Live on in Me, as I do in you. No more than a branch can bear fruit of itself apart from the vine, can you bear fruit apart from Me.

Today we celebrate the democratic Catholic ideals of the Polish National Catholic Church. Today we celebrate the 110th anniversary of the founding of our Holy Church.

We continue, each day, year after year, to proclaim Christ, and to advance those democratic Catholic ideals, and to acknowledge with thanksgiving those who came before us.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the meaning of Catholic democracy. So my question: Why a democratic Church?

Let’s talk a little about the means before we discuss the ends.

The Constitution of the PNCC is very clear in assigning various roles and duties to the members of the PNCC. These assignments come from our understanding of Church as a Divinely established society of believers united together.

The Confession of Faith of the PNCC, which each member makes, states in paragraph six:

I BELIEVE in the need of uniting all followers of Christ’s religion into the one body of God’s Church, and that the Church of Christ, Apostolic and Universal, is the representation of this Divine community of mankind

As such, each professing member has spiritual and material duties toward the Church. Further, the Constitution of the PNCC lays out the authority of the Church as being vested in three branches: the legislative, executive and judicial.

In matters of Faith, morals and discipline the authority of this Church lies in the hands of the Prime Bishop, Diocesan Bishops and Clergy united with them. In administrative, managerial and social matters, this Church derives its authority from the people who build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it. Therefore, all Parish property is the property of those united with the Parish, who build and support the Church, and conform to the Rite, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of the Church.

This society then, this coming together of people is ordered and organized so that it fulfills its duties.

The democracy of the Church is the means to achieving the Church’s ends. In response to my question: Why a democratic Church? I answer: To carry out the objective and aim of the Church.

Our Constitution has a Preamble and it states the following:

The first and foremost objective and aim of this Church is the salvation and sanctification of the Polish people and of all others united with this Church…

By divine imperative the sacred mission of this Church is to carry the light of Jesus Christ before the people, constantly reminding them that their aim is to live in the spirit of God, in truth, love and righteousness, seeking the truth by reading and studying the Holy Scriptures with the aid of the accumulated wisdom of the ages.

Each time we look at the magnificent gift we have been given, the living Church which has been handed on to us, we must remember that democracy is the means to a preordained end.

Some misunderstand, thinking that the Church has been given to them, in its democratic form, as a personal possession. It has not. Some think that democracy is a good onto itself. It is not. Some think that ownership, possession, and control are the gift they have received. They would be wrong.

We have not received possession, control, or ownership, but rather we have taken on the solemn and awesome duty of stewardship. We are obligated, in accepting this stewardship, to use all we have been given, by God, for God’s purposes. God’s purposes as taught to us by His son, Jesus Christ.

Whenever we lose sight of the purpose, the goal of our democratic Church, whenever we lose sight of democracy, not as a good in and of itself, but as a tool to meeting the aim and objective of Jesus Christ as faithfully taught by the Holy Church, recall the great painting that appears in St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cathedral. Jesus is leading, Bishop Hodur following, the clergy and people following thereafter.

Jesus is in the lead, the Bishops following in His footsteps, and the democratic Church following thereafter as stewards of God’s gifts.

If we fail to heed that message, the warnings Paul gave to Timothy will apply to us:

some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared

If we rightly understand our obligations, if we clearly see the One who leads, if we remain united to the Holy Church and God’s purposes then Jesus’ words will apply to us:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.