| U.S. News

The declaration summarizes steps toward union already taken and highlights other steps that might be taken to draw the two churches closer together.

The finalized text was adopted by the dialogue commission May 17, at the end of a two-day meeting at Blessed Trinity Parish of the Polish National Catholic Church in Fall River, Mass. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington released the text May 24.

"We, the members of the Polish National Catholic-Roman Catholic dialogue, wish to reaffirm our resolve to overcome what still divides us and to state clearly that our goal is full communion between our churches," the commission said.

"Our role is not to speak definitively for either of our churches," it added. "Nevertheless, we hope to propose new incremental steps that will make concrete the growing unity between us, and we wish our faithful to know of our conviction that a way can be found to overcome this regrettable division that took place among Catholics here in the United States."

The PNCC claims more than 25,000 members in the United States, most of them in the Northeast.

It was formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of a series of administrative and pastoral conflicts between Catholic immigrant Polish parishes and their bishops.

For most of its history the PNCC was part of the Union of Utrecht, a communion of Old Catholic churches – whose bishops the Catholic Church regards as validly ordained in apostolic succession – but that relationship was broken in 2003 because the PNCC objected to the ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex unions by some other churches in the union.

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of Buffalo, N.Y., Catholic co-chairman of the dialogue commission, called the joint declaration "an encouraging development."

"After 22 years of dialogue, it was time to take stock of our relations and spell out in a clear and succinct way the path we have followed and prospects for the future," he said.

The PNCC co-chairman of the dialogue is retired Prime Bishop John F. Swantek.

The declaration noted that the disputes which led to PNCC separation from Roman Catholicism "were more concerned with matters of church governance than points of doctrine."

It said that after five years of dialogue the commission was able to report agreement on the seven sacraments and many other points of doctrine. It said that, despite some differences in practice and different understandings in some matters not essential to faith, "we have thus far discovered no doctrinal obstacle that would impede the further growth of our churches toward that unity which we believe is Christ's will."

It also noted that in the 1990s the two churches agreed that under certain limited conditions of pastoral need PNCC members could receive the sacraments of penance, Communion and anointing of the sick in the Catholic Church and Catholics facing similar conditions could receive those sacraments in the PNCC.

"We recognize each other's ecclesial character and sacraments, allow a certain amount of sacramental sharing and maintain many of the same traditions," it said.

The declaration highlighted the acts of reconciliation between the two churches on several occasions that have helped to heal the hurt and anguish of past divisions.

But it noted that obstacles remain.

"During our century-long division we have grown apart in ways that at first glance make reconciliation appear to be difficult," it said. It noted the PNCC's tradition of a strong lay role in church governance and said that although papal infallibility and primacy were not an issue at the time of the split the two churches today have "different understandings of the pope's role in the church."

"Another complicating factor is the presence of a significant number of former Roman Catholic priests in the ranks of the Polish National Catholic clergy," it said.

"It must still be determined if any of our divergent traditions are truly church-dividing or simply examples of legitimate diversity," it said.

Addressing future steps toward full communion, the commission said it is "committed to a thorough examination of the theological concepts of primacy and conciliarity. This will include searching for a common understanding of the ministry of the bishop of Rome in the church."

It also said it planned "to give further consideration to other concrete steps concerning reciprocity in regard to the sacraments, acting as godparents" and the possibility that the Catholic Church might consider a Catholic-PNCC mixed marriage valid when performed by a PNCC priest even if the Catholic partner did not get the necessary dispensation from canonical form, that is, from the Catholic Church's requirement of a Catholic ceremony.

Such official steps on the Catholic side would serve to strengthen the understanding that the Catholic Church recognizes the sacraments of the PNCC as valid.