Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Category: PNCC

You are Here :
Christian Witness, PNCC, , ,

Prayer for Monday before the Holy Synod

Come Holy Spirit, enkindle the hearts of Thy faithful with the fire of Thy love!

Come, Father almighty! Open our minds to see your way, believe in your word, and know you.
Come, Lord Jesus Savior! Open our lips to speak your truth, proclaim the word, and praise you.
Come, O Holy Spirit! Open our hearts to feel your life, to act on the word, and love you.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, prepare us for your blessing; guide our Synod, and bless Your Holy Polish National Catholic Church that we may do your will, for you are one God living and true, now and forever. Amen.

Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be…

Christian Witness, PNCC, ,

Tragedy and rebuilding in faith

On Wednesday, June 13, 2012 a tragedy struck the members of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Madison, Illinois. A fire broke out at the church causing extensive damage to the building and the appointments of the parish. The fire department has done their very best to save whatever they could for the people of Sacred Heart. The Office of the Bishop of the Western Diocese is imploring all parishes and Diocese to help in any way they can, providing this little parish with deep faith and trust in God, those things necessary so that they can continue to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in Madison, Illinois.

The church was going through a remodel and the only thing left on the list, was the roof and now there’s nothing left.

“This was just our home so I just don’t know what we are going to do,” says says longtime church member Ginny Boxdorfer.

“I don’t know if they can build it back before we are all dead I don’t know,” she says.

Father Andrzej Bako has faith that his parish is strong and will rise from the ashes.

“From the loss and from the people comes strength and will to rebuild,” says Father Bako.

The Western Diocese is accepting monetary donations via Paypal or by check to assist the parish in rebuilding. Please make checks payable to the Western Diocese and mail them to the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church at 920 N. Northwest Hwy. Park Ridge, IL. 60068. Indicate on the memo line–Sacred Heart Fire Fund.

God bless you all and please pray for Father Andrzej Bako and the Faithful of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Madison, Illinois.

Christian Witness, PNCC, , ,

Pray to the Holy Spirit – Special Synod of the PNCC

Our Holy Church, in its democratic tradition, and honoring the practices of the Church as they existed from the time of the apostles, has called a special synod to elect two new candidates for the office of Bishop.

Our Church has two unfilled offices, the Bishop of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese and the Bishop of the Western Diocese.

Delegates from across the Church will gather in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Friday, June 22nd, to elect two priests as candidates. Our former pastor, Fr. Stanley Bilinski as well as Fr. Raymond Drada, and Fr. Jerzy Rafalko have been nominated as candidates and were accepted by the review commission.

Please, please, pray during the month and the days leading up to the Special Synod, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit be poured out generously on our Holy Church.

Come, O Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-giver; take up Your dwelling within my soul, and make of it Your sacred temple. Make me live by grace as an adopted child of God. Pervade all the energies of my soul, and create in me a fountain of living water springing up into life everlasting.

Especially allow our Special Holy Synod to gather and deliberate all the while having wonder in Your Presence. Allow them to depend on Your interaction in the election of candidates to the Office of Bishop in Your Church.

Events, PNCC, , , , ,

Civil War re-enactors enjoy Polish Food

From the Tribune Democrat: Bandshell series to commence with performance, encampment

Roxbury Bandshell on Franklin Street in Johnstown will be the site of a summer concert series that benefits the continued preservation of the historic structure.

Music and a Civil War encampment will begin at 2 p.m. May 27 as the Roxbury Bandshell Preservation Alliance launches its entertainment schedule.

The alliance saved the historic structure from demolition, and a team of volunteers has worked tirelessly to raise money to pay for ongoing repairs.

A big part of that effort has been the development of the concert series.

Mary Borkow, alliance president, is eager to kick off the series and commemorate Memorial Day.

“Our initial concert will begin with members of the 54th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry conducting a flag-raising,” Borkow said. “They are a dedicated group of re-enactors who show people what the life of a soldier was like during the Civil War.”

The encampment has been a popular addition to the event, and parents enjoy bringing their children to the park to take part in the experience.

“The 54th will offer our visitors an opportunity to witness authentic drills, cooking demonstrations and a Civil War-era medical tent during a re-enactment,” Borkow said.

“It’s quite educational, and it’s the best way to learn about the Civil War without going to Gettysburg.”

The remaining concerts will begin at 5 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 9, except for the last concert, which will begin at 2 with an open-mic stage.

Along with the military camp, people will enjoy performances by Ole 97, a Johnny Cash tribute band, at 3; and the Desperados’ rock sounds at 5.

The alliance is inviting people to sample food provided by members of Holy Cross National Catholic Church in Moxham (534 Woodland Ave, Johnstown, PA).

Parishioners Pam Fish and Linda Ringler will lead a team that will prepare hamburgers, hot dogs, gobs and occasionally authentic Polish dishes such as pierogi and haluski.

Proceeds from food sales and any donations collected at the free concerts will go toward the bandshell’s restoration fund.

“We have had a good response when we pass around a drum for people to donate, and we appreciate every penny,” Borkow said.

All the musicians have donated their time and talents toward the preservation effort.

Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Polish Constitution Day celebrated in the Cleveland area

From WTAM and also at Newsnet5: Celebrating the Polish Constitution: Big parade held in Parma.

The annual Polish Heritage Parade was held in Parma Sunday afternoon [May 6th].

Thousands watched as marchers stepped off at Parma Circle, and made their way on Ridge Road to Essen Avenue in honor of Polish Constitution Day.

After the parade there was a party at the Little Polish Diner on Ridge Road.

Festivities actually began on Friday with a celebration at the Donna Smallwood Activities Center, and continued Saturday at Polonia Hall.

Polish Constitution Day is celebrated around the nation. The constitution was ratified on May 3, 1791, with Poland being the second nation in the world to do so, following the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788.

A friend in Cleveland advises that there were two Polish Constitution Day parades in the Cleveland area. One held a week ago in Little Warsaw or Slavic Village in the city, and the one noted above in the suburb of Parma. He rightly points out that it is amazing because the bulk of Polish immigration arrived in the United States over a hundred years ago. And yet, we the descendants still remember our Polish ancestry and our cultural and democratic heritage.

St. Mary’s PNCC Parish in Parma took part in Sunday’s parade. You can view photos at their website.

Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

PNCC Pastor, Fr. Bernard Nowicki to lead the 75th Pulaski Day parade in Manhattan

From The Jersey Journal: Bayonne pastor Rev. Bernard Nowicki to lead the 75th Pulaski Day parade in Manhattan and the Am-Pol Eagle.

Rev. Bernard Nowicki, pastor of the Heart of Jesus Polish National Catholic Church in Bayonne, will lead the contingent for the 2012 tri-state Pulaski Day parade in Manhattan and for the activities in celebration of the 75th anniversary year.

His selection was announced by Richard Romelczyk, chairman of the Bayonne Pulaski Memorial Parade Committee.

Fr. Nowicki was honored at a Sashing Brunch on April 14 at the Chandelier Restaurant in Bayonne.

Fr. Nowicki is a native of western New York where he participated in the Polish dancing troupe founded by his mother, participated in a seven-week church youth excursion to Poland, was a presenter of Polish language declamations and poetry at celebratory occasions, and appeared in various stage presentations.

Fr. Nowicki served as the pastor of two parishes in the Pittsburgh area where he met and married Barbara Ann Liberasky. They have a daughter, Berit Elizabeth, who resides in Massachusetts.

Fr. Nowick is chaplain of the NY-NJ Seniorate United Choirs, a chapter of the PNC National United Choirs (NUC) that was organized to advance and preserve Polish musical culture.

PNCC, , ,

PNCC Student Brings History Alive

From the Wilkes-Barre Dallas Post: Bringing History Alive

Thirteen projects earned a first, second or third place award, which is a record number for Lake-Lehman. Twenty-two students from the district will move on to the state competition, to be held May 4 and 5 at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
One student from Dallas High School, Peter Shaver, won first place for his individual research paper and will be attending the state competition.

First place, Individual Performance: Courtney McMonagle (Grade 10), for her project entitled “The Polish National Catholic Church: Their Reaction, Revolution, and Reformation.”

One Norman Rockwell painting had enough influence to shape a History Day project for four Lake-Lehman students.

“The Problem We All Live With,” by Norman Rockwell, depicts 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, the first black student to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960, as she walks to school. Surrounding little Ruby are four U.S. Marshalls, whose heads were left out of the painting.

The students displayed the project, called “Building Bridges: Empowering Racial Harmony,” at the regional History Day competition at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus in Lehman Township on March 24.

“We just loved it,” said 15-year-old Emma Evans, of Lehman Township. “It was very inspiring.”

Evans and fellow 15-year-olds Mandy Scavone, Julia Pilch and Emily Crawford designed an exhibit to tell viewers – and judges – more about Ruby Bridges’ plight during the Civil Rights Movement.

“She was really brave,” Pilch, of Shavertown, said of the painting’s subject. “She was only six. When people told her to go away, she prayed instead of getting angry.”

The theme of this year’s History Day contest is “Revolution, React, Reform in History,” and the girls from Lake-Lehman thought Bridges’ story was nothing short of revolutionary.

The rules of History Day allow students to choose from a few different mediums to display their topic. Some choose exhibits, others pick performance, some can build websites, while others create documentaries to get their points across.

Several of the 55 Lake-Lehman students who participated in the contest chose documentary, while 16 participating Dallas students chose several different mediums to present their historical findings.

The Back Mountain area students were part of the competition that included 213 students from 17 school districts located in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Peters and 16-year-old Mike Podskoch, both of Dallas, stood nervously outside a technology classroom where other students were showing their documentaries on Saturday.

They made a documentary called, “The New Deal: A Revolution in Government,” which featured 1930s photographs of men holding signs to find work, people lined up outside various buildings and other Depression-era images, with narration from both students.

“I’ve always had a fascination with 1930s and 1940s history,” said Peters. “The New Deal can’t be applied; you have to show it. We thought the photographs and music would invoke emotion.”

Despite having a background in the subject, Peters was not prepared for the competition and judging process.

“I’ve been to History Day before but did not compete,” he said. “It’s interesting. I’m a little bit nervous. I didn’t expect this many judges – maybe three or four, not, like, 12.”

Back in the exhibit part of the competition, veteran History Day competitor Peter Kuritz, 16, of Shavertown kept his partner, 14-year-old James Rinehart of Dallas, from getting nervous.

The pair designed an exhibit about Otto von Bismarck, first chancellor of the German Empire.

“He talked more about diplomacy than war,” Kuritz, who has participated in History Day three times, said of his project’s subject.. “I thought it was interesting how he unified Germany to become a central power, a strong power.”

Rinehart was most interested in the creation of Germany.

“Germany wasn’t just one country,” he said.

“But one man unified the whole country,” added Kuritz.

Congratulations to Courtney and all the students who designed project.

Christian Witness, PNCC, , ,

To comfort in the midst of sadness and violence

From the Chicago Tribune: Family, friends gather at Brighton Park home of slain 13-year-old

On the quiet Southwest Side block where many of the kids spend their days playing outside, faces were grim Sunday as more than 50 neighbors gathered around the steps where 13-year-old Adrian Luna was shot and killed.

“It is very hard to lose a loved one,” the Rev. Jose Rojas told the crowd, warning that the community should come together to prevent such violence from happening again. “Today, it happened to them. Tomorrow, it could be any of us.”

Adrian, whose full name was Roberto Adrian Luna though he went by his middle name, was hanging out with two friends Saturday night on the steps to his Brighton Park neighborhood home in the 4600 block of South Spaulding Avenue.

“Chillen like a villain,” Luna posted on Facebook just before 9 p.m. Saturday.

An hour later, the teenager was dead and two of his friends wounded after two gunmen apparently emerged from a gangway and started shooting at the trio, police and family said.

Adrian’s older brother, Mario Lopez, 29, was a few houses away and ran towards his fallen brother.

“I ran screaming his name. I saw him in a fetal position,” Lopez said, tears welling in his eyes. “… He stopped breathing in my arms.”

Family said the Irene C. Hernandez Middle School 7th-grader was a happy-go-lucky kid who excelled at math and loved horror movies. On Easter Sunday, Adrian had planned to prank his family on by hiding oranges instead of eggs for the hunt, family said.

“He was just a baby,” said Erik Lopez, 28, another of Adrian’s brothers. “They took a kid full of life, a kid full of joy.”

Among Adrian’s close friends are the two others wounded in the attack. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the forearm and thigh, and a 16-year-old boy was shot in the arm, but their relatives said their injuries are not life-threatening.

The mother of one of 16-year-old victim said her son told her one of the gunmen emerged from the gangway next to Adrian’s home and asked the teens what gang they were in. The teens told the gunman they were not in a gang — something police corroborated, though they said the shooting may be related to gang conflicts in the area.

“Even so, he shot them,” the victim’s mother said. “You’re not safe anywhere.”

Police said no one was in custody Sunday evening.

As Adrian’s family tearfully looked out at the gathered crowd, Rojas, the pastor at St. John the Baptist National Catholic Church (Parroquia San Juan Bautista), sprinkled holy water on the steps where Adrian died.

With that, neighbors reached into their pockets and donated money to help Adrian’s family bury the teenager.

“It’s not about revenge,” the priest told the crowd. “It’s about prevention.”

Dale Señor el descanso eterno.
Brille para él la luz perpetua.
Descanse en paz. Amén

Homilies, PNCC,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Institution of the PNCC

If I’m part of the vine…
can I drink more wine?

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

We have been studying family as our Lenten theme. Today, we lighten our Lenten practice a bit and engage in a celebration of – no wait – yes family. Amazing isn’t it?
Today we celebrate the organization of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church.

Church can be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing it certainly isn’t is a stagnant shell of a corporation based on dusty old books.

Church is the reality of our relationship as family in Christ. There are so many quotes about that, but a key one is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4:4-6:

There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.

We have been grafted onto Jesus. He is the vine and we are the braches. That makes us one being, one entity, and sharers in His nourishment and love.

If Church were dusty old books, it would not be a living entity. If it were a stagnant shell, we would have no reason to be part of it, or feel alive in it.

Being part of the vine does give us reason to celebrate, to become intoxicated with the happiness that comes from being part of the living body of Christ.

Our Holy Church is a beacon and the joy of life. It is a place of happiness, reconciliation, mutual labor and support, the one place where we can endeavor together to reach God.

In the Holy Church we find ourselves already connected to God, part of Him, members of His family – and as St. Paul focuses on, one in every aspect of who we are.

We are not strangers who bump into each other on occasion. We are Polish National Catholics who live and abide in Jesus Christ, who bring His life filled Church, His life-giving message, to the world. There we will gather and join others to the life-giving vine, the place where we will all drink the wine of joy!

PNCC,

Ś+P Bishop Jan Dawidziuk

The Bishop Emeritus of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church has entered into his eternal rest. The Rt. Rev. ś.p. Jan Dawidziuk passed the morning of Tuesday, March 6th.

Arrangement are as follows:

St. Mary’s PNC Church in Parma, Ohio

Wake/Viewing: Thursday, March 8th from 4 – 8 p.m.
Requiem Vespers: Thursday, March 8th at 7 p.m.
Funeral Mass & Burial: Friday, March 9th at 10 a.m.

More information to follow.

Eternal rest grant unto your servant, priest, and bishop Jan and may the perpetual light shine upon him. Amen.

May he rest in peace.

Boże, któryś pośród Apostolskich Kapłanów sługę Twego Jan biskupią–kapłańską–godnością obdarzyċ raczył, a teraz łaskawie z ucisku i walk tego świata wyprowadził, spraw, prosimy Cię, ażeby z Twego Miłosierdzia w poczet świętych Twoich zaliczony został. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.

Wieczny odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie
A światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci.

Niech odpoczywa w pokoju. Amen.

Bishop Emeritus Jan Dawidziuk, former Bishop Ordinary of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church died Tuesday, March 6, at Parma Community General Hospital. He was 74.

Bishop Dawidziuk, had served parishes in Illinois, Wisconsin, and St. Louis before his assignment as pastor of St. Mary’s Polish National Catholic Church in Parma, Ohio in 1986. In 1999, he was elevated to the office of bishop after being elected to the office at the Church’s Special Synod that same year. He served as Diocesan Bishop of the Western Diocese, which includes parishes in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Missouri, and Washington from 2003 to 2009. In his retirement he assisted by serving at St. Mary’s parish.

“The church is the same everywhere, and people are almost the same,” Bishop Dawidziuk told the Mosinee Times of Wisconsin in 1983.

St. Mary’s current pastor, Rev. Stanley Bilinski, said Dawidziuk was a peacemaker. “He hated conflict. He sought to see all sides. He always sought resolution and collaboration.”

Bishop Dawidziuk was born in Kolczyn, Poland and raised mostly in Siedlce. The Germans invaded before he turned 2. He graduated from a seminary in Seidlce and was ordained in Poland in 1960. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees at the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw, doing some of his research in Rome. Besides his native Polish, he learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian and English. He taught at the academy and high school levels in Opole, Poland.

In 1981, Bishop Dawidziuk emigrated to the United States with his family. He also joined the Greater Cleveland Ministerial Association and held many positions in the Polish National Catholic Church, including delegate to its Supreme Council in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Bishop Dawidziuk retired in 2009 and moved to Berea, Ohio. Survivors include his wife, the former Anna Fedorowicz, a daughter and a grandson.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023