The Lenten season for Catholics will be happy for one parish in St. Louis.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis settled a decade-long property dispute Wednesday with St. Stanislaus Kostka Polish Catholic Parish.
The move allows the church to become independent of the Catholic hierarchy.
The archdiocese planned to appeal a St. Louis Circuit Court decision which was later dropped as both parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The historic parish will become independent of the archdiocese, a rare distinction among Roman Catholic churches today.
Ash Wednesday's announcement ends a bitter struggle between a parish and its perceived wrongdoings of the Catholic Church's power structure.
What precipitated the independence movement by St. Stanislaus?
The legal dispute began in 2008 when the archdiocese sued the church to regain control of the parish's finances.
Those legal filings stemmed from moves by St. Stanislaus leaders in 2001 and 2004 to break away from the archbishop who attempted to regain control of the parish finances and property.
The Post-Dispatch piece reveals the decade-long fight stemmed from an agreement made in 1891 in which then-Archbishop Peter Kenrick allowed a lay board to oversee the church's finances as long the archbishop could appoint board members and the pastor.
What did the legal dispute entail?
St. Stanislaus broke away from the Catholic Church in December 2005 when it hired former Catholic priest Rev. Marek Bozek.
The hiring was in violation of canon law and signaled a split between the parish and archdiocese.
When the Catholic Church wanted its property back, it sued. St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Bryan Hettenbach ruled against the archdiocese, citing the 1891 agreement.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the court's decision was "shocking, according to church-state scholars."
What did the entities say regarding the end of hostilities?
In a joint statement published by KSDK , Catholic leaders "will dismiss its appeal and the judgment of the trial court is now final.
St. Stanislaus has agreed that it will not hold itself out as affiliated in any way with ... the Roman Catholic Church."
How does Catholic Church property work in terms of ownership?
A bishop holds the property in trust and has the authority to open and close churches as he sees fit.
The relationship between parishioners, their church and church property was strained due to sexual abuse settlements in the 2000s when diocese leaders used church properties as assets when declaring bankruptcy in the state of Washington in 2006.
How did both sides approach the dispute at its height?
St. Stanislaus claimed the dispute with the archdiocese was "all about money, property, asset protection, control and a belief by one man that he had absolute power to do as he wanted in his position as archbishop."
The statement alluded to then-Archbishop Raymond L. Burke.
The archdiocese considered the Polish church as excommunicated in December 2005 when board members hired Bozek.
Only archbishops or bishops can appoint priests to parishes in the Catholic Church.
In June 2008, three board members and one former board member reconciled with the Catholic Church and were named in a lawsuit against the church.
That lawsuit was officially dropped Wednesday.