For those who might not know the PNCC has its own vagantes. It’s really an interesting phenomenon. Frankly, if the bishops gathered at Nicea had known about vagantes they might have included their existence as one of the marks of the Church. ‘One, holy, catholic, apostolic, and has vagantes.’

One of the reasons I decided to cover this issue was the fact that one of the groups reached out to me with the simple request, “Potrzebujemy kontaktu z Wami!” Not likely… Also I refer to these folks as quasi-Vagantes because none of them has ventured to obtain episcopal orders. As soon as they start adding Archbishop-Metropolitan and Catholicos to their titles then they’ll have achieved — well nothing but fancy titles.

Some of the notables are:

The “Very Rev.” Thomas Rudny who claims to pastor the Holy Cross PNCC of New York. As far as I can tell there is no existing church building but he has been known to hold services at Holyrood Episcopal Church at Fort Washington Avenue and 179th Street in New York City.

The “Polish National Catholic Church in Poland“The PNCC only recognizes the Polish Catholic Church as the Church founded in Poland by our founder and first Prime Bishop Francisek Hodur. The Polish Catholic Church is a sister church to the PNCC. The PNCC does not recognize, nor does it have any relationship with the Polish National Catholic Church in Poland movement. See the PNCC website for an official statement. which is run by several priests, the “Rev.” Tomasz Rybka the Administrator of Good Shepherd parish outside Warsaw, Poland and who is also the Director of the “Samarytanin” retirement home adjacent to it, his father, the “Rev.” Jerzy Rybka, the “Very Rev.” Franciszek Rygusik and the “Rev.” Ludwik Szumowski. Their Bishop is “Archbishop” Augustyn Bačinskí½ of the Slovak Catholic Church which broke away from the Union of Utrecht shortly after the PNCC did.

It looks like the Slovak Church did not have bishops of its own at the time of their break with Utrecht. It also appears that they moved to seek episcopal orders from Archbishop António José da Costa Raposo, a vagante Bishop in the Costa line who runs the Apostolic Episcopal Church in Portugal. Like many vagantes “Archbishop” Bačinskí½ claims a mixture of Old Catholic and Orthodox orders. He has allied his church with various other vagante movements.

It should also be noted that these various movements have joined together in a loose confederation called the World Council of National Catholic Churches (note that their website seems to have disappeared). Included in this group is the Rybka group, Archbishops Costa Raposo and Bačinskí½ and the “Very Rev.” Anthony Nikolic of the “Canadian National Catholic Church.”

The Canadian church itself is interesting in that the Rev. Nikolic runs St. Anthony’s Mission out of St. John’s PNCC Cathedral in Toronto which was seized by some parishioners in an attempt to break away from the PNCC. The cathedral parish is apparently being run by the Rev. Zbigniew Kozar and Utrecht, up until recently, had recognized the breakaway group at St. John’s as its “official” North American mission. Utrecht provided them with some Episcopal oversight (see Dependent churches and municipalities under the jurisdiction of the IBK) as a slight to the PNCC. However the group may be moving toward the WCNCC and Costa Raposo because the February meeting of the Utrecht Bishop’s Conference concluded: Since 2005 the Bishops’ Conference has sought, together with the Episcopal Church, to encourage groups within the USA who call themselves Old Catholic and who could be taken seriously as a movement to work together. However, it must now be accepted that these attempts have failed as mergers have broken up again and new splinter groups have formed. The Bishops’ Conference has therefore decided to pull out completely from this area and will, in future, refer any requests to join the Union of Utrecht from so-called Old Catholic movements in North America to the Episcopal Church.

The “Reverends” Kozar and Nikolic are not part of the PNCC and seem to be little more than a conglomeration of quasi-vagantes. Because the breakaway elements in the Cathedral have allied themselves with either Utrecht or the Episcopal Church the Episcopal Diocese of Toronto works with them. The PNCC has brought suit for the return of St. John’s Cathedral. The official site of the Polish National Catholic Church’s Canadian Diocese is here.

Oh how the world of vagantes turns…