Polish National Catholic Church of America

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Prime-Bishop Anthony Mikovsky

The Polish National Catholic Church ( Polish Catholic National Church of America - PNCC) is an independent Old Catholic Church.

history

founding

The PNCC emerged from a split within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America in the late 19th century . The reasons were not theological, but ethnic-cultural differences. When the non-Polish (mainly Irish and German ) clergy did not take sufficient account of the customs and concerns of the Polish diaspora (“ Polonia ”), a “Polish” community of approx. 20,000 members was formed under the leadership of the then Roman (from Poland) - Catholic pastor in Scranton (Pennsylvania) , Franciszek Hodur (1866–1953). This church was joined by other churches, especially from Chicago and Buffalo , in the years to come. In 1903 the Polish National Catholic Church (in Polish: Polski Narodowy Kościół Katolicki ) was officially founded as a Catholic Church independent of Rome .

1903-1920

In 1907 the PNCC joined the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches . In the same year Franciszek Hodur received episcopal ordination from the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht . In the following years the usual Old Catholic reforms (worship in the national language, abolition of the duty of celibacy , as well as episcopal - synodal church order) were carried out. In addition, the PNCC had its own reforms: The preaching of the Holy Scriptures has been counted among the sacraments since 1909. With its own holiday, the "Festival of Brotherly Love" ( Solemnity of Brotherly Love ), attempts have been made since 1906 to counter the family grievances and tensions that arose when the church was founded. Bishop Hodur himself was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1898 . In 1993 Pope John Paul II lifted the excommunication and asked for forgiveness for the injustice done to the Polish community.

1921-1978

In 1921 the PNCC began its own mission in now independent Poland, from which the Polish Catholic Church emerged in 1952 . It is still in full communion with this church today. Since 1923 the church has published God's Field (Polish: Rola Boża ), which is currently published monthly and in English. In 1930 the mission began in Brazil. Today the Igreja Polonesa do Brasil is independent from the PNCC.

1931 closed the Old Catholic Church, under participation of PNCC, with the Anglican community the Bonn Agreement (dt. Bonn Convention ), which is the full communion ( Full communion detects) between the participating churches. The PNCC terminated the Bonn Agreement in 1978 due to the introduction of women's ordination in various Anglican churches.

The PNCC has been a member of the World Council of Churches since 1948 .

Since 1979

Until 2003 the PNCC was also a member of the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches and took part in all theological, ecumenical and liturgical developments of the Union. In particular, the PNCC was involved in the Old Catholic- Orthodox dialogue between 1975 and 1987 and in 1990 ratified the theological consensus document Koinonia on an early church basis , which has become a theological basic document of the PNCC.

In 1999 the PNCC established an administration in Norway under the direction of the Bishop of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese, Thaddeus Peplowski. In 2011, through the election and ordination of a Norwegian bishop, a self-governing church, the Nordic Catholic Church , emerged as a largely autonomous (albeit not autocephalous ) part of the Union of Scranton .

In 2003 the PNCC left the Union of Utrecht because it was unable to support the introduction of women's ordination for biblical and historical reasons. This was preceded by the decision of the Western European churches of the Union of Utrecht to ordain women to the priesthood even without the consent of the International Bishops' Conference of the Union of Utrecht; This was followed by a year-long suspension of the communion of the sacraments with these churches by the PNCC.

Between 1996 and 2006 the PNCC had an intensive dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church. In 2006 this led to a joint theological statement, the Joint Declaration on Unity , and to the communicatio in sacris according to can. 844 § 2.3 CIC / 1983 . Like the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the PNCC is therefore in limited communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2008 the PNCC published the Scranton Declaration , in which it confirmed the Utrecht Declaration and at the same time distanced itself from the ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex partnerships. In 2010, the PNCC founded the Union of Scranton , into which the Nordic Catholic Church (until then directly subordinate to the PNCC) was accepted as a largely self-governing local church. The degree of independence of the Nordic Catholic Church roughly corresponds to that of the autonomous churches in the Byzantine Orthodox Church and is therefore less than autocephaly ; z. B. the consecration of their bishops is incumbent on the PNCC-dominated Episcopal Conference of the Union of Scranton.

The Lithuanian Catholic National Church had already joined the PNCC in 1924 . The PNCC's ethnic and cultural diversification has accelerated in recent years: the PNCC is open to people of all ethnic backgrounds, and services are usually held in English, only occasionally in Polish. Some PNCC parishes have mostly Spanish-speaking members. Due to the cultural detachment from the generation of immigrants, some parishes of the church meanwhile do without the designation “Polish” and instead call themselves “National Catholic Church” (NCC).

organization

The PNCC has about 26,000 believers spread across five dioceses (Buffalo-Pittsburgh, Central, East, West, Canada) with about 130 parishes in the USA and Canada. At the head of the church is the Prime Bishop , who heads the PNCC together with the Bishops' Conference and the Supreme Council. The highest organ of the church is the general synod. Since 2010 the office of Prime Bishop has been led by Dr. Anthony Mikovsky exercised.

In 2009 a congregation with 200 believers in Lucca (Italy), which previously belonged to the Episcopal Church , moved to the jurisdiction of the PNCC (Diocese of Buffalo-Pittsburgh). In 2016 the Italian administration of the PNCC comprised three municipalities.

In 2011 the administration in Norway and Sweden, which had previously belonged to the PNCC (Diocese of Buffalo-Pittsburgh ), became an independent Old Catholic Church with the convening of its own general synod and the election and consecration of a bishop (Dr. Roald N. Flemestad) Nordic Catholic Church . The Nordic Catholic Church has had administrations in Germany, Hungary, France, Italy and England since 2012.

Dioceses

The PNCC is divided into five dioceses :

  • Central Diocese: St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cathedral in Scranton (Pennsylvania) - Bishop Bernard Nowicki
  • Western Diocese: All Saints Cathedral in Chicago ( Illinois ) - Bishop Stanley M. Bilinski
  • Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese: The Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral in Lancaster (New York) - Bishop John E. Mack
  • Eastern Diocese: Holy Trinity Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire - Bishop Paul Sobiechowski
  • Canadian Diocese: St. John's Cathedral in Toronto - currently provisionally administered by Bishop Anthony Mikovsky (as acting Prime Bishop )

List of senior bishops ( Prime Bishops )

Ecumenism

The Church is a member of the United States National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches .

See also

Web links

Commons : Polish National Catholic Church  - Album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Polish National Catholic Church - Our History . Retrieved March 15, 2016
  2. ^ Wiktor Wysoczański : On the history of the Polish National Catholic Church in the USA and Poland from 1920-1939. In: International Church Journal. (IKZ), 91, 2001, pp. 177-195.
  3. ^ Polish National Catholic Church - God's Field . Retrieved March 15, 2016
  4. ^ A b Polish National Catholic Church - Our History . Retrieved March 15, 2016
  5. ↑ In: Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift , Vol. 79, Issue 4, 1989. doi : 10.5169 / seals-404765
  6. ^ Joint Declaration on Unity . Joint declaration of the dialogue commission of the American Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Polish National Catholic Church of May 17, 2006. See also Laurence J. Orzell: On the situation in the Union of Utrecht - two texts by the PNCC and a commentary. In: IKZ. 91, 2001, pp. 222-237.
  7. ^ Statutes of the Union of Scranton , Art. 8–9.
  8. ↑ http://www.ncccusa.org/news/061102updatedstats.htm According to other sources, the membership is 25,000.
  9. ↑ Buffalo Pittsburgh Diocese, PNCC - Parishes and Missions ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 19, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / buffalopittsburghdiocesepncc.org
  10. ↑ Nordic Catholic Church in Germany - Our story . Retrieved July 3, 2018