1. Balch, Emily, “Our Slavic Fellow Citizens,” Charities 19 (1907): 972.Google Scholar

2. Balch, Emily, “Ecclesiastical News,” America, May 9, 1912, p. 528.Google Scholar By the time of the Polish Convention in Detroit in 1918, the clergy represented denounced all forms of Americanization and various delegates branded programmes of assimilation and adjustment to American life as forms of Prussianism. See Edman, I., “Fourth Part of Poland,” Nation 107 (1918): 342–343.Google Scholar

3. Barry, Colman, Catholic Church and the German Americans (Milwaukee, 1953), p. 275.Google Scholar

4. Niebuhr, H. Richard, Social Sources of Denominationalism (New York, 1957), pp. 222–223.Google Scholar

5. Thomas, William and Znaniecki, Florian, Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York, 1927), p. 1526.Google Scholar The presence of a native priest also enhanced the value of a parish. “The Polish priest is a genuine father to his flock. He counsels them on things material as well as spiritual, and apparently to their benefit in both directions. When I spoke to him after a service, he was engaged in advising a Polish woman as to a promissory note which she held in her hand and about which she seemed to be in difficulty.” See Moore, Henry, “Black Dirt People,” Outlook 93 (1909): 956.Google Scholar

6. Thomas, William and Znaniecki, Florian, “Pastoral Care of Foreign Catholics in America,” American Ecclesiastical Review 7 (1924): 180.Google Scholar Some examples will illustrate these controversies. In Buffalo, New York, the Polish immigrants of St. Adalbert's Polish Roman Catholic parish, dissatisfied with the removal of a popular priest, were engaged in a struggle with the local bishop for control of the church property and the right to choose their own priest. The bishop resisted and, after a riot in front of the church, the immigrants abandoned their efforts and erected an independent parish of their own. Constructed in 1895, it was dedicated to the Holy Mother of the Rosary. See Andrews, Theodore, The Pohih National Catholic Church (London, 1953). p. 20.Google Scholar In 1914 the Polish Roman Catholic parish of St. Casmir in South Bend, Indiana, was shaken by a dispute between clerical and lay leaders within the parish; the dispute was unresolved and an estimated 500 parishioners defected from this parish to form the independent parish of Holy Mother of the Rosary. See Swastek, Joseph, “Poles in South Bend,” Polish-American Studies 2 (1944): 85.Google Scholar

7. Rozewicz, A. J., “Another Problem like the Italian,” American Ecclesiastical Review 70 (1924): 386.Google Scholar

8. The New York Times, November 17, 1897, p. 1 reported: “Buffalo, November 16, A. Karwowski today received a cable message from Anton Kozlowski, reading as follows:‘I was consecrated bishop for the Polish Independent Catholics of North America last Sunday. I leave for America at once.’ ‘That means that at last the Poles of this country will have a Bishop of their own,’ said Mr. Karwowski, ‘Rome would not give us one before we left that church, and now we independents will have one.’” The New York Times, December 21, 1897, p. 4 reported: “Chicago, December 20, Polish Catholic seceders from the Roman Catholic Church who have organized the independent ‘Polish Catholic Church of America,’ with three parishes, located in Chicago, received Bishop Anthony Kozlowski, leader of the revolt, as the spiritual head of the church in America yesterday.… As he could not secure recognition from the Holy See, and was consecrated by a Bishop of the Catholic Christian Church of Switzerland, there was said to be some doubt about the welcome awaiting him. This proved to be unfounded, as his former parishioners received him back with great enthusiasm. The sect… asserts its complete liberty in local self-government and the investment of property titles in the local parish organizations.”

9. Grafton, Charles, A Journey Godward (Milwaukee, 1910), p. 281.Google Scholar

10. Janowski, Robert, Growth of a Church (Scranton, 1965), p. 27.Google Scholar Another source on Hodur and the Scranton schism is that of Sister Hammill, Martina, Expansion of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, 1960), p. 127:Google Scholar “The Rev. Francis Hodur, who was one of the worst offenders, caused the Bishop much anxiety and trouble. For some unknown and questionable source he had acquired the title of ‘Bishop’ and he used the prestige gained thereby to cause untold harm in any Polish parish in which there was discontent. This so-called ‘bishop’ is the founder of the Polish National Reformed Church. While the great majority of the people remained faithful, nevertheless, he was the diabolical instrument in leading many good people away from the truth.” The polemical attitude of this source reflects the competitiveness between the Roman and Polish National Churches for the adherence of the same ethnic group.

11. Janowski, p. 29.

12. Ibid., p. 32.

13. Ibid., p. 29.

14. Father Hodur was consecrated bishop at the Old Catholic Cathedral in Utrecht on September 29, 1907, by Gerard Gul, the Archbishop of Utrecht, assisted by Jacob van Thiel, the Bishop of Haarlem, and Nicolaus Spit, the Bishop of Deventer.

15. Those Polish communities that lacked an ethnic parish of their own were seen by Hodur and his associates as fertile ground for missionary work. In 1909 there were an estimated 810 settlements of Poles in the United States, but among them only 517 ethnic churches existed. See Shipman, Andrew, “Poles in the United States,” America, 07 30, 1910, p. 412.Google Scholar

16. Balch, pp. 975–976.

17. Janowski, p. 39.

18. Smith, Timothy L., “Religious Denominations as Ethnic Communities: a Regional Case Study,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 35 (1966): 217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Mr. Smith also states that many denominations were super-organizations “designed to give guidance, support, and discipline to local congregations.” (Ibid., p. 217). The parochial origins and congregational bias of the Polish National Catholic Church seem to indicate that the parish is pivotal and the actual denominational organization a product of “social necessity.”

19. Andrews, Theodore, The Polish National Catholic Church (London, 1953), p. 40;Google Scholar Janowski, p. 27.

20. Fox, Paul, The Polish National Catholic Church (Scranton, 1957), p. 115.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., p. 116.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Niebuhr, pp. 223–224.

25. Andrews, p. 74. The addition of Polish heroes and literary figures to the liturgical calendar, the formation of religious and social clubs dedicated to them, and the political nationalism of the clergy reinforced the messianic tone of the National Church that emphasized the unhappy division of Poland, the exile of its people, and the hope of national restoration and greater glory.

26. Niebuhr, p. 224.

27. Andrews, p. 39.

28. Ibid.

29. Janowski, p. 37.

30. Andrews, p. 40.

31. Fox, p. 117, Preamble to the Constitution (author's translation).

32. Andrews, p. 109, Article 1 of the Creed.

33. Ibid., Article 2 of the Creed (author's translation).

34. Ibid., p. 110, Article 6 of the Creed (author's translation).

35. Hodur further defined his views in 1920, when he stated that “the Redeemer did not found a visible church, but an invisible one which lives in the hearts of men.” (Janowski, p. 52).

36. Fox, p. 117, Preamble to the Constitution (author's translation).

37. Andrews, p. 45.

38. Thaddeus, Zielinski, The Polish National Catholic Church (no place or date), p. 65.Google Scholar

39. Ibid., pp. 55–56, Articles 10 and 11 of the Creed (author's translation).

40. In the area of moral theology, sin is viewed as a lack of perfection, arising from ignorance. See …, Our Way of Life, (Scranton, Maria Konopnicka Societies, n.d.), unpaginated. This is a translation, also known as Our Faith, of theological work by Bishop Hodur. A more current reflection of the church's theology in this and other areas is to be found in A Catechism of the Polish National Catholic Church (Scranton, 1962).Google Scholar

41. Another example of this is the second Prime Bishop, Leon Grochowski, the successor to Bishop Hodur. “In 1905 as a student of the Warsaw Polytechnic, he was forced to flee Poland for patriotic underground activities forbidden by Russia and came to the United States… In 1928 and again in 1933 he was decorated by the Polish government for meritous action leading to the freedom of that country.” See Album: Sixtieth Anniversary of the Polish National Catholic Church (Scranton, 1957), p. 2.Google Scholar

42. Fox, pp. 88–89.

43. Thomas and Znaniecki, p. 1581.