St. John's Cathedral, Toronto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St. John's Cathedral Polish Catholic Church is the seat of the Polish National Catholic Church's Canadian diocese. However, in 2004 some members of the parish asked to be received into the Utrecht Union from which the PNCC had seceded, when the Union decided to accept ordination of homosexual clergy and women. The International Bishops' Conference of the Union in 2004 "decided that the parish would be placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Utrecht until further discussions have taken place [1]. There is now a serious and ongoing litigation between the Polish National Catholic Church on one side, and those, who purported to secede from it, and to appropriate the St John's Cathedral onto themselves. The matters are pending in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Litigation was also commenced against certain members of the Union of Utrecht government. to restrain their interference in the affairs of PNCC. St. John's continues to be the seat of the PNCC's Canadian diocese, but it is still temporarily occupied by the former members of the Church.

In 2005, the Conference "decided that the parish would be recognized as an Old Catholic parish of the Union of Utrecht." An Old Catholic bishop would be delegated to the parish but the Anglican Bishop of Toronto, the Rt. Rev. Colin Johnson, would be asked to provide regular episcopal ministry. The Conference was not prepared to assume legal or financial responsibility for the parish, clearly not wanting to expand the Union's interference in the internal affairs of the Polish National Catholic Church. [2].

Today, St. John's remains the main Church of the Polish National Catholic Church of Canada. However, the new group is still in temporary possession of the Cathedral. The new group remains as an estranged from PNCC, dependent church under the jurisdiction of the IBC, with the Archbishop of Utrecht as episcopal delegate. The community worships in both English and Polish.