The Polish National Catholic Church is an independent Old Catholic church based in the United States and founded by Polish-Americans.
The Diocese of Scranton is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It is a suffragan see of Archdiocese of Philadelphia, established on March 3, 1868.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church is an independent Catholic church located in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Formerly a parish belonging to the Catholic Church, it was established in 1880 to serve the Polish community in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The parish is maintained and managed by its parishioners as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation.
St. John's Cathedral Polish Catholic Church in the Parkdale area of Toronto, Ontario, is the seat of the Polish National Catholic Church's (PNCC) diocese in Canada.
Bishop Franciszek "Francis" Hodur was the founder and first Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC). Ordained by the Roman Catholic church in 1893, Hodur served two parishes in the Scranton diocese before he was excommunicated five years later in 1898 for his release of a National Church program, which called for reformation to canon laws of temporal goods. His excommunication was also a result of his rejection of the dogmas of papal infallibility and supremacy after the Council of Trent. With a congregation of approximately 200 families, he founded the St. Stanislaus Parish in Scranton, Pennsylvania and celebrated Mass in the Polish vernacular of the congregation, instead of Latin, as was common in the Roman Catholic church. Hodur was consecrated a bishop in 1907 with apostolic succession by the bishops of Old Catholic Church and went on to expand the episcopate of the PNCC to manage diocesan affairs and ordain priests therein. Under Hodur, the church expanded to 245 parishes across the United States and Poland. After his death in 1953, he was succeeded by Leon Growchowski, whom he had consecrated in 1924.
Casimir J. Grotnik (1935–2005) was a priest and bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC).
The Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church is a diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church that includes New Jersey, part of New York, eastern Pennsylvania, and parishes in California, Colorado, and Maryland. The cathedral of the Central Diocese is St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cathedral in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The diocese comprises 41 parishes divided into five seniorates: Scranton, Plymouth, Philadelphia, New York/New Jersey, and Mohawk Valley. For each seniorate, there is appointed an Administrative Senior, who is a priest of the diocese charged with responsibilities throughout the area of the seniorate.
James Clifford Timlin was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania from 1984 to 2003. Timlin was accused in a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report of covering up sexual abuse crimes by priests in his diocese during his tenure as bishop.
William O'Hara was an Irish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first bishop of the Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania, serving from 1868 until his death in 1899. He founded St. Thomas College in 1888.
Michael John Hoban was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania from 1899 until his death in 1926.
Józef Padewski was the bishop of the Polish Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC).
Anthony Mikovsky is an American Polish National Catholic bishop. He is Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church, having been elected at the General Synod of the church in October 2010 and his installation at 21 November 2010, at St. Stanislaus Cathedral, in South Scranton. Mikovsky was previously the bishop ordinary of the Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church. Mikovsky holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Leon Grochowski was the second Presiding Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States, Canada and Poland and early American radio evangelist.
The Lithuanian National Catholic Church or LNCC was a small American denomination organized in 1914 by dissident Roman Catholic Lithuanian Americans mainly in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Massachusetts. It was also known as the independent Lithuanian church as it rejected the papal authority. It was closely affiliated with the Polish National Catholic Church. The Church established several parishes, but most of them were short lived. The most successful parishes were in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence, Massachusetts. John Gritenas was consecrated on August 17, 1924, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as this church's only bishop. Due to lack of archival sources, available information about the church and its parishes is fragmentary, incomplete, and often contradictory.
The American Catholic Church (ACC) was an Old Catholic denomination founded in 1915. Though no longer in existence, many groups have made claims to its lineage through the consecrations of Paolo Miraglia-Gulotti and Frederick Ebenezer Lloyd. The State of Illinois Charter for the ACC obtained by Archbishop Vilatte, dated 13 July 1915, is now registered to Archbishop Robert Clement, and his ACC ministry is continuing in California.
Antoni Klawiter, the Roman Catholic and, afterward, independent Polish Catholic priest, was born in Chojnice, in modern Poland, on November 12, 1836. The scholarly consensus is that he was the son of Polonized Germans; by virtue of his Kashubian birthplace and his later experience pastoring Kashubians in Winona, Minnesota, he will not have been unfamiliar with the Kashubian culture. In 1859, he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Włocławek, and became four years afterward one of many Polish priests who were involved with the Polish Insurrection of 1863. In late 1873 or early 1874, Father Klawiter emigrated to the United States.
Joseph Richard Kopacz is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as bishop of the Diocese of Jackson in Mississippi since 2014.
Thomas J. Gnat was a bishop of the Eastern Diocese of Polish National Catholic Church. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attended Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Gnat was ordained a priest on September 18, 1958 by Bishop Leon Grochowski in the historic cathedral of St. Saint Stanislaus in Scranton, PA, and from 1958 to 1959 he was a pastor in Scranton. From 1959, he was the parish priest of the Holy Trinity Parish in Washington, PA, where, in addition to his clerical duties, he represented the Polish National Catholic Church in contacts with state administration offices. In 1970, he was appointed as Administrative Senior for a deanery within the Polish National Catholic Church.
The Eastern Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church is one of the 5 dioceses of the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States and Canada, with its seat in Manchester, New Hampshire. Paul Sobiechowski is the current bishop ordinary of the Eastern Diocese, being consecrated in 2011. He succeeded Thomas Gnat, who was consecrated a bishop in 1978. The constitution and laws of the Polish National Catholic Church provide for the mandatory retirement of bishops at the age of 75.
