A couple of Letters to the Editor re: St. Stanislaus

Bring ’em back

Shame on the people of St. Stanislaus.

A Roman Catholic Church does not "belong" to a small group of people. The Poles have always been recognized for their piety and obedience. Such were the Polish members of my own family.

The board members at St. Stanislaus have betrayed their heritage and are acting like a bunch of greedy disobedient Americans. That Church belongs to the Roman Catholic (universal) Church. It has special significance because the Holy Father visited there.

I hope the archdiocese uses every legal means necessary both canonical and civil to bring that parish into obedience and back into the true family of God.

Mary Ann Harter
Sappington

All emphasis in these letters was added by me...

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Editor:

While I respect the efforts of parishioners at St. Stanislaus over many years that contributed to make their parish what it is, I am saddened by the spectacle created by their lay board of directors in recent years.

St. Stanislaus is truly a oasis of beauty on the near Northside. It boasts an ornate church building and excellent parish center. But it has no school, it does not have teams for kids to compete in CYC sports and its parishioners live hours away in some cases.

As a parishioner of a city parish, I know the struggles that are being made by other earnest Catholics to keep open their schools, churches and other ministries.

These struggles, I believe, are part of the larger Church universal in which we the Church are the extension of God in the world. If the only end of our efforts is the greater glory of the parish, then it makes little sense to be part of the larger Church.

The recent vote by members of St. Stanislaus sends the clear message that they do not share the larger view of the Church; they do not stand with the rest of us.

This is sad because some St. Stan’s parishioners sent their kids to other parish schools, played on other parish teams and participated in the day-to-day life of parishes other than St. Stanislaus. When they needed to be part of a larger whole, we were there for them. By their vote they now give the false impression they did not need nor appreciate help from the archdiocese.

Although they are, without question, good people, St. Stanislaus seems to have been led astray. I offer my prayers that our brothers and sisters at St. Stanislaus are able to view the situation a little less narrowly before they abandon the archdiocese completely.

Brian McCarthy
St. Louis

Some very worthwhile observations are in these letters...Perhaps, by offering to God our prayers and penances, some of the hardened hearts may be changed so that the parishioners stay within the fold of the Church.

Source.