www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer excommunicated priest and parish family needs prayers

Please pray for a priest that I know. His name is Marek (Mark) Bozek. You may have heard of his situation. He was excommuicated by Archbishop Burke of St. Louis recently. I have some familiarity with him and he is a compassionate confessor and celebrated the liturgy with deep emotion and reverence. Please pray that Father Marek reconciles with the Church. Thank you!
Silouan
St. Louis parish board, priest excommunicated

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis has declared that the six members of a dissident lay board of directors of a Polish Catholic parish and the priest they recently hired from a neighboring diocese are excommunicated.


Since the board controls the parish and has chosen to lead its members into schism, "I will be obliged to suppress St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish," he said. He warned that anyone who receives any sacrament from the priest commits a mortal sin unless the person is in danger of death.

The archbishop said those who knowingly separate themselves from the church are automatically excommunicated and he was obliged to declare their excommunication after ascertaining that those involved fully understood what they were doing.

He explained his decision in his weekly column in the Dec. 16 issue of the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper.


He said the board moved from disobedience to schism when it hired an outside priest, Father Marek B. Bozek, from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., without permission from Archbishop Burke or from Bishop John J. Leibrecht, head of the priest's home diocese.

He said the board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in North St. Louis were in conflict not only with him personally but with the Holy See. The Vatican's Congregation for Clergy had ordered the board to relinquish its administrative control of the parish.

He said the board moved from disobedience to schism when it hired an outside priest, Father Marek B. Bozek, from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., without permission from Archbishop Burke or from Bishop John J. Leibrecht, head of the priest's home diocese.

Father Bozek took the new job "against the explicit direction of his bishop ... and after Bishop Leibrecht had explained to him more than once the gravity of his action and its consequences," Archbishop Burke said.

"When Father Bozek left his assignment without his bishop's permission, he was rightly suspended," he added. "The penalty of suspension prohibits him from the exercise of his priestly office."

"Only a priest who is not in good standing would agree to employment by a group of parishioners without the appointment of the diocesan bishop, that is, a group of parishioners who are breaking communion with the church," Archbishop Burke said.

He also said that "a priest who knowingly and willingly chooses to attempt to exercise priestly ministry outside of the communion of the church and thereby encourages others in breaking communion with the church clearly also commits the ecclesiastical crime of schism."

"It is not only the members of the board of directors of the civil corporation of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish who are in schism, but also the priest whom they have presumed to hire and who has agreed to be hired," he added.

St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish was formed in 1880 to serve Polish Catholic immigrants. In 1891 Archbishop Peter Kenrick deeded the parish to a parish corporation run by six lay directors, with successive directors to be appointed by the archbishop. The bylaws were later amended to have the directors elected by parishioners.

Before its suppression, it was the only remaining parish in the St. Louis Archdiocese in which the pastor was subject to the authority of a lay governing board -- a concession made to some ethnic parishes in the 19th century but contrary to current church law, which specifies that the primary authority over a parish belongs to the pastor.

Archbishop Burke's predecessor, now Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, began negotiating with the parish in 2002 to reorganize it in compliance with church law. Archbishop Burke became head of the archdiocese in December 2003 and tried to complete the job, but the parish board and most parishioners resisted, expressing fears that the transfer of authority was a ploy for the archdiocese to close the parish and take control of its assets.

As the dispute escalated, in August 2004 Archbishop Burke reassigned the parish's priest-administrator and moved the pastoral care of the city's Polish-heritage community temporarily to St. Agatha Parish in South St. Louis. He later made that move permanent and in January 2005 placed the St. Stanislaus board of directors under interdict, a church penalty that denies them access to the sacraments.

In late November the board hired Father Bozek, who was born in Poland and was ordained a priest of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese in 2002. Before he took the new post in St. Louis and was suspended, Father Bozek was an associate pastor at St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield.

Archbishop Burke has said the archdiocese's goal is not to gain control over the parish's assets. "I have renewed several times my offer to execute civil legal documents to guarantee what is already guaranteed by church discipline, namely the ownership of the temporal goods of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish as a personal parish for faithful of Polish language or heritage," he wrote.

He said if an excommunicated priest attempts to administer the sacraments of penance or confirmation or to preside at a wedding, those sacraments are invalid.

If the excommunicated priest celebrates Mass or administers baptism or anointing of the sick, those acts are valid but illicit, he said, and the priest conducting such rites commits a mortal sin each time he does so.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

This is very very sad

I will keep them in my prayers.

May they all be reconciled with the Church as soon as possible

Prayer for patience, understanding and healing of all wounds...

james

For Fr. Marek and the lay parish board to preserve their faith and to find mutual understanding!

Amaddo

Wow. I will pray for them. It would be most interesting to hear their side of the story.

How many parishes have been suppressed in that Archdiocese?

Andrew

This sounds like the same kind of heavy-handed dictatorship from the RC's that caused the Rusyns to return to the Orthodox Church over property and local administration. I fail to see any doctinal or heresy here to warrant "ex-communication."

It does indeed sound like the same kind of situation.

If you want to know what the faithful of St. Stanislaus are afraid of, look up what happened to St. Liborius Parish in St. Louis under similar circumstances.

The parish will go on, I think, in spite of this latest development.

Manoli

I for one agree with the Archbishop. I will pray that the priest and the parish will come back into communion with the Church.

Excuse my ignorance here, but why are some sacraments acceptable and others not? I thought a sacrament was a sacrament was a sacrament.
Marriage, Chrismation and Reconciliation are invalid yet Baptism, Eucharist and Anointing are valid. In addition, how can the reception of the Eucharist be 'valid but illicit'?
Can someone please explain?
Thank you.
Sam

Everyone,

Could we please take the non-prayer portion and start another thread in Town Hall? As Hieromonk Elias has reminded posters in the past, this section is reserved for prayer and prayer-related topics and discussions.

Thanking everyone in advance for their cooperation.

Wishing all a blessed Nativity.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+
Moderator

To All,

To begin, may I state that my prayers are for a positive outcome in this situation for all involved.

We have a similar situation here in Pittsburgh, not the same circumstances but similar, coming from a "liberal" priest.

www.pittsburghcatholic.org/newsarticles_more.phtml?id=1133. [pittsburghcatholic.org]

Should one face the "heavy handed dictatorship" and not the other?

Do we wish to be in communion with our local church in communion with Rome or not?

I applaud bishops who are willing to take the bull by the horns, because there are parishes getting away with all kinds of nonsense in other dioceses.(Did I plural Diocese correctly )

Bill

Dear Father Anthony,

I'm a little slow on the keyboard and was typing my post probably at the same time as yours.

My apologies,

Bill

Dear Bill,

No problems. I see that the thread that is related to this topic has been started in Town Hall.

Have a blessed Nativity.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Sweet Jesus what could thou have done for us that thou hast not done? In your mercy place this whole situation with Marek (Mark) Bozek in your order. May you be glorified Jesus.

May the Lord whose body is being bruised in this situation inspire all involved to show His Love and concern for all of His Children. May the Spirit lead them all to find in their common love of Christ reason enough to work out their difficulties without tearing at His Body on earth.