Edward Florek, 63, said he broke ranks with the board in March after concluding that Father Marek Bozek, whom the board hired as its pastor after the archbishop recalled the parish's priests in 2004, was leading the parish away from Roman Catholicism."St. Stanislaus Kostka board member reconciles with Catholic Church" - Catholic News Service, 6/6/08.
When we moved out here to St. Joseph's, Fr. V's liturgical preferences were so antiquated and my fellow parishioners so regimented that I thought the parish was in formal schism. Seriously. I described the celebration of Mass to my mother and she also questioned whether the parish was in communion with the bishop in Trenton.
I never thought I'd ever have to wonder whether the local Catholic parish was in good standing with the diocese.
During the eucharistic prayer, Fr. V. must have mentioned bishop and pope by name ... ? That likely gave me some assurance until I was able to determine with certainty that Trenton claimed St. Joseph's as its own, even if nobody there knew, geographically, where the parish was located.
But this church in St. Louis gives very little indication up front that it's in schism.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, St. Louis.
2 comments:
You might be surprised by this, but the story of St. Stanislaus is big big big in St. Louis. The board disbanded the other day. Here is a recent video interview with Father Bozek. (Sorry about the commercial, but you might get a flavor of authentic St. Louis accents from the guy selling cars...)
Unitarian?! LOL. Somebody doesn't know their theology.
The St. Louis accent is refreshing. If you want to hear a Jersey accent, just turn on a sit-com.
Beautiful church sanctuary!
I'm not surprised how big a story this is locally ... I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of it sooner. One would think the national media would be all over a story of a schismatic RC parish. Just please don't confess this is your parish. :-) That would break my heart.
Young, articulate, personable pastor! Could maybe stand to be a better negotiator with the hierarchy.
Of Irish descent, I don't know what it's like to be an ethnic minority in American Catholicism. The decision was made over a 100 years ago to not have national churches but Poles and Germans then and Latinos and Koreans now want services they can understand. Heck, this could easily be a church in Buffalo.
It's only a matter of time until the bishop prevails, hopefully with compassionate grace.
Thanks for your comment.
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