The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics and Old-Catholic churches designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivided church but who separated from the see of Rome after the First Vatican council of 1869–70".
The Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) is an independent Old Catholic church based in the United States and founded by Polish-Americans. The PNCC is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and differs theologically in several aspects.
The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), also known as the Anglican Catholic Church , is a body of Christians in the continuing Anglican movement, which is separate from the Anglican Communion led by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This denomination is separate from the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.
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.
The Union of Utrecht (UU), or the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches, is a federation of Old Catholic churches, nationally organised from 1870 schisms which rejected Roman Catholic doctrines of the First Vatican Council; its member churches are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The 1889 Declaration of Utrecht is one of three founding documents together called the Convention of Utrecht. Many provinces of the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches are members of the World Council of Churches; the UU is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden, the Anglican Communion through the 1931 Bonn Agreement; and, with the Philippine Independent Church, the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church, and the Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church through a 1965 extension of the Bonn Agreement. As of 2016, the UU includes six member churches: the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands (OKKN), the Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany, the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, the Old Catholic Church of Austria, the Old Catholic Church of the Czech Republic, and the Polish Catholic Church in Poland.
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 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 Nordic Catholic Church is a church body based in Norway of High Church Lutheran patrimony. The Nordic Catholic Church is a member of the Union of Scranton.
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.
A personal ordinariate, sometimes called a "personal ordinariate for former Anglicans" or more informally an "Anglican ordinariate", is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established in order to enable "groups of Anglicans" to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony.
Józef Padewski was the bishop of the Polish Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC).
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.
Joseph C. Zawistowski was born in Rochester, New York. He was ordained to the priesthood on January 14, 1948. He was consecrated bishop in Scranton, Pennsylvania on November 30, 1968, and served as Bishop Ordinary of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church. He retired on April 19, 1994.
Francis Carl Rowinski was an American prelate and primate of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC). Born in Dickson City, Pennsylvania, Rowinski was ordained to the priesthood on May 17, 1939, consecrated bishop on May 9, 1959, and served as diocesan Bishop of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church from 1959 to 1978, when he was appointed Prime Bishop of the PNCC. He was appointed Bishop Ordinary of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the PNCC on October 3, 1978, and retired in June, 1990.
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 Union of Scranton is a communion of Old Catholic churches established in 2008 by the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) of the United States, after the Union of Utrecht began ordaining women and blessing same-sex unions. Since then, it has expanded to include the Nordic Catholic Church (NCC), begun by people who had separated from the Church of Norway, a Lutheran state church, in opposition to similar practices and has developed a more Catholic theology. The Nordic Catholic Church includes the Christ-Catholic Church in Germany as a daughter-church, which traces its history through the Union of Utrecht and the Polish National Catholic Church, as well as St. Severin's Abbey which is the German Province of the Order of Port Royal.
Saint Stanislaus Cathedral is the headquarters and one of the first churches built of the Polish National Catholic Church. It is named after Stanislaus of Szczepanów.
The Polish National Catholic Church of The Holy Cross (PNCC) on 15th Street in Brooklyn, New York, was a Christian church based in the United States and founded by Polish-Americans. The Holy Cross Church is currently closed and the buildings sold to a developer and demolished in 2007. It ranked among the best Catholic churches with a polish mass in Brooklyn. The front facade of the Polish National Catholic Church of the Holy Cross or P.N.C.C.H.C. was in the Romanesque revival style and was composed of three round roman arches below a peaked roof.
Joseph Ignatius Nieminski was the first bishop of the Toronto-based Canadian Diocese of Polish National Catholic Church. He was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and ordained to the priesthood in 1946 after studies at Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton. He was consecrated in 1968, and served on the Polish National Catholic Church's dialogue commission with the Roman Catholic Church. While in Toronto with oversight for Canadian PNCC parishes, he also organized a Croatian National Catholic Church. Nieminski died in Toronto.
Eugene W. Magyar was the first and only bishop of the Slovak National Catholic Church, a mission of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) to Slovak Americans in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and educated through high school in Hungary, Magyar was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University, the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, and Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 14, 1933 and appointed PNCC dean of Slovak parishes in 1958. He was consecrated by Prime Bishop Leon Grochowski on June 29, 1963 for a small diocese based at Most Holy Name of Jesus Slovak National Catholic Cathedral in Passaic, New Jersey. Magyar was pastor of the Passaic congregation from 1938 until his death. In addition to pastoral and ecumenical work, he was a seminary professor, liturgical printer, newspaper editor, and cellist. Bishop Magyar died in New York City at Beth Israel Hospital.
