Cardinal Burke is one of the most conservative cardinals and at times very controversial. He is the former Bishop of La Crosse and Archbishop of St. Louis.
The following is taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Burke
Burke was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin,[3] the youngest of the six children of Thomas (died July 21, 1956) and Marie (died February 29, 1996) Burke, on June 30, 1948. He was Baptized on July 11. The family later moved to Stratford, Wisconsin. From 1962-68 he attended the Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse. From 1968-71, he studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. as a Basselin scholar and received the degrees Bachelor of Arts (1970) and Master of Arts (1971), both in Philosophy.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of that university. He then completed his studies for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 1971 to 1975, where he received the degrees Bachelor of Sacred Theology (1974) and Master of Arts (1975).[3] Pope Paul VI ordained Burke to the priesthood on June 29, 1975, at Saint Peter's Basilica.[3]
[edit] Priestly ministry
After his ordination to the priesthood, he was first assigned as assistant rector of the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He also taught religion at Aquinas High School in La Crosse, where a new addition built in 1996–1997, the Bishop Burke Hall, was named in his honor.[4] From 1980 to 1984, Burke studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received his license (1982) and doctorate (1984).[3] He then returned to La Crosse and was named the Moderator of the Curia as well as the Vice Chancellor of the La Crosse Diocese. In 1989, Pope John Paul II assigned Burke to be the first American Defender of the Bond of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, apart from the Pope himself.[3]
[edit] Episcopal ministry
[edit] Bishop of La Crosse
On December 10, 1994, Pope John Paul II named Burke Bishop of La Crosse, consecrating him to the episcopate on January 6, 1995 in St. Peter's Basilica.[5] Bishop Burke took possession of the See of La Crosse on February 22, 1995.[6] During his time in La Crosse, he founded the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe designed by Duncan G. Stroik, in collaboration with River Architects.[7][8][9][10] In 2000, Bishop Burke convened the fifth diocesan synod for the Diocese of La Crosse. Synod V, Acts: celebrated June 11–14, 2000/ Diocese of La Crosse, published by the Diocese of La Crosse, (circa 2003) were the documents of the fifth diocesan synod that were published.[11] He was also named a Knight Commander with Star of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 1997 and received the Canon Law Society of America's Role of Law award in 2000.[3] In 2002, Bishop Burke was influential in founding the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, an order of Augustinian canons dedicated to the traditional form of the liturgy.[12]
During his tenure as Bishop of La Crosse, Burke was inspired to construct a shrine near La Crosse on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas. As part of the Shrine, the spacious church, designed in the Renaissance style, was dedicated on July 31, 2008. The archbishop has also installed a prominent shrine to the Sacred Heart in the diocesan cathedral, reflecting his desire to foster the sacred arts and to encourage spiritual 
devotions which have long been characteristic of Catholicism.[13] Cardinal Burke remains director of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, even though currently residing in Rome, Italy.[14]
[edit] Archbishop of St. Louis
Personal coat of arms as Archbishop of Saint Louis.
He served as the Bishop of La Crosse until December 2, 2003, when he was named as successor to Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali (who had been appointed to be the Archbishop of Philadelphia) as Archbishop of St. Louis.[15][16][17][18] He was formally installed on January 26, 2004. Not long thereafter, Burke was presented with the pallium on June 29, 2004 by Pope John Paul II. In St. Louis, Burke gave particular emphasis to the promotion of vocations to the ministerial priesthood; he also published a column in the archdiocesan weekly newspaper, the Saint Louis Review. In both La Crosse and St. Louis, Burke established oratories for those who attend the Tridentine Rite. He invited traditionalist Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest into his dioceses and ordained priests for the group both in the US and abroad. His ordination of two traditionalist priests on June 15, 2007, was the first time in 40 years that the Tridentine rite of ordination had been used in the cathedral.[19] In July 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Burke to be a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura,[20] the highest court in the Catholic Church. He issued a statement, in line with Catholic moral precepts, opposing embryonic stem cell research when an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that allows it was narrowly passed by voters there.
During his tenure in Saint Louis, Archbishop Burke was awarded two honorary doctorates in humane letters. One was from Ave Maria University in 2005;[21] the other was from Christendom College in 2007.[22]
On June 25, 2007, Burke accompanied Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, on a trip to Rome, where the prelates reviewed Pope Benedict's impending motu proprio Summorum Pontificum granting any priest of the Roman Rite to celebrate the Latin Mass according to the Missal of Pius V (revised by John XXIII) without the permission of his bishop.[23][24]
On May 6, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named Burke to two Vatican offices, increasing Burke's already prominent stature in Rome. Burke was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which authentically interprets Canon Law, and also became a member of the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons.
[edit] Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura
Styles of
Raymond Leo Burke
Spoken style
Your Eminence
Informal style
Cardinal
On June 27, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Burke to the office of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura,[25] a position roughly equivalent to that of President of the Conseil d'Etat of France. As such, the Signatura is the final canonical venue for most all administrative recourses (requests for review of decrees issued by Bishops) unless the Pope advocates cases to his judgement, while the Tribunal of the Roman Rota remains the highest judicial venue for ecclesiastical trials, excepting questions of nullity of its decrees or sentences which are judged by Signatura. In terms of the importance of his Curial post, Archbishop Burke was the second-highest ranking American prelate at the Vatican after Cardinal William Levada, who took Pope Benedict's place as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Archbishop Burke was the first non-European named to head the Tribunal within the Roman Curia. The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura exercises final appellate jurisdiction concerning conflicts occurring between two or more Vatican Congregations or Dicasteries, and appeals of administrative decisions rendered by diocesan bishops and Vatican Congregations.
With this appointment, Archbishop Burke became the tenth US native to serve in the Roman Curia. Upon the public announcement of the appointment by the Holy See, Archbishop Burke said: "I am deeply humbled by the trust which His Holiness has placed in me, and, in priestly obedience, I have pledged to serve our Holy Father to the best of my abilities." He continued stating that "leaving the service of the Church in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis is most sad for me. It has been an honor and gift for me to serve the archdiocese over the past four years and five months."[26]
His farewell Mass in the Archdiocese of St. Louis was held in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis on Sunday, August 17, 2008. It was concelebrated by Bishops George Joseph Lucas, Robert Joseph Hermann, John Joseph Leibrecht, John R. Gaydos, Robert W. Finn, Raymond James Boland, and Kevin William Vann. In addition, over seventy-five priests, fifty seminarians, a full honor guard of the Knights of Columbus (over 60 members), and over fifty Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta were in attendance.[27]
Like all heads of departments of the Roman Curia, Cardinal Burke is a member also of various other offices in the Curia. The appointments are for five years and are renewable. Being resident in Rome, he is invited to attend not only the plenary meetings of those departments, which in principle are held every year, but also the ordinary meetings. Thus on May 6, 2008, Burke was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which authentically interprets canon law, and of the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons; on October 17, 2009, of the Congregation for Bishops, the curial body charged with overseeing the appointment of most but not all Latin Rite bishops outside mission territories.[28][3]; on July 6, 2010, of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;[29] on 24 July 2010, of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints;[30] on 29 January 2011 of the Council of Cardinals and Bishops of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State.[31]
On October 7, 2008, Archbishop Burke was appointed President of the Commission for Advocates, which is responsible for admitting the world's qualified canon lawyers to a registry of those who may practice in the Vatican's courts - a sort of bar association. This post is related, but secondary to and distinct from, his post as Prefect of the Signatura.[32]
On March 11, 2010 (in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that had come to light in the countries of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria), Archbishop Burke said that the Vatican needed to design a set of guidelines based in canon law that would guide bishops and tribunals worldwide in determining how to report the cases to the Holy See. Revisions will also be made to a policy formulated by Benedict that provides for high levels of secrecy in the process. The German bishops had drawn up guidelines that Pope Benedict XVI was considering using worldwide, and many other countries (such as the United States) already have set procedures for such cases. However, it is a delicate process, especially for a bishop who must formally denounce and remove a priest (presuming he is indeed guilty and thus that the accusations are based in fact), who is spiritually considered to be his son. Also, there remain questions about how to handle scandals that only come to light during sacramental confession, where the confessor is obliged under pain of excommunication to be totally silent about anything and everything he hears from any penitent. A further problem is the fact that some pedophile priests who are perpetrators of child sexual abuse do this in the confessional, which is an especially grave offense in the eyes of the Church.[33]
[edit] Elevation to the College of Cardinals
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke at a Mass at St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in Boston, MA, USA (4 Dec. 2010)
On 20 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Burke to the cardinalate, as Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Agata dei Goti. Burke was the fifth man who served as Archbishop of St. Louis to become a member of the College of Cardinals, the others being John Joseph Glennon (1946), Joseph Ritter (1961), John Carberry (1969) and Justin Francis Rigali (2003), the now-retired Archbishop of Philadelphia.
According to the St. Louis Review, the archdiocese newspaper,[34] St. Louis Archbishop Robert James Carlson announced at a reception at the Apostolic Signatura during a pilgrimage to Rome upon the occasion of Cardinal Burke's elevation the creation of a Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke Chair in Canon Law at St. Louis's Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. This follows the similar establishment of a Justin Francis Cardinal Rigali Chair in Liturgical Studies there, when former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Francis Rigali was named Archbishop of Philadelphia.
On 5 February 2011, the memorial of St. Agatha, Cardinal Burke took canonical possession of his titular church in Rome, Sant'Agata dei Goti. The ordinary form stational Mass, said in Italian and Latin, was held in the evening.[35]
In May of 2011, Cardinal Burke was awarded another honorary doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. He has long admired the University because he regards it, unlike some other American Catholic universities in the context of a highly secularized Western society, as having remained faithful to the ethical guidelines and teachings of the Church's Magisterium (the teaching office of the Catholic Church, made up of the Pope and the bishops worldwide in communion with him, and those given authority to teach by them).[36]
[edit] Views
Burke is seen by many as one of the most conservative bishops in the United States, and increasingly as a leader of the conservative wing of Cardinals in the Church. Reasons for his U.S. prominence include his position regarding the political actions of Catholics who hold public office, and his disputes with St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis; support amongst conservative Cardinals and Bishops is based upon his clear and magisterial style of governance, coupled with his advancing of a return to traditional expressions of liturgical piety to the Church's fold.
[edit] Diocesan leadership
A few priests in the Diocese of La Crosse have claimed that Burke's leadership there was divisive. Richard Dickman, who had served as pastor of St. Mary's Church in Tomah, Wisconsin stated in a resignation letter that "I can no longer minister as a priest in this diocese and retain a sense of integrity. I find that my conscience is in conflict with the vision of ministry characterized by the bishop I have promised to obey. I am in an impossible position."[37] Father Dickman has since returned to active ministry in the Diocese.[38]
[edit] Politicians supporting legalization of abortion
During the 2004 presidential election, Burke publicly stated that John Kerry and other Catholic politicians who publicly support legalized abortion should not be given or receive the Eucharist.[39] This statement was based mainly on two canons of Catholic Canon Law, which state that ministers of Holy Communion should not administer the Eucharist to people who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin[40] and that those who are conscious of being in a state of grave sin (as determined by Catholic doctrine) should not receive the Eucharist.[41]
Burke had articulated the same position while he was in La Crosse but the statements made as Archbishop of St. Louis gained more notice and added to his reputation for being canonically consistent. He is one of a number of bishops who have declared that they would refuse Communion to such politicians. He added that Catholic voters who supported pro-choice candidates specifically because they supported abortion rights were committing grave sin and should not receive Communion without first having their sin absolved through the Sacrament of Penance.[citation needed]
Later, Burke clarified his position to state that one could vote for a pro-choice politician and not commit a mortal sin, if one believed there was a more significant moral issue than abortion at hand, but had also stated that he could not think what sort of issue would qualify.[42] His position is consistent with the one articulated by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in a 2004 letter to Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. As Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote: “Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia [...] While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”[43]
[edit] Sheryl Crow concert
On April 25, 2007, after singer Sheryl Crow, a pro-choice supporter, was scheduled to perform at a benefit concert for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, Archbishop Burke resigned as chair of the hospital foundation's board of directors.[44]
Deeming this a scandal, Burke claimed that to have the hospital host Crow would give "the impression that the Church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching." The Saint Louis archbishop reportedly asked that her invitation be privately removed, but then felt compelled to submit his resignation once Crow's performance in concert was confirmed.[45]
[edit] Saint Louis University staff
On January 22, 2008, Burke urged Saint Louis University to take disciplinary action against its head basketball coach, Rick Majerus, after Majerus publicly supported abortion and stem cell research at a campaign event for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton three days earlier.[46]
With Saint Louis University being run by the Society of Jesus, Burke responded by saying, "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everything the Catholic Church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic Church." SLU spokesman Jeff Fowler responded to Burke's statement by saying, "Rick's comments were his own personal view. They were made at an event he did not attend as a university representative."[47]
Burke again responded to the controversy aroused by his statements in an interview with the archdiocesan newspaper, The St. Louis Review, on the following February 1.[48] The archbishop said, "It gives scandal to other people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, if they hear a Catholic give an interview to the media, saying that I am proud to be a Catholic but at the same time I hold these views." When asked about his usually outspoken manner in controversial issues, he responded, "Is there something unusual about a bishop saying that it’s wrong to be in favor of procured abortion? I’m a Roman Catholic priest and bishop. What else would you expect me to say?"
[edit] 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
In a September 2008 interview, Burke said that "the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,' because of its choices on bioethical questions," especially elective abortion.[49]
In May 2009, he stated, "Since President Obama clearly announced, during the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience."[50]
[edit] Bishops' policy on Holy Communion
In March 2009, Burke was interviewed by Randall Terry, the pro-life activist and Catholic convert who founded Operation Rescue. In the videotaped interview, Archbishop Burke called on American bishops to withhold Communion, in line with canon 915, from Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion.[51] The bishops' failure to do so, Burke said, "is weakening the faith of everyone. It's giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion."[51] He also called President Barack Obama "an agent of death" for his pro-choice views.[51] Terry called for the removal of Paul Loverde and Donald Wuerl, for not denying Communion to these politicians, and also criticized Cardinals Roger Mahony and Theodore McCarrick. After the interview was released, Burke apologized to his "brother bishops" for the "misuse" of his statements, saying: "Mr. Terry has used the videotape for another purpose which I find most objectionable."[52] He clarified that he made his remarks not as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, head of the Vatican's highest court, but simply as an American bishop.[52]
In an October 2010 interview, held before the consistory in which he was elevated to the cardinalate, Burke reiterated that to directly vote for a candidate who not only supports the right to choose to have an abortion and/or to have the right to euthanasia, but who actively supports abortion and/or euthanasia, because of the candidate's stance, is a mortal sin. To vote for a candidate who held these stances without a very grave reason- and he said there were not many, if any at all- would still be wrong even if the voter did not expressly vote for him or her because of those stances. The only possible valid reason, Cardinal-designate Burke said, would be if that candidate was the least pro-abortion or pro-euthanasia of the other candidates and the voter did not feel comfortable abstaining from voting, which would be acceptable under those circumstances.[citation needed]
[edit] Statements on Catholic higher education
On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, a story posted by the ZENIT website homepage (Innovative Media) described Cardinal Burke as underlining the importance of Catholic higher education, and the need for these institutions to keep their identity strong. The prefect...gave an address at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, New Hampshire), where he affirmed the importance that 'the Church has consistently assigned to Catholic higher education, in order that 'the convergence of faith and reason in the one truth may be seen more clearly'.[citation needed]
[edit] On violations of liturgical norms
At the March 2, 2011 launch of a book in Italian, whose title translates as "How to Go to Mass and Not Lose Your Faith", Cardinal Burke declared that liturgical abuses damage the faith of Catholics: "If we err by thinking we are the center of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith. Unfortunately, too many priests and bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant, when, in fact, they are serious abuses."[53][54][55]
[edit] On end-of-life palliative care and euthanasia
At a July 23, 2011 conference on end-of-life care sponsored by St. Gianna Physician's Guild, Cardinal Burke said that suffering does not cause a person to have less meaning in his life, nor does it give the government the right to decide if that person should live or die: "No matter how much a life is diminished, no matter what suffering the person is undergoing, that life demands the greatest respect and care. It's never right to snuff out a life because it's in some way under heavy burden."[56]
Archbishop Burke excommunicated--Father Marek Bozek (since laicized by Pope Benedict XVI), and the lay parish board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis, Missouri in December 2005 were declared guilty of the ecclesiastical crime of schism by then-Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke.[6] Their excommunication was ratified by the Vatican in May 2008. (Four of the parish board members have since reconciled with the Church.)
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (St. Louis, Missouri)
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stanislaus_Kostka_Church_(St._Louis)
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St. Stanislaus Kostka Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis, Missouri
Location:
1413 North 20th Street, St. Louis, Missouri
Coordinates:
38°38′32″N 90°12′21″W / 38.64228°N 90.20575°W / 38.64228; -90.20575Coordinates: 38°38′32″N 90°12′21″W / 38.64228°N 90.20575°W / 38.64228; -90.20575
Built:
1880
Architect:
Wessbecher & Hummel
NRHP Reference#:
79003635
Added to NRHP:
July 10, 1979
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church is a former Catholic Church parish located in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It was established as a Catholic parish in 1880 to serve the Polish community in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. It is considered to be the best example of the opulent 'Polish Cathedral style' of architecture west of the Mississippi River. The church is notable for a highly publicized dispute over control of the parish and its assets between the church's lay board of directors and the Archdiocese of St. Louis. In December 2005, the former Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke declared the parish's board members and priest, Marek Bozek, excommunicated and announced his intention to suppress the parish, meaning that it would be disbanded, with the likelihood of the premises being sold. The church responded by holding a Christmas Eve Mass attended by 1,500-2,000 people.[1] The church continues to be maintained and run as a not-for-profit corporation by church parishioners. In 2010 a settlement offer from the Archdiocese of St. Louis was rejected by a divided congregation.[2]
Contents
[hide]- 1 Church history
- 2 Conflict with archdiocese
- 3 Subsequent developments
- 4 See also
- 5 References
- 6 External links
[edit] Church history
In 1878, the Archdiocese of St. Louis authorized the construction of a parish to serve the city's growing Polish Catholic community. In 1880, construction began on St. Stanislaus Kostka. The church was built just north of Downtown St. Louis, in a neighborhood that at the time was home to a large number of Polish immigrants. Under a land deed signed by Archbishop Peter Kenrick in 1891, the parish property was assigned to a corporation under a pastor and lay board members to be continually appointed by the Archbishop (cf. Deed and Charter & Bylaws of 1891).
In 1928, the church was damaged by a fire which destroyed the original center dome of the structure, but the other damage was repaired. In 1969, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Kraków, who would later become Pope John Paul II, visited the parish during a trip to the United States. The building was listed as a City Landmark in 1976 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The church continued to serve the Polish Catholic community in St. Louis even as the community dispersed from the surrounding neighborhood and the area deteriorated. By the 1970s, the parish buildings were severely deteriorated. The parishioners undertook a large scale restoration of the church building and began acquiring land surrounding the church. Later improvements included the construction of a Polish Heritage Center. By 2005, the church assets included 8 acres (32,000 m2) of land, and the board of trustees estimated the total value of the parish assets at $9.5 million.
[edit] Conflict with archdiocese
The controversy, involving both the control of the temporal goods of the parish and the spiritual authority of the archbishop, focused on whether the property and monetary assets would be controlled by a pastor appointed by the archbishop, which is the canonical norm, or by a lay board of directors who renounced the archbishop's authority over the members of the board. The controversy began under Cardinal John J. Glennon and continued under the late Cardinal Joseph Ritter and his successors, the deceased Archbishop John May, Cardinal Justin Rigali, now of Philadelphia, and most recently under Archbishop Emeritus Raymond Leo Burke, who is now Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. The present Archbishop of St. Louis, Robert James Carlson, is endeavoring to find an adequate compromise that satisfies canon law and all concerned parties, but the breakaway members rejected his latest proposal, though efforts are ongoing.
The current structure of the parish derives from one created in 1891. The current parish board has taken the position that the purpose of Burke's actions was to take control of the assets of the parish for primarily economic reasons. They note that the parish had sustained and restored itself without financial assistance from the Archdiocese and claimed that Burke intended to close the parish once he had control of it.
The archdiocese alleges that the lay board of directors, in the early 1980s, without permission from Archbishop May, changed the original 1891 bylaws, which stipulated that the lay board was to function solely as an advisory body to the pastor and thus under the archbishop (cf. the Plenary Councils of Baltimore). In the bylaws as changed, the authority of the pastor was revoked, putting all control of the parish in the hands of the lay board. Therefore, not long after his appointment, Burke mandated that the structure of the parish once again conform to canon law. In response, the lay board formally appealed to the Holy See. That appeal was denied. However, the archdiocese does not dispute that the deed to the church property itself belongs not to the archdiocese but to the parish corporation; what is disputed is the membership of that corporation, and how they are to be chosen.
In August 2004 Burke removed both priests from the parish and transferred the Polish ministry to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist parish across from St. Louis Union Station. When the priests left the parish, they took with them much of the property of the parish, including the hymnals, missals, song books, and parish records. In January 2005 Burke threatened the members of the parish board of directors with an interdict if they did not comply with his instructions by February 4, 2005. On February 10, 2005, the lay board had still not complied, and the archbishop issued an interdict against the board members, stating that they "knowingly, deliberately and publicly damaged seriously the unity of the Church."
As of February 25, 2005, Burke's reorganization plan for parishes in south St. Louis City permanently changed the personal parish for Polish Catholics in St. Louis to the nearby church of St. Agatha, the move to which was completed on July 1, 2005.
In December 2005, the lay board announced plans to hire a priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, the Rev. Marek B. Bozek, who was thereupon suspended by his bishop, the Most Reverend John Joseph Leibrecht, for leaving his post without permission. In response to the action of the board, on December 16, 2005, Burke declared that Father Bozek and the lay board members (Dr. Joseph Rudawski and Messrs. John Baras, William Bialczak, Edward Florek, Stanley Novak, and John Robert Zabielski), by their actions, were guilty of the ecclesiastical crime, or delict, of schism from the Roman Catholic Church, an offense to which is automatically attached the penalty of excommunication. In a letter to Catholics in the Archdiocese, he warned the faithful that they would be risking grave sin if they knowingly attempt to receive sacraments from a priest who is in formal schism; Archbishop Burke also announced his intention to suppress the parish. Following this announcement, a sizeable crowd attended the first Mass to be celebrated by the new pastor, on Christmas Eve 2005.[1] Subsequently, on December 29, 2005, Archbishop Burke canonically suppressed St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, since it now operates independently of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
On May 15, 2008, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree rejecting the recourse filed in March 2006 by Rev. Bozek and the other excommunicated Board members against the decrees of excommunication issued by Archbishop Burke on December 15, 2005. This decision on the part of the Vatican ratified the excommunications on the basis of the commission of schism being "evident" on the part of the excommunicated Board members.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI dismissed Rev. Marek Bozek from the clerical state.[3][4]
[edit] Subsequent developments
The Archdiocese of St. Louis issued the following statement on July 23, 2008:[5]
Mrs. Bernice Krauze, Mr. Stanley Rozanski, and Mr. Robert Zabielski, members of the previous Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Parish Corporation, met last month (June 10) with Archbishop Raymond L. Burke to be reconciled fully with the Catholic Church. They are once again in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and are no longer under any censure. Edward Florek was reconciled fully with the Roman Catholic Church in 2008 and is in full communion. He is no longer under any censure.
Since then, the three have joined other ex-parishioners of the former Saint Stanislaus Kostka parish in filing a lawsuit against the Saint Stanislaus Parish Corporation. The lawsuit is asking for the corporation to adhere to the 1891 Bylaws, to which the parish and the Archdiocese of St. Louis had agreed. If the lawsuit is successful, the Archdiocese of St. Louis is prepared to appoint a Catholic priest, Rev. Michael Marchlewski, S.J., to Saint Stanislaus as administrator.
In 2010 an offer to settle the lawsuit was made by the archdiocese. The offer would have left control of the property and assets in the congregation but brought the parish back into control of the archdiocese. However there was no guarantee the parish would not be closed in the future. The excommunicated priest, Marek Bozek, whose liberal views have become an issue, would have been required to depart. The settlement was rejected 257 to 185.
Under Marek Bozek's leadership the church, in a decaying St. Louis neighborhood, has grown to 500 despite 200 of the original parishioners leaving. Bozek's non-orthodox views include allowing priests to marry and permitting women and homosexuals to be ordained. Transmogrification of the issues from property to doctrinal issues has alienated traditional parish members and attracted new progressive congregants.[2]
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