Free Republic

Eric Greitens stormed into the governor’s office in January 2017 vowing to clean up a state government he said was corrupt. He resigned Tuesday just as abruptly as he had arrived on Missouri's political scene, his career buried under an avalanche of scandal and felony charges. Mike Parson, 63, a fellow Republican and former sheriff who served 11 years in the General Assembly before being elected as lieutenant governor in 2016, will take over as Missouri’s 57th governor. He’ll finish Greitens’ term, which runs until January 2021. A Rhodes scholar and former Navy SEAL, Greitens was once considered one of...

ST. LOUIS • Alderman Jack Coatar says Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office didn’t do its job after a band of car break-in thieves was released on bail. Police believe six suspects committed more than 100 car break-ins mostly in downtown neighborhoods since at least 2014. Initially, their bail was set at $150,000. But Judge Nicole Colbert-Botchway reduced bail for three of them to $50,000 on April 27. They were allowed to post 10 percent of it, which they did, and were released. Two of those suspects, Lamonte Brown, 34, and Jason Holmes, 38, were charged with three counts each of...

ST. LOUIS • Activists supporting the Black Lives Matter movement temporarily blocked westbound traffic on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) downtown Saturday afternoon as part of a protest to raise the issue of racial inequality. Earlier Saturday, several local groups, including the Organization for Black Struggle and the St. Louis chapter of Hands Up United, had organized a rally at the Old Courthouse. The Old Courthouse, a powerful symbol for activists, is the site where the slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the landmark legal case that he eventually lost. Slave auctions also were held on the courthouse steps....

Several people were shot in Ferguson Sunday night after a peaceful march to mark the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. Two people were shot in a drive-by shooting and one opened fire on police officers. Police returned fire, critically injuring the suspect. Now, St. Louis County officials are declaring a State of Emergency. Organizers are calling today “Moral Monday.” It is a day of planned civil disobedience. They have more events planned for the remainder of the day. In the past the day of civil disobedience has included blocking highways and shutting down big businesses across St. Louis County.

Ferguson protesters stormed the police headquarters in downtown St. Louis today. They were going to hold a sit-in protest for four-and-a-half hours until they were maced and cuffed. X 2 reported: Protesters stormed the doors of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department headquarters Wednesday morning. Their plan is to occupy the department for four and a half hours. About 15 protesters were in the lobby and refused to leave until their demands were met. They also handed police an ‘Eviction Notice.

e-mail this to a friend printable version » 01/14/2011 04:14LEBANONAs Lebanon’s government collapses, the country’s stability is endangeredby Fady NounLed by Hizbollah, opposition ministers resign over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon set up by the United Nations to investigate into the Hariri assassination. Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France and Iran are involved in a diplomatic tug-of-war. With the country on the edge of the abyss, a simple incident might trigger civil war or clashes between Sunnis and Shias. Beirut (AsiaNews) – Lebanon’s national unity government led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri collapsed yesterday after 11 ministers in...

Nobody wanted it. Few expected it. Many are worried it will lead to armed confrontation in the streets of Beirut. The fall of the government of Prime Minister Said Hariri marks a significant escalation by Hezbollah in their effort to take control of Lebanon; it also ratchets up tensions between Sunnis and Shias that could explode into violence if not checked. Eleven opposition cabinet ministers resigned on Wednesday, constitutionally causing the government’s collapse. At issue: the Special Tribunal Lebanon’s (STL) imminent announcement of indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. It is widely expected that...

In the first few moments of his public introduction as head of the St. Louis Archdiocese, Archbishop-elect Robert James Carlson made it clear — without saying a word — that some things would change under his leadership. And some would remain the same. After Carlson entered the auditorium to the thunderous applause of 200 archdiocesan employees, nuns and priests at the Cardinal Rigali Center in Shrewsbury, the very first hand he shook belonged to Monsignor Ted Wojcicki, president of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. Both Carlson and his predecessor, Archbishop Raymond Burke, have reputations for dramatically increasing the number of men attending their...

The priest who has been at the center of a firestorm in the Archdiocese of St. Louis has been officially stripped of his faculties, according to the Associated Press: A priest who defied his Roman Catholic bishop in 2005 to become pastor of a largely Polish-American parish at odds with the archdiocese has been stripped of his priesthood. The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to return Marek Bozek from priest to lay person came a year after the move was recommended by former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke. In 2005, Bozek was serving in southern Missouri's Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese when...

Termed a "locking of horns," the interim head of the St Louis church is moving to consolidate fund-raising oversight for the 550,000-member archdiocese's Catholic Charities... and the fallout hasn't been pretty. Bishop Robert Hermann has given the board members an ultimatum: Agree with his plan, or get out. The archdiocese says that it has talked with Catholic Charities about its "day-to-day operations" and that it wants to better coordinate fundraising with the agency. But, at least one board member claims the dispute is really about the archdiocese trying to seize control of the nonprofit and how it is run....

RiverFrontTimes: "A little over a year ago, 26-year-old Jessica Rowley shattered the stained-glass ceiling, so to speak, by being ordained a Catholic priest. Now the St. Louisan is on the verge of giving birth to her first child, and a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for women’s ordination says that makes Rowley the world’s first pregnant Catholic priest." Her husband is a United Church of Christ minister. So which church will the baby be baptized in? "That's a good question," says Rowley, with a laugh. "It's a topic of conversation in our home a lot. We're going to baptize...

Ironically enough, in the city where the "Communion Wars" that've roiled American Catholicism for the last four years saw their birth, the Democratic nominee was greeted by his largest domestic crowd of this campaign yesterday -- 100,000, according to police estimates, under St Louis' Gateway Arch. It being the "Rome of the West" -- where Catholics make up over a quarter of the metro-area population... and the faithful await a successor to the Holy See's new "chief justice" Archbishop Raymond Burke -- it's worth noting that reports of mass sanctions have yet to emerge. But the gathering came just...

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....

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JULY 28, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Three leaders of a former St. Louis parish who incurred excommunication for hiring a suspended priest have been reconciled with the Church. According to a statement last week from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Bernice Krauze, Stanley Rozanski and Robert Zabielski, members of the Board of Directors of St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation, met in June with Archbishop Raymond Burke to be reconciled fully with the Church. "They are once again in full communion with the Catholic Church and are no longer under any censure," the archdiocese reported. The St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation is...

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,...

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. ...

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...

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 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...