The Vatican has ruled that the six members of the board of directors of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in St. Louis and their priest committed the act of schism two and a half years ago and are excommunicated, the Archdiocese of St. Louis Web site announced today.The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had considered an appeal of a Dec. 15, 2005 declaration of excommunication by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke after the board refused to turn over ownership of its property to the archdiocese and then independently hired a priest.
That priest, Marek Bozek, was assigned to the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 2005, when he left his position at St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield to take the job as priest of the historically Polish parish. Bozek is a native of Poland.
The reasons for the ruling, according to a column written by Burke the archdiocese’s Web site, is the board’s failure to “observe the time limits” and follow the formal requirements of an appeal, and their continued “delict (or willful act) of schism.”
Schism is defined as the “willful separation from the unity” of the church.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce