Franciszek Hodur

Franciszek Hodur

Franciszek Hodur (born April 1, 1866 in Żarki; † February 16, 1953 in Scranton , Pennsylvania ) was the founder and first bishop of the Polish Catholic National Church (PNCC) in the USA .

Life

He spent his childhood with his parents Jan and Maria Hodur in the village of Żarki, about 55 km from Krakow . He enrolled as a seminarian in Cracow at the Jagiellonian University and studied there. He left Europe in December 1892 and traveled to the United States, where he hoped to serve Polish immigrants. His path led him to the Diocese of Scranton , Pennsylvania, and he was in the seminary of St. Vincent's Archabbey the Benedictines in Latrobe sent. On August 19, 1893, he was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church by Bishop William O'Hara .

Break with Rome

When conflicts arose between Polish Catholic immigrants in Scranton, Nanticoke , Wilkes-Barre , Plymouth , Duryea and Dickson City and their Irish-American bishop, Father Hodur traveled to Rome in January 1898 in the hope of mediation by the Holy See. He returned to the United States with no satisfactory result. After meeting with the parishioners he represented on the trip, he announced his decision to no longer remain under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church.

Episcopate

Franciszek Hodur was ordained bishop on September 29, 1907 by Gerardus Gul , the old Catholic archbishop of Utrecht, and the bishops Jacobus Johannes van Thiel von Haarlem and Nicolaus Bartholomeus Petrus Spit von Deventer . He was the first Senior Bishop of the PNCC and ordained other bishops in order to maintain apostolic succession .

As Prime Bishop Hodur in February 1953 died, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Charles L. Street, the suffragan bishop of the Diocese of attended his funeral, among other things Chicago and Bishop Frederick J. Warnecke the Diocese of Bethlehem , along with other prominent people in the ECUSA part .