EVOLUTION OF POLISH INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC CHURCHES

The Polish National Catholic Church in the United States and Antoni Stanislaus Koslowski (1835-1907)

 

There are no recorded consecrations for Antoni Stanislaus Kozlowski, founder of the Polish Old Catholics in the United States. A former Roman Catholic priest, he was consecrated bishop by Old Catholic Bishop Eduard Herzog, assisted by Archbishop Gerardus Gul of Utrecht, and Bishop Theodor Weber.

 

Ethnic leadership of the Roman Catholic Church was a key issue in the formation of an Old Catholic body among Polish immigrants to the United States. From earliest times, the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States were primarily from Irish, Bavarian, French and Spanish extraction.

 

There were three issues that were paramount. They demanded that title to the church property be vested in the local parish church; that the parishes be free to choose Parish Committees, managerial and administrative; without interference on the part of either priest or bishop; and that they be given a voice in the assignment of parish priests. If those conditions were met, they would remain Roman Catholics.

 

The Vatican chose a Pole, Cardinal Mieczyskaw Ledochowski, to state the official Roman Catholic reply. It was no, since that question had been settled at the Baltimore Synod of 1884. The Poles, however, were more determined than other immigrants, to maintain their ethnic and cultural heritage.

 

Father Francis Hodur (1866-1953), a leader of Polish dissident Roman Catholics, returned from Rome; and within a week, was excommunicated along with his dissident flock. On September 19, 1897 they decided to go it alone, and formed the Polish National Catholic Church, organizing themselves at Saint Adalbert's Church, Scranton, PA as the "Polish National Catholic Church" and elected Father Antoni Klawiter as the first priest of the jurisdiction.

 

The new denomination grew exponentially in the next few years as Polish-extracted Roman Catholic parishes were incardinating partially or in whole to the new Polish National Catholic Church. Other groups also formed other independent groups. In 1895, several parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago became independent, and in 1897 their Synod elected Father Antoni Stanislaus Kozlowski as their bishop. He traveled to Utrecht and on November 21, 1897 he was consecrated bishop. He named his jurisdiction the Polish Old Catholic Church, and had the initial Utrecht Union jurisdiction in the nation.

 

In the early days of the formation of the Polish National Catholic Church, Utrecht hoped that Bishop Kozlowski would unite the two groups and that they would not have two rival Old Catholic national churches in the United States. In 1904, the Polish National Catholics elected Father Hodur as bishop and petitioned Utrecht to consecrate him. Utrecht was reluctant to recognize two national bodies for the United States.

 

On January 14, 1907, Bishop Kozlowski died suddenly; and at the Seventh International Old Catholic Congress at The Hague, Holland, the groups in Chicago and Scranton accepted the election of Francis Hodur for both groups, and he was consecrated by Archbishop Gul, of Utrecht on September 29, 1907.

 

This recognition allowed them to claim, as they do today, that they, the Polish National Catholic Church, are the only Utrecht Union Old Catholic body in the United States. At their second Synod in 1906, Bishop Hodur was given authority to translate the Mass from Latin to Polish. No thought, however, was given by either Utrecht or Scranton to translate the Mass into English at that time. Even today, although English Masses are offered, the Polish national character of the "American Old Catholic Union" jurisdiction, is evident. That reality would come outside the Utrecht Union with the work of independent Old Catholic founding fathers such Carfora, Vilatte et al.

 

By the early 1940's, the jurisdiction boasted nearly 5 million communicants. Today, the Polish National Catholic Church remains part of the Utrecht Union. Yet, they are distressed over the ordination of women and other theological issues, and have not participated in the last three International Congresses. The relations are unresolved on both sides. For a more detailed history of the Polish National Catholic Church you may wish to visit the history section of the PNCC home page.

 

The Mariavite Church in Poland and Johann Michael Kowalski (1871-1942)

Johann Michael Kowalski, a former Roman Catholic priest, was consecrated an Old Catholic bishop by Archbishop Gerardus Gul, of Utrecht, assisted by Bishop Arnold Harris Mathew, J. J. van Thiel, J. Demmel and M. B. P. Spit for the Polish Mariavite Church on October 5, 1909, being given the title of Archbishop of Felicianov and Primate of the Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites. He had been ordained to the priesthood on April 24, 1897 and was excommunicated by Rome on December 5, 1906.

 

The Mariavites were founded by a Franciscan tertiary religious, Maria Francesca Kozlowski, who claimed a vision of the Blessed Mother instructing her to found a mixed community of men and women dedicated to Mary. Rome denied this apparition, and was unwilling to validate the aims and approach of this group.

 

It must also be noted that the Polish Mariavites may possess Succession from either the Kowalski or Vilatte successions. Those jurisdictions who possess the Vilatte succession have an Orthodox, albeit western rite, view of the Church.

 

It is factual that Bishop Kowalski also ordained women to the priesthood and consecrated them to the episcopate. These actions alienated Kowalski from Utrecht, who broke with him over these issues in 1924. Whatever your views on these issues are concerned, Kowalski often stated that the Early Church had ordained and consecrated "episcopa" and that he merely followed that tradition. It has also been argued that he felt the Mariavite mission, given by Our Lady, included the ordination of women to Holy Orders. Others claimed that in wartime, the Nazis persecuted them and the Succession could be protected by the "camera" consecration of women bishops and the ordination of women priests.

 

Mother Maria Franciska died in 1921 and to then 50,000 Mariavites, she was considered a saint.

 

Bishop Kowalski was in Poland at the outbreak of the Second World War, and was subsequently interned by the Nazi invaders at the infamous Dachau concentration camp, where he died on May 26, 1942.

 

[NOTE: The two vignettes that appear above are edited versions of ones that were originally posted on the FICOB (Federation of Independent Catholic & Orthodox Bishops) home page. They were written by Bishop Raymond Sawyer of the Christian Catholic Church (USA).]