The Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis has issued an order denying the sacraments to leaders of a rebellious parish in a dispute over control of the parish and its millions of dollars in assets.
The archdiocese maintains that parish board leaders some years ago illegally changed parish bylaws written in 1891, eliminating all of the archdiocese's control. It is a situation unique among churches in the archdiocese where no other parish is controlled by a board of lay persons.
The board has suggested the archdiocese wants to close the church and take its assets of more than $9 million.
The archdiocese said the six board members controlling the parish were notified by letter on Thursday that Archbishop Raymond Burke had issued an "interdict" against them -- an order that denies them the Eucharist and other church sacraments.
The board of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish, founded by Polish immigrants in the late 19th century and still a center of Polish worship, has "completely removed itself from the authority of the Catholic Church," Archbishop Raymond Burke said in a statement on Friday.
Burke, who made news last year when he was among the first U.S. Catholic prelates to suggest that then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry be denied communion because of his stand on abortion, said the figure of $9 million in parish assets was exaggerated.
The archdiocese moved its priests out of the parish to an adjacent one and no Masses have been said there recently save one on Christmas by a Polish priest "smuggled" in, according to Roger Krasnicki, spokesman for the board.
Last summer the board petitioned the Vatican and was rejected, being told its actions were "a clear affront to the authority of the church." The Vatican urged the parish leadership to work with the archbishop to resolve the issue. But in January parishioners voted overwhelmingly not to turn over any assets to the archdiocese
Burke sent a written proposal to the board in January offering a guarantee that the parish property would not be sold so long as faithful of Polish descent worship there and support it. If the parish ever is closed, he said, property and assets would revert to the parish to be used "for religious, charitable and educational programs for Catholics of Polish descent."
The board rejected the proposal. Krasnicki called Burke's interdict against the board a "scandal" orchestrated "by someone we believe is hungry for power."
He said Burke's proposals were unacceptable because the archbishop "requires that he either has direct control of the assets or of the people administering them ... he talks about an irrevocable trust but the trustees are appointed by him and removable by him."