Juan Bautista Cabrera

Dr. Checkemian came to the attention of the Most Rev'd and the Rt. Honble Dr. William C. Plunket (1828 to 1897), the fourth Baron Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of the Church of Ireland. Archbishop Plunket hated the creeping Anglo-Catholicism within the Anglican Communion which he viewed as an trojan horse for Papal re-establishment over the Church of England. He dreamt as a counter measure of establishing Reformed Episcopal churches in spheres of Roman Catholic influence. He saw Dr. Checkemian's idea of the United Armenian Catholic Church as part of the above plan and endorsed it by giving Dr. Checkemian a license to officiate as an clergyman within the Church of Ireland. It was Lord Plunket's hope that eventually this church would be established within the Armenian homeland as an replacement for the Armenian Uniate Church. In 1894 he was able to help establish the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church by consecrating its founder, a former Roman Catholic priest, the Rev'd Juan Bautista Cabrera (1837 to 1916), as its first bishop. Unfortunately, on 1 April 1897 Lord Plunket died before he could help Dr. Checkemian expand the United Armenian Catholic Church back to Turkey.