Polish National Catholic Church
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.
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, and Swiss churches.
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
http://www.pncc.org/who_history.htm. (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.
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.
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 the
Mary the Ever-Virgin and Mother of God, and
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 refusal to abandon several Western concepts (including the Western Church's view of the
Holy Trinity and of the
sacraments).
The hierarchy of the PNCC is also in dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, but progress toward unification stopped abruptly when the PNCC was not willing to abandon former Roman Catholic priests who had left to marry and been 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. However, in May of 2006 a joint Poilsh National and Roman Catholic meeting made it clear that it was the full intention and desire of the Polish National Catholic Church to enter back into communion with the Roman Catholic Church in the near future. The topic of reunification will be further discused in a joint meeting which will be held in November of 2006.[
2]
*
Official Website of the PNCC*
Official Website of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht* Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor. 6th Ed., 1999. pp 93-94.
