Excommunicated Priest Draws 1,500 to Mass

9NEWS.com ^ | 12/25/2005 | Associated Press

[I Believe It's Not Butter]

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 church law and the bishop lacked merit for imposing excommunication, he said.

[BizzeeMom]

the plot thickens ping

[BizzeeMom]

Last paragraph, from newest St. Louis Post article:

"So what will the new priest say when his parishioners ask him the inevitable question: Are you a homosexual? 'When people ask me that, I just say, I am a celibate and chaste priest, so it doesn't matter,' Bozek said."

Hmmm. It doesn't matter? That's your opinion, Fr. Coming from a man who should never have been ordained to begin with, it just might matter a lot.

[little jeremiah]

later pingout

[Coleus]

Excommunicated priest holds ‘illicit’ Mass

[Antoninus]

People came from Chicago and beyond to participate in the illicit Mass last night. Betcha a good percentage of attendees are still in a rage over the 2004 election!...support for the dissenters has very little to do with the actual facts of the situation.

Exactly. The fact that this story made the national lame-stream media wires indicates that anti-Catholics are using it as an opportunity to bash the Church.

[BizzeeMom]

Yes. As Domenico Bettinelli (bettnet) said, many "are lapsed Catholics who have an axe to grind against the Church and have latched on to this cause to grind it".

[Irish_Thatcherite]

The Communion rail alone makes this church automatically "schismatic".

Many Catholic churches have that rail.

[SuziQ]

Why exactly was he excommunicated ??Does he say the LAtin Tridentine MAss...what the low down?/

He is under the authority of his Bishop. His Bishop told him NOT to associate himself with this group of Catholics, who apparently had decided to set themselves up in their Church, which I think, the Bishop had planned to close. The priest disobeyed his Bishop, as did the Parishoners, and this Mass was an 'in your face' event.

Sounds like the sin of PRIDE is swirling all around this case. I don't think it had anything to do with whether or not this was a Latin Mass.

[Coleus]

As a matter of fact, a priest still has an obligation to distribute Holy Communion to someone who is kneeling. I remember once I read that in St. Peter's a priest denied Holy Communion to a woman who was kneeling and afterwards she reported the priest to I think, Cardinal Arinze, and subsequently the priest was repudiated by the Cardinal.

[victim soul]

"Catholics and non-Catholics from as far as Oregon and Washington, D.C., filled the church"

[gbcdoj]

Your point?

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Thanks for that!

[Coleus]

You're welcome, and I think in about 3 countries Holy Communion is NOT allowed in the hand: Poland, Mexico and some other that I can't remember.

[connectthedots]

As an aside, I wonder how this dispute will affect the RCC diocese of Oregon's bankruptcy case in which the Archbishop claims that the assets of the local parishes belong to the local parishes and are thus not part of the bankruptcy estate of the archdiocese, and therefore not available for payment of claims in priest sex abuse cases?

[Irish_Thatcherite]

I live near the Marian Shrine in Knock, Ireland - the "Old Church" (meaning the old Knock Parish church, before the Basilica was built), still has such a railing.

[Rosary]

Got it...not a good thing...another Novus Ordo MESS

[SuziQ]

I don't think it has anything to do with NOVUS ORDO, just plain ole MULE-HEADEDNESS. ;o)

[Rosary]

It is nevertheless a poor,poor situtation and all N.O. so there is always bound to be a mixup -or a put down or another"priest" who needs conversion !