Free Republic

If you have a public figure who is openly and deliberately supporting abortion rights, and that same person approaches and receives Holy Communion, what are people to think? They could be led to imagine that some how it is alright to support publicly the taking of innocent and defenseless lives in the womb. So the Church has these disciplines and they are very ancient. They actually go back to the times of St. Paul.But, throughout the Church’s history, She has always had to discipline the reception of Holy Communion which is the most sacred treasure we have in the Church....

Archbishop Raymond Burke Rome, Aug 19, 2008 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The prefect of the Apostolic Signature, Archbishop Raymond Burke, said this week that Catholics, especially politicians who publically defend abortion, should not receive Communion, and that ministers of Communion should be responsibly charitable in denying it to them if they ask for it, “until they have reformed their lives.”In an interview with the magazine, Radici Christiane, Archbishop Burke pointed out that there is often a lack of reverence at Mass when receiving Communion.  “Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege,” he warned.  “If it...

Aug. 18--In the minutes before the farewell Mass for Archbishop Raymond Burke on Sunday, well-wishers hurried to find what few seats were left inside the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica. On the cathedral's steps, the Knights of Columbus, the Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver, the Knights and Ladies of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and the Knights and Dames of Malta, lined up to begin the processional. Their swords gleamed in the afternoon sun. Sweat dripped below their white-tufted chapeaus.Inside, nuns in white and blue habits sat next to little girls with black lace head coverings....

A new chapter in the life of the... Catholic church in the Coulee Region begins today, the first day the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is open to the public. Nine years after Archbishop Raymond Burke, former bishop of the La Crosse Diocese, first announced plans for the shrine, he dedicated the church at a Mass on Thursday that lasted more than three hours. Now... the success of the shrine lies largely in how the public, locally and around the world, receives the site Burke calls a place of pilgrimage.... Corinne Dempsey, an associate professor of religious studies...

Bob Barker, retired game show host of "The Price is Right," testified Tuesday at City Hall in support of a controversial ordinance that would make spaying and neutering mandatory in Chicago. Under this legislation, all cats and dogs would be required to undergo the necessary operation once they reach six months of age. “Overpopulation is one of the most tragic animal problems that we have in our country,” Barker said. “There are thousands, probably millions of people across the country who have devoted [themselves] to trying to find homes for surplus animals. And these people… are doomed to fail,” he...

Breaking, big, news: The St. Louis Archdiocese filed suit today against the St. Stanislaus Kostka church in an attempt to regain control of the former Polish parish. Six parishioners, including three recent board members, joined the archdiocese in the suit. They are asking a St. Louis judge to void any changes to the St. Stanislaus' bylaws since 2001 and give the archbishop the authority to appoint a pastor and board there. Last month, the St. Stanislaus board voted 4-3 to dissolve itself and allow parishioners to elect a new board at its annual meeting in August. Eight St. Stanislaus...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JULY 4, 2008 (Zenit.org). Parish music directors -- and congregations -- in the Archdiocese of St. Louis soon will benefit from Archbishop Raymond Burke’s recent initiative: The Institute for Sacred Music. Archbishop Burke, who has since been named to head the Apostolic Signature, the Church's supreme court, appointed Benedictine Father Samuel Weber as the first director of the new institute earlier this year.Father Weber is a professor in the divinity school of Wake Forest University in North Carolina and also a monk of the St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. In Part 1 of this interview with ZENIT,...

Archbishop Raymond Burke St. Louis, Jun 27, 2008 / 10:50 am (CNA).- Today the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.  The archbishop, one of the leading experts of Canon law in the United States will leave the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri to take up his new post in Rome near the end of August. The appointment came on the same day that Pope Benedict named Cardinal Agostino Vallini, current prefect of the Supreme Tribunal, as the vicar general for the Diocese of Rome - the highest diocesan...

Today brings the confirmation of the long-rumored appointment of Archbishop Burke to be the head of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome. From the Vatican website: NOMINA DEL PREFETTO DEL SUPREMO TRIBUNALE DELLA SEGNATURA APOSTOLICAIl Santo Padre ha nominato Prefetto del Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica S.E. Mons. Raymond Leo Burke, finora Arcivescovo di Saint Louis. This position ordinarily carries a promotion to Cardinal as well, which is of some solace to those His Grace leaves behind in St. Louis.It is certainly a bittersweet announcement for those in St. Louis and around the world who have rejoiced in the Archbishop's...

CNA).- Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond L. Burke will ordain nine men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Louis on Saturday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. It is the largest ordination class for the archdiocese since 1987.Some credit Archbishop Burke for the boom in seminarians.  A frequent visitor to the seminary, the archbishop sometimes drops by unannounced for lunches with the students."He's the center and the core of this whole thing," archdiocesan vocations director Rev. Michael Butler said to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.Archbishop Burke explained that he decided vocations would be one of his priorities. ...

A couple quick notes from these pages' core competence... Having just seen the Patriarch of the West (OK, the title's currently in abeyance, but still...), a spiritual father of the East is about to roll onto these shores. Next week, the Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir begins a weeklong Stateside swing in New York, with subsequent stops in Philadelphia, Houston, and Washington; along the way, the 88 year-old head of the 9 million-member global fold will meet with both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and (for the second time) President Bush. Among other highlights, Sfeir -- officially "the 76th...

Vatican City, May 6, 2008 / 11:03 am (CNA).- Today Pope Benedict appointed members to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and the Congregation for the Clergy. Among the appointees are two American archbishops and one cardinal.  The Council for Legislative Texts’ main task consists of interpreting the laws of the Church – both the laws concerning the Latin Rite and the common laws of the Eastern Catholic churches.The new appointments are: Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; Lluis Martinez Sistach, archbishop of Barcelona, Spain; Oswald...

Burke would have wondered at this. And in 2008 he might have noticed that, if conservatism is as much a temperament as it is any particular set of policies, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both Democrats, have sounded more conservative than many Republicans. Both have agreed, for instance, on the need for health-care reform, but Clinton has emphasized her hard-learned lesson that change needs to be incremental, and Obama has said that a single-payer system would make sense if we were starting from scratch but that getting there from here would be “impractical”—a Burkean way to talk about change. And...

Unquestionably, canon 915 is the most discussed canon in the Codex Iuris Canonici, or Code of Canon Law, in recent Church history.  Many in the media have reported on the January 8, 2004 canonical actions of Archbishop Raymond Burke, then bishop of the La Crosse, Wisconsin diocese.  Archbishop Burke’s discipline on legislators has rocked the Catholic Church worldwide.  Because of misinformation, speculation and outright resentment, confusion reigns regarding the Archbishop's promulgation of his 'canonical notification' based on canon 915, the official communication of what the Church's discipline is. I would like to make some important clarifications, with appropriate documentation, in...

St. Louis, Apr 7, 2008 / 10:53 pm (CNA).- An accomplished musician and authority on the Church’s musical heritage will move to St. Louis, Missouri to head the Archdiocese of St. Louis’ new Institute of Sacred Worship, the St. Louis Review reports.On Friday Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond L. Burke announced that Father Samuel A. Weber, OSB, is being appointed as the first director of the institute.The new sacred music office will, with Father Webb’s help, offer parish music directors and choirs several educational programs, including courses covering: Gregorian Chant; singing the Mass in English, especially the Entrance Antiphon, the...

Yes, it's true. Yet another decree of excommunication was published in the St. Louis Review today. This time it is a decree against Stanley Rozanski and Bronsalaa (Bernice) Krauze, members of the Board of the Polish St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation. For some reason that I cannot fathom, it does not yet appear on the Review's website. Therefore, I will try to summarize and publish excerpts from the decree for the benefit of readers. In censure and content, it is similar to the decree issued concerning the "womenpriests" as it relates to the schism finding. The Archbishop begins by recalling...

Archbishop Burke has declared the excommunications of would-be priestesses Rose Hudson and Elsie McGrath, and also of pretend-bishop Patricia Fresen. This decree, linked here, declares as follows: 1) that McGrath, Hudson and Fresen have incurred the censure of excommunication latae sententiae for the crime of schism (cann. 1331, 1364 s. 1); 2) that upon McGrath, Hudson and Fresen is imposed the ferendae sententiae censure of interdict for the crime of pertinacious rejection of a truth of the faith after admonition by the Ordinary (can. 1371, para. 1); and, 3) that upon Fresen is imposed the ferendae sententiae censure of...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Roman Catholic archbishop's call this week for Saint Louis University to discipline its popular basketball coach for publicly supporting abortion rights has put the Jesuit school in a bind.If the university takes action against Rick Majerus, no stranger to controversy throughout his career, it risks criticism for clamping down on the free exchange of ideas.If it doesn't, it looks like it's brushing off Archbishop Raymond Burke, who chastised Majerus for airing his views at a Hillary Rodham Clinton rally last weekend.The university hasn't publicly heeded Burke's call to discipline Majerus, who coached Utah to 10...

ST. LOUIS — A Roman Catholic archbishop's call this week for Saint Louis University to discipline its popular basketball coach for publicly supporting abortion rights has put the Jesuit school in a bind. If the university takes action against Rick Majerus, no stranger to controversy throughout his career, it risks criticism for clamping down on the free exchange of ideas. If it doesn't, it looks like it's brushing off Archbishop Raymond Burke, who chastised Majerus for airing his views at a Hillary Rodham Clinton rally last weekend. The university hasn't publicly heeded Burke's call to discipline Majerus, who coached Utah...

ST. LOUIS - Comments made by Saint Louis University menb's basketball coach Rick Majerus have him in hot water with Archbishop Raymond Burke. Burke said Tuesday that he will ask officials of SLU to take "appropriate action" against its basketball coach, who said in a television interview that he supports abortion rights. One of the game’s winningest coaches, Majerus made the comment at a weekend rally for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Burke declined to say what the action against Majerus should be, saying that was a decision for the Jesuit university. But he said the coach is a...

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said this morning that St. Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus should be disciplined over his public comments supporting abortion rights and stem cell research. Majerus made his comments at a campaign appearance for Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday night during an interview with KMOV (Channel 4). During an interview with the Post-Dispatch today in Washington, where Burke is attending the March for Life, he said the coach should be disciplined. "It's not possible to be a Catholic and hold those positions," Burke said. "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't...

ST. LOUIS — Archbishop Raymond Burke has begun the process of defrocking the pastor at St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church. Rev. Marek Bozek, 32 and a native of Poland, said Monday that he received a letter from Burke last week, informing him that he should present himself before the archbishop for "canonical admonition." In the letter, Burke said he's begun the process of laicization, or being "dismissed from the clerical state," for Bozek. The letter cited Bozek's participation in schism at the church that has been locked in a battle with the archdiocese over control of its assets and his...

ST. LOUIS — Archbishop Raymond Burke has begun the process of defrocking the pastor at St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church. Rev. Marek Bozek, 32 and a native of Poland, said Monday that he received a letter from Burke last week, informing him that he should present himself before the archbishop for "canonical admonition." In the letter, Burke said he's begun the process of laicization, or being "dismissed from the clerical state," for Bozek. The letter cited Bozek's participation in schism at the church that has been locked in a battle with the archdiocese over control of its assets and his...

St. Louis Catholic has learned that Sr. Louise Lears, a member of the "Pastoral Team" at St. Cronan Parish has been issued a summons and canonical admonition by His Grace, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke. Sr. Lears has been summoned to appear to answer the charges of rejection of a truth of faith under canon 750, and of causing grave scandal, thus implicating the penalties for a scandalous external violation of canon law under canon 1399. Canon 750 states as follows: Can. 750 §1. A person must believe with divine and Catholic faith all those things contained in the word of...

ST. LOUIS — About 150 people from St. Cronan's Catholic Church huddled together for warmth under a huge tarp on the street next to their church Tuesday night. They prayed as the rain and wind whipped through their makeshift sanctuary. Their church building — big, warm and dry — stood just yards away, but the St. Cronan parishioners had decided that they'd rather be cold and wet than without a woman they called their "friend and sister," Rabbi Susan Talve of Central Reform Congregation.Talve has spoken at St. Cronan's, a parish known for its progressive social activism, during many previous...

For many conservatives, the birthday of the movement is Nov. 1, 1790 -- the publication date of Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France." Burke described how utopian idealism could lead to the guillotine, just as it later led to the gulag. He rejected the democracy of the mob and argued that social reform, when necessary, should be gradual, cautious and rooted in the habits and traditions of the community. ...But there is another strain of conservatism with a birthday three years earlier than Burke's "Reflections." On May 12, 1787, under an English oak on his Holwood Estate, Prime...

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Archbishop Raymond Burke (St. Louis) lost an election at the annual meeting of the U.S. bishops last week. Over the past three years, Burke has assumed the mantle of the late Cardinal John O'Connor in pro-life matters, challenging fellow bishops to take stronger stances in the defense of innocent life. Nominated as chairman for the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, 60 percent of his fellow bishops preferred his opponent. As bishops' conference expert Rev. Thomas Reese noted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an auxiliary bishop defeating an archbishop for a...

Archbishop Raymond Burke  Other Articles by Archbishop Raymond BurkePrinter Friendly Version   Thanksgiving Day and the Royal Heart of Jesus November 17, 2007 Next week, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, one of the principal holidays of the year and a time for families to gather in celebration. Although Thanksgiving Day is a civic holiday, it was religious in its origins and remains for us always a religious celebration. Even as the Pilgrims desired to give thanks to God for the first harvest brought home in their new-found land, we want to give thanks to God for all of his many...

The US bishops hold their annual meeting in Baltimore this coming week, with a few interesting items on the agenda. There will be an open discussion about the bishop's role in political debates; that promises to be lively and revealing. There will be new report from John Jay researchers on the causes of the sex-abuse crisis. (In preparing this report, the researchers asked members of Voice of the Faithful to answer an opinion survey. Did they ask for your opinion, too? No, I didn't think so. Do you see where this is going?) And then there are the elections....

Having given fair warning to the women who are planning an "ordination" ceremony this weekend, Archbishop Burke is now doing his best to preserve the faithful of the St. Louis archdiocese from the confusion that event will cause. Maybe a deft editor could improve on the archbishop's statement, but it wouldn't be easy. He hits all the main points-- hard-- and yet he writes with charity; his genuine pastoral concern is unmistakable. Archbishop Burke makes it clear that he cannot fail to speak out, because his silence would be dereliction of his duty as spiritual leader. He feels the...

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has warned two Roman Catholic women that they will be excommunicated if they proceed with a planned ordination Sunday.The two women -- Rose Marie Dunn Hudson of Festus and Elsie Hainz McGrath of St. Louis -- are set to be ordained as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement that began in 2002.Only men are ordained priests and deacons in the Catholic Church. The Womenpriests and the advocacy group, the Women's Ordination Conference, are among Catholics pressing to change that tradition.Both women said they will ignore Burke's warning."It's a typically hierarchical form of intimidation, and...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 4, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic bishop who made national headlines yesterday with comments saying he would deny communion to pro-abortion Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has gone further. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis says the nation's Catholic bishops should establish guidelines for a national policy.Burke expressed his views in an essay that appeared in Periodica De Re Canonica, published by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.The Catholic leader says parish priests should ensure that everyone takes communion in a worthy manner, with no one taking it if they have publicly stood against the...

Catholic Group says "Archbishop Burke Right to Deny Communion to Giuliani" CHICAGO, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Fidelis, a national Catholic advocacy group, applauded the courageous decision by St. Louis' Archbishop Raymond Burke to deny Holy Communion to Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, and all pro-abortion politicians running for president, regardless of their political party. The Associated Press is reporting that Archbishop Raymond Burke would deny Holy Communion to Rudy Giuliani and any pro-abortion Catholic running for president. Four Catholic Democrats running for president also support abortion, include: Senator Christopher Dodd, Senator Joe Biden, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and...

Q. Why did you write the article? During the election campaign of 2004, some bishops found themselves under question regarding the application of canon 915. Canon 915 addresses the responsibility of priests and other Eucharistic ministers when it comes to administering Holy Communion. I wrote the article for a scholarly international canon law journal published in Rome, Periodica De Re Canonica. You can read the entire article at www.archstl.org. The article was published in April of this year, but the secular media has just now started covering it. Q. What does the article mean to priests and Eucharistic ministers? The...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who made headlines last presidential season by saying he'd refuse Holy Communion to John Kerry, has his eye on Rudy Giuliani this year. Giuliani's response: "Archbishops have a right to their opinion."Burke, the archbishop of St. Louis, was asked if he would deny Communion to Giuliani or any other presidential candidate who supports abortion rights."If any politician approached me and he'd been admonished not to present himself, I'd not give it," Burke told The Associated Press Wednesday. "To me, you have to be certain a person realizes he is persisting in...

Archbishop Burke: Bishops Must Discipline Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians Calls his brother bishops to task - “To remain silent is to permit serious confusion regarding a fundamental truth of the moral law" By Hilary White ST. LOUIS, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Writing in the latest edition of the Canon Law journal, Periodica De Re Canonica, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, bishop of St. Louis, Missouri, has called his brother bishops to task for their silence on the problem of Catholic politicians who support abortion, euthanasia, cloning, embryo research, the homosexual political agenda or other legislation “contrary to the natural moral law.” Burke’s lengthy...

New York, Apr 30, 2007 / 11:23 am (CNA).- The St. Louis media seems to be running a campaign against the Catholic Church, following Archbishop Raymond Burke’s protest of abortion-activist Sheryl Crow’s performance at a Catholic hospital fundraiser. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KMOV (CBS affiliate), in particular, have invited the public to voice its opinion over the archbishop’s decision.Catholic League president Bill Donohue says the “voyeuristic posture assumed by these two media outlets is not legitimate.According to Donohue, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch “is inviting non-Catholics to opine about an internal matter of the St. Louis Archdiocese, beckoning the bigots...

Archbishop Raymond Burke made it to the Fox Theatre Saturday — but only as a punch line. When Bob Costas, the evening's host, walked onto the stage he scanned the crowd, gazing into the back rows of the upper balcony before breaking the prolonged silence."All right," Costas quipped. "I guess the archbishop is not showing up."Last week, Burke resigned from the board of the Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center Foundation because Crow — a vocal supporter of embryonic stem cell research — was scheduled to headline the annual fundraiser and concert. "Sheryl Crow made it clear that she is coming...

Archbishop Raymond Burke denounced a Catholic charity Wednesday for scheduling a benefit-concert appearance by Sheryl Crow, who supports abortion rights.Burke submitted his resignation as chairman of the board for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation, saying the decision to let Crow sing on Saturday left him no other choice."It's very painful for me," Burke said during a news conference Wednesday. "But I have to answer to God for the responsibility I have as archbishop."A Catholic institution featuring a performer who promotes moral evil gives the impression that the church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching," Burke said.Crow is set to appear...

The local paper takes note: BALTIMORE — St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke took center stage during debate on two controversial topics Tuesday as the nation's Roman Catholic bishops met in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting. Burke, who is trained as a canon, or church, lawyer, submitted 10 amendments to two proposed documents, more than any other bishop except former St. Louis and current Philadelphia archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali, who submitted 15. More coverage: Ann Rogers, typically, gives us a balanced view: Dignity USA, a group for gay Catholics that dissents from church teaching, called it "deeply flawed" and had...

Robert Burke To Be Sentenced In February. A former air traffic controller accused of planting homemade bombs in March outside the Grand Junction homes of four co-workers and a Federal Aviation Administration official pleaded guilty Friday to a single count that could land him in prison for 20 years. Robert Burke, 54, who was arrested in Utah in April, was indicted May 2 by a federal grand jury on a host of charges. Instead, he agreed to plead guilty to a charge of malicious damage to a building used in interstate commerce. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn said the charge...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - An Avon man who had been found with scores of images of child pornography on his computer and videos of children being violently raped has avoided prison time. Edward J. Burke III, 47, was given a suspended sentence last week after going into a courtroom expecting to spend up to four years behind bars. Burke, 47, of Avon, was convicted in a plea deal of two counts of first-degree possession of child pornography. Prosecutor John F. Fahey told Judge Thomas P. Miano that Burke had 141 photo images and two videotapes of known child victims on...

Bit h/t to the Commenters at Just One Minute. We bloggers owe our best work to their diligence and tenacity. The following is a complilation of some what they found so far, of what just may be the key to getting to the bottom of a Democratic conspiracy in the Foley Setup. As I previously posted here, there apparently was a promise of a book deal to pages by a Robin Kasaros. Googling her name brought about useful information such as she hosted “House Parties” back in 2005. No, not where you sell Tupperware, but the kind that like to...

A private burial for Walter Burke Davis Jr., a writer and historian best known for his books on the Civil War, was held Aug. 21 in Greensboro, N.C. Mr. Davis, whose 47 books included novels and biographies, died Aug. 18 in a Greensboro hospital. The former resident of Meadows of Dan in Patrick County, who also wrote fiction and nonfiction for young readers, was 93.

NEW YORK, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Though by most accounts secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are friendly, the 72-year-old Defense chief may not be taking his partially eclipsed status very well. Though he has given no sign he might depart early, rumors have flown for weeks that Rumsfeld could leave after the quadrennial defense review expected by the end of 2005, report Senior Editor Michael Hirsh and Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman in the March 14 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 7). Among those said to be eying Rumsfeld's post is newly retired...

Chicago dog owners who tether their pets for hours on end without food or water would be reined in -- with a two-hour limit -- under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the City Council's most powerful alderman. "If dogs are tethered in this way, it makes them more likely to bite humans and makes them mean," said Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th). "It's a question of cruelty to the animals. It's a question of responsible care of animals. If people own pets, they ought to treat them responsibly." The Burke-championed ordinance introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting would...

Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel Wes Hanscom told a City Council panel that City Hall is preparing to sue ticket resellers who make a killing on the Internet but leave taxpayers in the lurch. The crackdown can't come soon enough for Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th). He believes that as much as $16 million in amusement taxes is slipping through the city's fingers because of growing Internet purchases. $4.2 mil. loss on Sox postseason? "One registered ticket broker paid $140,000 in amusement tax on White Sox postseason. EBay, it is estimated, is 20 times the size of that broker....

ST. LOUIS - St. Louis' Roman Catholic archbishop has issued a "decree of suppression" of St. Stanislaus Kostka church, ending the historic church's standing as a Catholic parish in the St. Louis archdiocese.The traditional Polish parish, which is at odds with the archdiocese over control of the parish's property and assets, is appealing the suppression, along with last year's interdict and last month's excommunication of its lay board of directors and priest."We saw it coming," parish spokesman Roger Krasnicki said, adding that St. Stanislaus has retained a canon lawyer. "We're doing as much as we can as fast as we...

In "The Conservative Mind" (1953), a founding document of the American conservative movement, Russell Kirk assembled an array of major thinkers beginning with Edmund Burke and made a major statement. He proved that conservative thought in America existed, and even that such thought was highly intelligent--a demonstration very much needed at the time. Today we are in a very different and more complicated situation. Nevertheless, a synthesis is possible, based on what American conservatism has achieved and left unachieved since Kirk's volume. Any political position is only as important as the thought by which it is derived; the political philosopher...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — At least 1,500 people attended Christmas Eve Mass presided by an excommunicated Roman Catholic priest, despite warnings from the archbishop that participating would be a mortal sin....Bozek said he doesn't believe that receiving sacraments at St. Stanislaus, especially Holy Communion, puts a Catholic at risk of mortal sin. The Rev. Charles Bouchard, moral theology professor and president of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, said Burke was following canon law "to the letter" in excommunicating Bozek and the board. But some argue that St. Stanislaus' more than century-old governing structure holds the same authority as...