Replies

I have the highest respect for the ecclesiastical authority and do believe it comes from Christ. However, this particular quarrel followed by an "excommunication" over material property of a 120-years-old parish does not reflect maturity of Burke. He is not acting as a shepherd. John 10:27- "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Obviously, these sheep smelled a rat.

I don't believe that this property-related "excommunication" is worth anything at all. I hope it will be immediately appealed to the Holy See and they will stay in communion with the Church.

Like the matter of SSPX, this is NOT a property dispute. It IS a revolution against duly constituted ecclesiastical authority in the persons of former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali, now the cardinal/archbishop of Philadelphia and Archbishop Raymond Burke. They, not some rebel parish trustees, are in charge. The archbishop withdrew his clergy when the local yokels at St. Stanislaus Kostka began practicing an old error known as "trusteeism" with which Rome is well familiar. We are the Roman Catholic Church and not the Congregational Church. We are also not some glib debating society.

It is my personal hope that St. Stanislaus Kostka be suppressed as a parish and the civil owners of the building can turn it into a Polish heritage center or a Ronald McDonald playground or a parking lot or a playhouse or an athletic club, anything but a Church purporting to be Catholic while they are in rebellion.

Perhaps it can be taken by eminent domain, a la Kelo vs. New London, by St. Louis municipal authorities and sold by the community to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. The rebel trustees get 2/3 of the value of the property to set up a Polish museum, the archbishop gets a discount and Catholicism is restored to St. Stanislaus Kostka.

Do you have an opinion as to the rebel Polish priest, formerly incardinated in the diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, now suspended by his own bishop, opposed by the clerical authorities of his native land of Poland, and having NO FACULTIES from the Archdiocese of St. Louis where he purports to be a pastor??? I do. He should be permanently barred from the priesthood anywhere.

I can tell how much respect you have for ecclesiastical authority by your reference to one of our very finest and most orthodox clerics, Archbishop Raymond Burke, as a "rat."

Do you happen to be Catholic or is this none of your business? SSPX is NOT Catholic. The excommunicati of St. Stanislaus Kostka cannot very well "stay in communion with the Church." Excommunication means that they are outtta here! Don't hold your breath waiting for the Vatican to side with "parishioners" who spit on diocesan ordinaries.

As to your own personal interpretation of Scripture (YOPIOS), namely of John 10:27: The miscreants of St. Stanislaus Kostka are NOT Archbishop Burke's "sheep" but Satan's, by their own personal choice.