in the United States are independent Catholics, compared with 77 million Roman Catholics. However, "in Europe, the 'Old Catholic' church is known well," she said.

She said independent Catholic churches are difficult to characterize, because their beliefs range from liberal to conservative.

"It would be really hard to sum up how the different churches break down in terms of commonality," Byrne said.

"Old Catholic" churches have been in the United States since the beginning of the 20th century, she said. Their roots stem from the first Vatican Council in 1869-70, if not earlier. After Vatican I, some Catholic leaders broke from Rome over the papal infallibility doctrine.

"In my education about Catholicism, the Roman Catholic Church supposedly never split," author Byrne said. "There have actually been lots and lots of groups that started."

She said the "hot spots" for independent Catholic churches in the U.S. include California, Chicago, Texas, Florida and New Mexico. She also said there are more than 150 separate jurisdictions of independent Catholic churches.

Rebecca Moore, chairman of San Diego State University's Department of Religious Studies, said many people have joined independent Catholic churches because they disagreed with "certain parts of their (Roman Catholic) teachings."

"What we see today is people are more willing to step out of Mother Church, so to speak, for reasons of their conscience," she said. "People are concerned about issues of exclusion in terms of not just membership, but inclusiveness of the clergy."

Janine Stock, who is now a Catholic Church of America priest for the All Saints parish in Carlsbad, said she left the Roman Catholic Church because she felt a calling -- "something that tugs at you, pulls you, calls you" -- for the priesthood. However, Roman Catholic women are prohibited from pursuing this calling.

"When you are a child, you don't know you have those boundaries," she said, adding that she felt it was very difficult to have a "barrier placed in front of you, and an artificial one at that."

She said she has trouble finding the words to describe how it felt to be ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church of America in November 2004.

"I can't even tell you what was going on through my heart the first time I gave Communion to someone," she said. "There is not a feeling like it."

She said she likes the inclusiveness of the independent Catholic church.

"Everybody has a voice, because we believe the theology and the dogma has already been described in the creed," she said.

All Saints Parish: The Rev. Janine Stock. Sunday Mass at 5 p.m. at Pilgrim United Church of Christ, 2020 Chestnut Ave., Carlsbad.

St. John the Beloved Cathedral: Bishop Tom Abel, the Rev. Thomas Beckman, the Rev. Martin De Porres Griffin. Sunday Mass at 11:30 a.m. at the chapel of University Christian Church, 3900 Cleveland Ave., Hillcrest, San Diego.

For more on parishes of the Catholic Church of America in San Diego County, see: http://www.oldcatholicroman.org/ or call (619) 295-1489.