Polish Catholicism

Polish-Catholicism is the variety of the Old Catholic Church based on polish religious and cultural traditions. To simplify, Old Catholic Church is the content of teaching of the Old Catholic Churches and the whole adopted rules relating to faith, morality, religious life and the functioning of the Church.

Polish-Catholic Churches recognize the origins of theirs foundation of the existence of a Polish National Catholic Church; they share a common line of apostolic succession from the Church or a common historical continuity.

The idea of a national church in Poland has roots in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when some theologians and thinkers had intentions to organize an national church. One of them – Jan Ostroróg, the Polish magnate and a PhD in canon law and Roman law, postulated to carry out a strict line of demarcation between matters of religion and political affairs. During the reign of Zygmunt Stary (English: Sigismund the Old), the reformation currents began to permeate Poland. The greatest flowering of efforts in nationalization of the Church came under Zygmunt August (Sigismund Augustus) in the mid-sixteenth century. Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was the spokesman of the national Church in Poland. The archbishop of Gniezno – Rev Jakub Uchański, who demanded the convening of a national council to unify efforts of various groups of reform in Poland, also favoured Modrzewski’s views. The idea of national church collapsed in the face of wars and partitions of Poland.

Polish-Catholicism was established not in the home country but in the United States as a result of disputes within the Catholic Church among the Polish community in America in the nineteenth century. This was caused by conflicts with the Irish and German priests who did not understand the habits and problems of Polish immigrants. Initially, the resistance of the Catholics of Polish origin was chaotic. Three major centres were formally in the years 1897-1904:

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