Józef Padewski

In 1916, he began studies at the Savonarola Theological Seminary of the Polish National Catholic Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

He was moved to Tittmoning, Bavaria, where the future Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI had lived ten years previously as a small child.

Padewski was released from captivity during an exchange of prisoners of war organised by the Swiss Red Cross.

Around this time, Tomasz Kołakowski, one of the priests of the PNCC in Poland, managed to evade the Communist authorities and escape to the United States.

Padewski was betrayed by clergy within the Polish PNCC anxious to gain favour with the Communist authorities.