Polish National Catholic Church Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) is a member of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht and the only member church of the Union of Utrecht based outside Western or Central Europe (though it was not so when the Philippine Independent or Aglipayan Church briefly joined the Union of Utrecht).The PNCC was founded in the late 1800s in North America by Polish Roman Catholics resentful of diocesan ownership of their parishes and the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in North America at that time by German and Irish prelates. (In this way the movement response for the PNCC's formation resembles the movement amongst the Ruthenian/Carpatho-Russian Uniates in North America away from Roman Catholicism and towards Orthodoxy.) Its first leader and bishop was Francis Hodur.
Today the PNCC is the largest member of the Union of Utrecht with approximately 250,000 members. All orders of its clergy are allowed to marry (including bishops) and the Holy Mass is celebrated in both Polish (the vernacular of the PNCC's founders) and local vernaculars. As a member of the Union of Utrecht the PNCC rejects a number of Roman Catholic theological novelties, including the infallibility of the Pope, the Immaculate Conception of Mary the Ever-Virgin and Mother of God, and original sin.
Although the PNCC has entered into tentative negotiations with the Orthodox Church in North America, no union has resulted due to the PNCC's refusal to abandon several Western novelties (the Western view of the Holy Trinity and of the sacraments included).