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.
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. [link]
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 left the Union over a variety of issues, but the most significant was the elevation of women to the priesthood by other Utrecht Union Churches. In 2004, St. John's Cathedral in Toronto was reconciled with the Union of Utrecht.
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. (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 60,000.1
Relations with the Roman Catholic Church
As a 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.
External links
References
- Note 1: Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor. 6th Ed., 1999. pp 93-94.
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