Holy Name of Jesus was founded in 1929 as a parish of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC). We still observe some Polish traditions and customs, but our liturgies are in English, and our congregation includes a mixture of people who have strong, limited and even no Polish heritage. We are the only non-papalist Catholic parish in the northern Pioneer Valley area. We have sister PNCC churches in western Massachusetts located in Chicopee, Northampton, Ware, Webster and Westfield.
Catholic Alternative?
The PNCC was established in Pennsylvania in 1897 under the leadership of Fr. Francis Hodur, largely because of disputes over administration and lay control of property in ethnically Polish Roman Catholic parishes. Many Polish clergy and congregations in the Northeast and Midwest followed Fr. Hodur in declaring their independence from the Roman Catholic hierarchy, while insisting on their own continued catholicity.
Fr. Hodur was consecrated to the episcopate by bishops of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht. Subsequently, the PNCC has preserved the traditional line of episcopal succession. Old Catholic and Anglican bishops have participated in the consecrations of many PNCC bishops, and the Roman Catholic church recognizes the validity of the PNCC’s sacraments.
The independence of the PNCC from papal jurisdiction provided freedom to reject certain Roman dogmas, including papal infallibility, that the PNCC clergy considered to be recent and unjustified innovations. The PNCC, however, has been careful to preserve the essence of Catholic doctrine.
As a Catholic church, the PNCC considers the Holy Eucharist to be a sacrament of unity, but doesn’t apply restrictions on admission to communion for the purpose of avoiding “doctrinal confusion” (Ecumenical Directory §6). Thus, unlike the Roman Catholic Church (CIC Canon 844), the PNCC does not restrict the offering of sacraments to members of another church, nor restrict the right of her own members to receive sacraments in another church, merely because the Holy See doesn’t recognize the validity of the other church’s sacraments or is not in full communion with the other church. Likewise, unlike the Roman Catholic Church (Rite of Christian Initiation, p. 280), the PNCC does not require new members to express their belief in all that the church teaches. The PNCC invites to Holy Communion those who have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, repent of their sins and receive absolution (which is normally administered after general confession at the beginning of every Mass), and approach the altar with due reverence for the real presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
The PNCC seeks “the unity of the Church as prayed for by our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Official Commentary to the Declaration of Scranton). The PNCC is a member of the National Council of Churches It is engaged in formal ecumenical dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, with which it has established limited inter-communion, and with the G-3 Anglican Catholic Churches; in both cases, the explicit goal is to achieve full inter-communion. The PNCC is already in full communion with the Nordic Catholic Church.
The PNCC’s Distinctive Character
As stated in the Preamble to her Constitution, “the religious principle of the Polish National Catholic Church is her teaching that the Church cannot save man without his sincere, personal cooperation with God….. No blind faith in a specific church but righteous living brings salvation.”
The PNCC is democratically organized, with accountability built into the entire structure from top to bottom. Its Constitution and Canons are adopted and amended by the General Synod, composed of both clergy and lay delegates. Clergy, both bishops and priests, have authority over faith, morals and discipline, while the laity are responsible for administrative, managerial and social matters. All parish property and investments are owned and supervised by the local congregation.
The foundation of the PNCC’s theology is set out in the Declaration of Scranton, which expresses the “hope that Catholic theologians, by maintaining the faith of the undivided Church, will succeed in establishing an agreement in regard to all such questions that have caused controversy ever since the Church became divided.”