Are there active attempts to reconcile with the PNCC?

[carefullytread]

You can find a few articles, like this one from 2006, but I’m not sure what the current state of relations with the PNCC is.

I wonder if now that the PNCC is not longer in communion with the Old Catholics and the Anglicans, maybe it’s easier to unite with RCC. Does anyone know if there are active talks going on now?

 

[commenter]

You can find a few articles, like this one from 2006, but I’m not sure what the current state of relations with the PNCC is.

I wonder if now that the PNCC is not longer in communion with the Old Catholics and the Anglicans, maybe it’s easier to unite with RCC. Does anyone know if there are active talks going on now?

Some PNCC bishops meet with a subcommittee from the USCCB about once a year for a few days. In addition, RCC dioceses where there is a strong PNCC presence may have some informal contacts between the bishops.

The PNCC often now brands itself as the NCC (except in our local Polish paper). There are fewer people with strong Polish American ties in the US due to assimilation, and spread of Am-Pol population away from the few cities where the PNCC is strong. Therefore they are actively recruiting Catholics of any ethnicity who have a grievance with their local diocese, but are still fairly Catholic in beliefs.

I have read that today more of their priests are men who were ordained as Roman Catholic priests, but left to get married, and now serve in the PNCC. If that is the case, I see no prospects towards unity. The RCC can adjust the celibacy discipline to allow married men to become priests, but is not close to allowing priests to marry. Furthermore, as these former Roman Catholic priests move up, other concerns may arise. As there are fewer parishioners from the traditional conservative Polish American neighborhoods, and more suburban, non-ethnic, maybe liberal types, there may be other differences.

So talks for “unity” now are more likely to focus on unity in the sense of expanding friendly relations between like minded denominations, and cooperation on common goals. I hope that would include prolife and religious liberty.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

It has always puzzled me that the first Polish Pope apparently wasn’t able to heal this rift, but I don’t recall seeing anything that describes what attempts may have been made during his papacy.

 

[commenter]

Ethnicity was a major factor around 1900. Most Polish Americans were in dioceses with Irish bishops. When they split, the PNCC Mass was then offered in the vernacular - Polish. By the time JP II became pope, there had already been more RCC Polish American bishops in the US. Ethnicity was fading. The PNCC Mass was by JP II’s papacy mostly in English, except in Poland, where they set up a mission.

There still is a little immigration to the US each year from Poland. I don’t know if any of them join the PNCC - or the NCC, as they now usually describe themselves. There are many priests in the RCC from Poland, in the USA now.

 

[FabiusMaximus]

Ethnicity was a major factor around 1900. Most Polish Americans were in dioceses with Irish bishops. When they split, the PNCC Mass was then offered in the vernacular - Polish. By the time JP II became pope, there had already been more RCC Polish American bishops in the US. Ethnicity was fading. The PNCC Mass was by JP II’s papacy mostly in English, except in Poland, where they set up a mission.

There still is a little immigration to the US each year from Poland. I don’t know if any of them join the PNCC - or the NCC, as they now usually describe themselves. There are many priests in the RCC from Poland, in the USA now.

In New Britain, CT, which has the largest proportion of Poles in the entire state, I think there is but one PNCC. Most of them are “regular” Roman Catholics.

 

[carefullytread]

In New Britain, CT, which has the largest proportion of Poles in the entire state, I think there is but one PNCC. Most of them are “regular” Roman Catholics.

At least according to Wikipedia, the entire church has only 26,000 members. It’s quite small.