Polish National Catholic Church
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The Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) is a Christian church founded and based in the United States by Polish-Americans who were Roman Catholic. However, the PNCC is today not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and differs with it theologically in several important respects.
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[edit] History
The PNCC was founded by Franciszek Hodur (1866-1953), a Polish immigrant to the United States and a Roman Catholic priest. Born near Cracow, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1893 and was ordained that year; in 1897, he became pastor of St. Stanislaus Cathedral in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Hodur is considered by the PNCC to be its founder and first bishop. [1]
It is a former member of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht and for much of that period was the only member church of the Union based outside Western or Central Europe (although it was not so when the Philippine Independent Church, also known as the Aglipayan Church, briefly joined the Union of Utrecht).
The PNCC in the United States and Canada was in a state of "impaired communion" with the Utrecht Union from 1997–2003, since they do not accept the validity of ordaining women to the priesthood, which both the Anglicans and the European Old Catholics (and some US Old Catholic groups not in communion with Utrecht) have been doing for the last several years.
Because of this refusal to ordain women, the 2003 International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference stated that "…full communion, as determined in the statute of the IBC, could not be restored and that therefore, as a consequence, the separation of our Churches follows." In effect, the Polish National Catholic Church was expelled from the Union of Utrecht not because it refused to ordain women, but because it continued to refuse full communion with those Churches in the Union which do ordain women. However, in 2004, the Cathedral of the PNCC's Canadian diocese (St. John's Cathedral, Toronto) was reconciled with the Union and is once again in full communion with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. That same year, the Old Catholic Church in Slovakia seceded from the Union over the ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex unions in the Dutch, German, Austrian and Swiss churches.
Some observers have noted that the split reflects the differences between a gradual shift towards liberalism in the Utrecht Union churches as opposed to the trend towards conservatism in the PNCC since the 1970s. [2]
The PNCC was founded in the late 1800s in North America by Polish Roman Catholics resentful of diocesan ownership of their parishes and the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in North America at that time by German and Irish prelates [[3]]. (In this way the movement response for the PNCC's formation resembles the movement among the Ruthenian/Carpatho-Rusyn Uniates in North America away from Catholicism and towards Orthodoxy.)
The PNCC was the largest member of the Union of Utrecht. All orders of its clergy (including bishops) have been allowed to marry since 1921. Mass is celebrated in both Polish (the vernacular of the PNCC's founders) and local vernaculars. The PNCC since 1921 has actively discouraged or even abolish auricular confession and replaced it with a general confession practice, which is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as validly absolving a penitent.
As of December 1, 2005, according to the PNCC, it has 123 parishes in the United States and Canada. Membership has been claimed to be as high as 250,000; however, there is no convincing evidence for this figure. Inside and outside observers place the total much lower. In the United States, as of 1998, total membership is approximately anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000.1
The Polish National Catholic Church is sometimes considered an independent Catholic Church; however, the Church itself would dispute this designation. The PNCC derives its Holy Orders from the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht, but is no longer in communion with Utrecht nor with the Episcopal Church in the United States. These relationships were ended because the PNCC rejects the ordination of women and sexually active gay men. While no longer in communion with any other body, it remains a relatively substantial denomination recognized as such not only within Catholic and Eastern Orthodox circles but also by Protestant Churches. The PNCC is also the only non-papal Catholic Church in the United States that currently has an active dialogue with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches and which is a member of the World Council of Churches.
[edit] Relations with the Roman Catholic Church
As a former member of the Union of Utrecht the PNCC rejects a number of Roman Catholic dogmas insisting that they are theological novelties, including the infallibility of the Pope, the Immaculate Conception of Mary the Mother of God, and the Augustinian version of the doctrine of original sin.
Although the PNCC has entered into tentative negotiations with the Orthodox Church in North America, no union has resulted due to the PNCC's adherance to the Roman Catholic view of the sacraments and other issues.
The hierarchy of the PNCC is also in dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, but progress toward unification stopped over the issue of priests who had left the Roman Catholic Church to marry and then were received into the PNCC. The junior clergy and people evince no interest in joining up with Rome, and indeed, many have joined Episcopalian or Lutheran congregations, as the Polish ethnic thread has become diluted since World War II. [4]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Note 1: Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor. 6th Ed., 1999. pp 93-94.
