Polish National Catholic Church gains small group local of "Catholics"

A small but determined band of Toledo-area Catholics, most of them reeling over Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair's decision to close their parishes last year, is starting a church that belongs to a breakaway Catholic group, the Polish National Catholic Church.
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The purple-robed celebrant, the Rev. Jaroslaw Nowak of Hamtramck, Mich., is interim pastor of the fledgling Toledo parish.
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Fourteen people attended Mass yesterday at Resurrection Polish National Catholic Church, meeting in a stark basement cafeteria at the Common Space Center for Creativity on Reynolds Road near Dorr Street.
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"One reason I got involved is the fact that it is parish-controlled," Mr. [Chris] Cremean said. [He bemonged to one of the parishes which was closed]. "The parish builds it, maintains it, and owns it. You don't have to worry about somebody coming in and telling you that you can't have a parish."

How many disgruntled individuals go about starting their own "church"? How many professed Catholics do this?

"Some people will say we are not Catholic. That is not true," Father Nowak said after the service. "We are independent but Catholic."

A defective understanding of what it means to be Catholic...A defective understanding which has been propagated among the faithful for years by many who have claimed to be Catholic and who have been allowed to spread their poison of dissent and heresy due, in part, to the failure of leadership to discipline those responsible for leading souls away from the Church.

Full story here.