I am a lapsed Catholic. Not exactly newsworthy, I know, and not exactly a singular situation. There's a lot of us lapsed across this land of ours. Different reasons, of course, but lapsed is lapsed.I'd say that there are a great many lapsed Catholics who hit their knees each and every Sunday at the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass, all the while no more than numbly going through the motions. It's a free country...so far. Your religious beliefs, or lack of them, are your business alone.
My Dad was raised in a devout Catholic home, my Mom in a devout Welsh Baptist environment. They were a handsome couple. Our home was one of tolerance, religious and otherwise. How'd you like to have that sedan parked in your garage right now? God, me too.
My education was first entrusted to Sisters, Servants of The Immaculate Heart of Mary, the beloved IHM sisters. Great, great women. From there, it was off to several years of Jesuit thinking. I still have an enormous admiration for members of The Society of Jesus. So, while not a theologically intellectual giant, I do know my stuff.
Although there is great diversity within the Catholic Church, many Catholics are completely unaware of this colorful quilt that offers myriad means to the same end. Here, in NE PA, there is at least a nominal awareness. We know the term Byzantine Rite; we know Ukrainian Catholics, Magyar(Hungarian) Catholics, Melkite and Maronite Catholics. This RC diocese was one of the first and last that was drawn along ethnic lines.
We also know Polish National Catholics. In fact, the Polish National Catholic Church can trace its beginnings, indeed its founding, to 1897, on the south side of Scranton. My Dad told me all about 
it when I was a kid. He told me about Francis Hodur. That Hodur would be a hero to my Dad is an oddity, because my Dad was ridiculously Irish.
Francis Hodur was as Polish as Karol Wotyja, as Lech Walesa, more Polish than Bobby Vinton. My Dad greatly admired Francis Hodur. As time wore on, he became Bishop Francis Hodur. That is he to your right. On the left is St. Stanislaus Cathedral, the original Mother Church of The PNCC.
I learned an awful lot of good things from my Dad. Let me tell you a bit about Vincent Thomas Sweeney.
To begin with, I am Vincent Thomas Sweeney, Junior, by my own choice. My parents, and I am confident both of their souls now rest, named and offered me for baptism as plain old Vincent Sweeney. They both so disliked the "junior" suffix. Neither of them were comfortable with me being "Little Vincie." I never was.
The "junior" is something I carry proudly at the end of my name by choice, being added when I was confirmed on a cold and snowy winter's night by Bishop Jerome D. Hannon. Us Catholics, lapsed and active and not quite sure, know all about the sacrament of Confirmation, it's the one that comes with a slap in the face, albeit a gentle one. The middle name of "Thomas" and tag of "Junior" were both my choices alone, because taking my Dad's name, his full name, was important. He was a great guy. God, as corny as it sounds, my father was both a "gentleman" and a "gentle man."
His greatness was no better manifest than in his disdain for misused and abused power of authority. He saw much of that in the Catholic Church. More specifically, he saw the imperious misuse of power in the Diocese of Scranton, which is why my father considered Francis Hodur, first Bishop and de facto founder of the The Polish National Catholic Church, a hero, a man worthy of admiration, a man whose story should be told to his son.
Francis Hodur, Polish immigrant and seminarian, was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1893 in St. Peter's Cathedral in downtown Scranton. The same Francis Hodur was consecrated a bishop in Utrecht, Holland, in 1907 by The Old Catholic Church, a church itself founded because intelligent and thinking European Catholics had problems with papal infallibility - me, too. During those intervening years, much had happened, including Hodur's excommunucation. It has been widely reported that upon receiving his excommunication document, he burned it, throwing the ashes in a nearby brook. True? If so, good for him.
Parishioners at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish in South Scranton, all Polish immigrants or sons and daughters of the same, had gotten on the wrong side of one Bishop William O'Hara, Ordinary of The Diocese of Scranton. Seems the Poles of South Side wanted more control of their parish than the good Irish bishop was accustomed to allowing. There was a riot. People were hurt, several dozen people, when police attempted to break things up. Francis Hodur, then a priest at a parish in Nanticoke, was asked by those at odds with O'Hara to come help them with their problems. Hodur tried, and tried, and tried.Father Hodur went so far as to travel to Rome and The Vatican in an attempt to negotiate peace between the parties involved. He could not. His pleadings were met with turned backs and dismissive actions. Sound familiar?
Returning to Prospect Avenue in South Scranton, Hodur was ultimately bounced from the Roman Catholic Church, officially excommunicated, making him an unwitting hero to his fellow Polish immigrants. Before long, they reciprocated, by organizing and voting to end all ties with the Diocese of Scranton, Rome, and all else that they saw as oppressive, unfair, and downright un-Christian. My opinion is that they were justified in doing so. These people had guts. Poles have a history of being courageous, one stretching back to antiquity - they also have a history of being very smart, intelligent, blessed with great minds. Their theology in breaking with Rome was and remains as rock-solid as the anthracite that built their American lives.
Perhaps it's an oversimplicfication to say this, but all those people wanted was a bit more control over their parishes in terms of the physical property itself. They'd sweat and worked like mules to pay for their church buildings, they wanted to hold deed to them. The bishop said no. As tradition dictated, and he enforced and reinforced, the deeds would be held by him, and any bishop who might succeed him.
There were other flash points, but the one that lore claims snapped the twig was O'Hara's directive that these Poles cease and desist celebrating Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, a tradition that dated back centuries to the old country.
Bishop O'Hara acted in a predictable stern and tyrannical manner, subsequent to which the shepherd's flock, or at least a part of it, revolted. The result is a church still strong and vibrant today, a church Catholic in every sense of the word, yet not in union with Rome. Polish National Catholic orders 
and sacraments are as valid and sound as the Church of Rome's.
Apostolic Succession, so important to the Church of Rome, exists unbroken within The PNCC. There are no dogmatic barriers between the two churches. What barriers exist are purely administrative.
The beloved, and likely to be canonized, Pope John Paul II recognized this. He'd hoped for a normalization of relations between the two churches. In some measure, there is that normalization, yet the Polish National Catholic Church remains independent and autonomous.
and sacraments are as valid and sound as the Church of Rome's.Apostolic Succession, so important to the Church of Rome, exists unbroken within The PNCC. There are no dogmatic barriers between the two churches. What barriers exist are purely administrative.
The beloved, and likely to be canonized, Pope John Paul II recognized this. He'd hoped for a normalization of relations between the two churches. In some measure, there is that normalization, yet the Polish National Catholic Church remains independent and autonomous.
It's a little beyond 100 years since Hodur was made a bishop, yet trouble brews again. Dark clouds gather, a Roman Catholic bishop sits in Scranton who causes discomfort throughout the length and breadth of his diocese. I think I'm being generous in putting it that way.
Although this is not an ethnic problem, not a Polish/Irish/American skirmish, it is very much and "us and them" problem. To be more specific; it's and "us and him" problem. In my own very personal opinion, this present trouble rests with him. Let me strongly say, though, that being lapsed removes me from the situation. Therefore, it's easy for me to open my mouth, to speak my mind, to go for that "the pen is mightier than the sword" thing.
That being admitted, his "I'm the bishop and you're not" position will in time bring more loss to an already shrinking member base. And I'd bet a chunk of my 401k that the vast majority of priests attached to the See of Scranton don't like his position one bit either. They can look out upon their congregations each and every weekend and count the parishioners who were there last week and not this, then look into the eyes of those who likely won't be there next week.
A few priests are probably giddy about his pre-Vatican II strident let's get tough approach. I could name names.
What is in this man's head, I cannot even pretend to know.
He is not viewed as a force for good by those in his charge. His flock barely hangs on to being so, they are disenchanted, hurt, and saddened by the man's refusal to do so many things, and his hasty callousness to do so many others.
Although this is not an ethnic problem, not a Polish/Irish/American skirmish, it is very much and "us and them" problem. To be more specific; it's and "us and him" problem. In my own very personal opinion, this present trouble rests with him. Let me strongly say, though, that being lapsed removes me from the situation. Therefore, it's easy for me to open my mouth, to speak my mind, to go for that "the pen is mightier than the sword" thing.
That being admitted, his "I'm the bishop and you're not" position will in time bring more loss to an already shrinking member base. And I'd bet a chunk of my 401k that the vast majority of priests attached to the See of Scranton don't like his position one bit either. They can look out upon their congregations each and every weekend and count the parishioners who were there last week and not this, then look into the eyes of those who likely won't be there next week.A few priests are probably giddy about his pre-Vatican II strident let's get tough approach. I could name names.
What is in this man's head, I cannot even pretend to know.
He is not viewed as a force for good by those in his charge. His flock barely hangs on to being so, they are disenchanted, hurt, and saddened by the man's refusal to do so many things, and his hasty callousness to do so many others.
In spite of it all, maybe he has room for gratitude. He could give thanks that it's not the late 19th century, that there isn't a "Francis Hodur" to confront and challenge him, and that too many vocal and outraged Catholics like me are lapsed.
From the other side of the argument, maybe Bishop Martino should consider that the last time an ordinary of the Diocese of Scranton treated a large segment of his flock as his lesser, a brand new church emerged, and it's a great one at that. Best yet, that church that the Diocese of Scranton forced into existence is still there. http://www.pncc.org/
That it could happen again is about as preposterous a thought as you can have...isn't it?
