Old Catholic Church in Poland
| Old Catholic Church in Poland | |
|---|---|
| Polish: Kościół Starokatolicki w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej | |
 | |
| Type | Independent Catholicism |
| Classification | Polish Catholicism |
| Orientation | Western Christianity |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Prime Bishop | Dariusz Majewski |
| Language | Polish |
| Liturgy | Latin liturgical rites |
| Headquarters | Lodz, Poland |
| Origin | 1931 |
| Members | 535 (2016) |
| Official website | |
The Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland - a Polish-Catholic legally operating in Poland, entered under 110 on 1 April 1996 to a register of churches and other religious associations in Poland run by the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The Superior of the Church is bishop Dariusz Majewski. In 2016, there were 535 believers in Poland.
History
Polish Old Catholic Church
The Old Catholic Church in Poland is a continuation of the mission of the Polish Old Catholic Church, which was established in 1933 as a result of the split in the Polish diocese of the Polish Catholic Church.
The first bishop of the Polish Old Catholic Church was Wladyslaw Faron, who left the PNKK structure in 1931. In the interwar Poland, the Old Catholic Church operated as an informal union with the parish priest of Father Józef Kostorz from the Old Catholic Church in Germany. After World War II in Poland, the Old Catholic Church entered the ecclesial union with the Polish Old Catholic Churches: the Old Catholic Church of Mariavite and the mission diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church. However, in 1948 it broke up after Bishop Faron and a few priests joined the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop Zygmunt Szypold became the superior of the Polish Old Catholic Church. After his death, the authorities of the Polish People's Republic suspended the activities of the Church (1965), citing a lack of authority. The faithful of the Polish Old Catholic Church either went to other churches or practiced underground faith until the resumption of the official activity of the Church, made through the entry into the Register of Churches and Religious Unions in the Ministry of Interior and Administration by Fr. Bishop Wojciech Kolm in 1996. In Hamburg, despite the suspension of the Church's activity, father Klaudiusz Perendyk, who later joined the Orthodox Church. The consequence of the suspension of the activities of the Old Catholic Church was very acute, because the Church lost many sacred objects, which were often illegally acquired by the Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church.
The Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland
In 1996, Father Wojciech Kolm community has made an entry under the name of Old Catholic Church in the Polish Register of churches and other religious organizations Ministry of Interior, and the decision of the Synod of the Church in 1999, he was elected bishop and he was consecrated bishop at the hands of the Superior of the Order of Mariavite in Germany - Nobert Udo Szuwart. His church activity was linked to a number of abuses, both religious and legal. His leadership of the Church practically ended in 2000, when he was sent to jail for a crime against the customs. It was not until 2006 that the church court removed him from office and excommunicated him.
Since 2000, the acting supervisor was Bishop Marek Kordzik, but in the register of churches and other religious figures as the head of the church from July 25, 2006, because it was necessary to his election to the National Synod in accordance with the requirements of the then-current church law.
In 2009 Bishop Marek Kordzik has reformed the administration of the Church and ordered pastoral matters. On Holy Thursday of the same year the parish of Sts. Padre Pio and the Christ the King, the Eternal High Priest in Chorzow - now in Bytom (from the transfer of the parish community from Grudziadz), and a month later erected parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Dzially Czarnowskie, operating at a retirement home. At the same time, the parish of the Church in Kamienna Góra was erected. In November 2011, there were also pastoral posts in Biala Wielka and Warsaw.
On the decision of the Church authorities, on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 in Czarnowskie Dzialy took place 4th Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland. During the vote, Bishop Marek Jan Kordzik (term 2012-2018) was re-elected by the Superior of the Old Catholic Church. During the discussion the current issues were discussed, and the direction of the development of the parish and missionary communities in the coming years was discussed.
In 2013 under the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland has been accepted the parish of St. Stanislav, Marcin of Tours in Nowogrodek in Belarus, and in 2015 the Parish of Black Madonna of Czestochowa from Glasgow, Scotland, which on June 1, 2016 under the jurisdiction of the National Catholic Church in Poland, and on June 12, 2017 returned to the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Church in Poland.
On August 15, 2016 the Old Catholic Church in Poland under the agreement with the Ecumenical Center for the Dialogue of Religions and Cultures started a pastoral ministry in the Church of Sts. Stanislaw Kostka in Aleksandrów Łódzki. On 18 September 2016 the clergy of the Church together with the bishops Marek Kordzik and Wojciech Kolm took part in the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the city of Aleksandrów Łódzki.
August 18, 2016 Archbishop Willian Dorea signed on behalf of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church in Brazil, an intercom with the Old Catholic Church in Poland. Both churches see the source of their apostolic succession with Bishop Jan Perkowski, who belonged to Bishop Wladyslaw Faron's political sympathizers, and joined him in the organization of the Polish Old Catholic Church. Bishop Marek Kordzik was the Primate of the Diocese of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church. In Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Spain or Italy.
Bishop Marek Kordzik, Superior of the Old Catholic Church in Poland, died on December 10, 2016 in Lodz as a result of cardiovascular failure. By the time of the Synod of the Church in urgent matters, according to § 58 par. 2 The law of the Inner Church is decided jointly by the clergy, who ex officio form part of the council of the Church. On January 14, 2017 during the Extraordinary Synod of Lodz in the Republic of Poland, Rev. Arthur Wiecinski.
The teaching of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
The teaching of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland does not diverge from the faith and tradition of the Holy Universal and Apostolic Church. The highest church honors God in the one and only Holy Trinity. The Church honors the angels, the apostles, the martyrs and the saints, and among them in a special way the Virgin Mary. The Church recognizes the traditional 7 sacraments, according to the teachings of the Western Catholic Church. Holy Communion is given in two forms: the Body and Blood of the Lord. In the Old Catholic Church there is a traditional personal confession and the universal confession of her. The liturgy of the Church is in accordance with the principles and liturgical guidelines of the Roman Catholic Church, although in some parishes there is a tradition of celebrating the Mass. In a pre-baptismal rite, but always in Polish.
Celebrations and festivals of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
In liturgical activities, the Church uses the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church year, the Gregorian calendar. Celebrations and celebrations of the Church are celebrated in accordance with the tradition of Polish Catholicism, and the following holidays are celebrated only in the Old Catholic Church in Poland:
- 25 January - The patron saint of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle
- IV Easter Sunday - Good Shepherd's Day
- I Sunday after the Feast of Corpus Christi - Feast of Christ the High Priest
- I Sunday June - The Feast of the Founding of the Church
- I Sunday October - Feast of the Christian Family
- 11 November - Independence Day of the Homeland
- I Sunday after Christmas - the Feast of the Poor Shepherds.
Social and charitable activities
The Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland fulfills its statutory tasks by conducting extensive social and charitable actions in local communities. In the cathedral parish of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Lodz, thanks to the cooperation with the Ecumenical Good Shepherd Foundation, free legal and administrative advice is provided free of charge, as well as financial assistance, regardless of confessional status. The Lodz ministry is also involved in the historical reconstruction of the Iron Star Ore Collection Group in Lodz. In Bytom there is also a deacon's activity among the poorest families of the Upper Silesian agglomeration.
Bishops of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
Superiors of the Old Catholic Church over the years:
- bishop Wojciech Zdzisław Kolm (b. 1959)
- bishop Marek Jan Kordzik (1955-2016)
- archbishop Arthur Wiecinski (b. 1991)
- bishop Dariusz Majewski (b. 1969)
Currently, in the Church of the Old Catholic Church in Poland, the bishop's office holds:
- Bishop - Henryk Tymoteusz Marciniak
Clergy
The priest of the Old Catholic Church in Poland may be a man who has completed the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw - the Faculty of Theology, the Old Catholic Section or another equivalent Catholic theological school and has received the approval of the Church authorities and at least the ordination of the diaconate. The Church also has a Higher Seminary (based in Warszawa), whose rector is father m. theol. Artur Miłański. Clerics are also welcomed from other Churches, where the problem of celibacy is an obstacle to their canonical work. The bishop in the Old Catholic Church in Poland is a priest elected by the Synod of the Nation. The priest has celibacy, but the bishop has the right to give dispensation in special cases, for example when the priest has married before priestly ordination. The Church has liturgical dresses similar to those in the Roman Catholic Church or pre-Vatican Rite. There are also choir dresses in the case of titular privilege Infułata or Canon. The Church can create canonical chapters, cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and costumes and dystonia as in the Roman Catholic Church. Church clergy provide religious services to everyone, regardless of their confessional status, i.e., the sacraments to every faithful who recognizes Catholic doctrine on the sacraments, and sacramentals to all Christians.
Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
The supreme legislative authority in the Old Catholic Church is the Synod (it is all clergy and one lay member of each parish) who manages the whole Church as well as its material goods, agendas and clerics. Synod is convened every 6 years. In the inter-synodic period, the executive and legislative power is exercised by the priestly council of the Old Catholic Church, consisting of all active clergy. Since the Fourth Synod of Poland, some of the tasks remaining so far in the competence of the Levitical Council have been transferred to inter-synod committees.
- I Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
11-12 November 1996, Jelenia Góra
The Synod adopted a report on the activity of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland in 1993-1996. It was confirmed the function of the head of the Church for father Wojciech Kolm.
- II Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
November 11-12, 2000, Lodz
The Synod adopted a report on the activities of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland in 1996-2000. The synod adopted the applicable Internal Law of the Old Catholic Church in Poland.
- III Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
November 11-12, 2006, Lodz
The Synod adopted a report on the activities of the Old Catholic Church in Poland in the years 2000-2006. At the head of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland, Bishop Marek Jan Kordzik, who was ingressed in Lodz in 2007, was elected acting vicar general.
- IV Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
June 27, 2012, Czarnowskie Działy
The Synod adopted a report on the activities of the Old Catholic Church in Poland in 2006-2012. Again, Bishop Marek Kordziek was re-elected to the head of the Old Catholic Church in Poland. A number of amendments to the Internal Law governing the issues of priestly discipline and Church property were adopted at the Synod. The necessity of reactivating the suspended seminary seminar and setting up a press body has been reported. The competences of the Holy See Priest Council and three inter-synodal commissions were established: ecclesiastical law, interfaith and liturgical dialogue. Some of the applications for consideration were transferred to the autumn meeting of the Levitical Council.
- V Extraordinary Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
January 14, 2017, Lodz
On December 10, 2016, Bishop Marek Kordzik, who was the Superior of the Old Catholic Church in Poland, died. According to the applicable Internal Law of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland (§ 44. 2), in the event of the death of the Minister, the Synod shall summon the Vicar General of the Church or the oldest bishop or clergyman if the Vicar General is not vacant. The synod should be convened not later than three months after the death of the summoner. December 11, 2016, it was decided that the Synod will take place on January 14, 2017, to elect a new bishop - Synod elected to the new Superior of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland - Reverend Arthur Wiecinski.
- VI Extraordinary Synod of the Old Catholic Church in Poland
July 21st, 2017, Wojcieszów
On 21-22 July 2017 the Extraordinary Synod of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland took place. July 22, 2017 On the second day of the Synod, as planned, the bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Poland were ordained. Bishop. E. Artur Wiciński, who according to the applicable Canon Law of the Old Catholic Church in Poland received the title of Archbishop, according to the historical tradition of the Church during the time of Archbishop Wladyslaw Faron, where the Church Superior received the title of archbishop of the community. During the same synod a formal election of Rev. Robert Matysiak for the Bishop of the Diocese of Germany of the Old Catholic Church in Poland.
Administration of the Church
The church is one diocese in Poland and Belarus, the other in Germany, and also has a foreign province in Brazil and a territorial prefecture in the United Kingdom. As a whole there are 10 parishes, 23 ministers working in ministry (including 4 bishops and 1 bishop - elect), about 5500 faithful in five countries. The Cathedral of the Church is in Łódź, while the seat of the curia in Wojcieszów. There is also the Order of the Friars Minor of Divine Mercy, which is based in Lodz - Fr. Kazimierz Dorocinski. At the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland there is also the Church Seminary of the Old Catholic Church, where the teaching of 13 Church leaders will begin in September.
Parishes and pastoral sites abroad
- Parish of St. Martin of Tours in Navahrudak, parish priest: Rev. Dmitryj Bondar