The September 12, 2008 issue of Commonweal carried an article on trusteeism in the Roman Catholic Church. In Distrusteeism Roger Van Allen takes Roman bishops to task for seeing trusteeism as an abuse. He notes that prior to Roman bishops assuming the “corpoation sole” model of management, 97.4% of the “experiments” that allowed democratically elected lay trustees (1780-1830) to own and manage parish property were successful and without incident. He further notes that the adoption of the corporation sole model distanced bishops from their flocks, and otherwise resulted in an unhealthy centralization of worldly power among the bishops. In simple terms, the people were made mute, told to “pray, pay, and obey.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Van Allen doesn’t call for a return to such a system. He wants greater lay participation, likely in aspects of the Church where bishops should be controlling, i.e., matters of faith, doctrine, and morals. The other misstep is that Mr. Van Allen, and Notre Dame historian Scott Appleby (referenced in the article), fail to assess the success of the democratic model of Church as lived by the PNCC.

Bishop Hodur’s success centered on working with God’s people, understanding that their faithfulness to Catholic teaching did not preclude them from a voice and a vote in the secular matters of the Church, nor in its synodal undertakings. Bishop Hodur rightly saw that mankind has a role in the Church’s success, in it undertakings, in its life and work. Man is not just a follower, but a partner in building God’s Kingdom. In the second Great Principal of the PNCC we state:

…our Nazarene Master served the great purpose of preparing humanity for the Kingdom of God on earth.

The Apostles and their immediate successors took up this appointed task, and for its sake suffered and died the death of martyrs; but later generations forgot it, and became entangled in a system of Church politics directed from the Vatican. Official Christendom devoted itself to the unraveling of theological problems, to the building of magnificent cathedrals of stone, brick, gold and silver, and in curtailing human thought and freedom…and forgot about the building of a regenerated living society, the Kingdom of God on earth.

For this reason, there arose among the Polish immigrants in America, the Polish National Catholic Church, in order to remind the world…of that immortal and indispensable idea of organizing a Divine Society founded on love, heroic courage, cooperation, righteousness and brotherhood.

I hope that Mr. Van Allen and Mr. Appleby will undertake a study of the success of the democratic model of Church found in the PNCC. This model reveals unswerving faithfulness to the Catholic teaching, achieved through the active participation of God’s people in union with their clergy. It isn’t just trusteeism, it is true democracy in the Catholic Church.