Parishioners overwhelmingly reject ceding church control

The headline from the Post Dispatch is, no doubt, intended to "fan the flames".

Parishioner Anthony Kaminski of St. Peters, who is host of a Polish radio show in St. Louis, danced a little jig after the vote.

"Jesus would be dancing, too," said his wife, Alice. The emotional crowd broke into a Polish song after the announcement with the refrain: "May you live for another 100 years."

So what is being proposed is that Jesus encouraged disobedience from legitimate chuch authority?

Board member Joe Rudowski said he still considered himself a Roman Catholic.

"If the bishop does what he intends to do to the board, my feeling is I'm a martyr to the cause," he said. He said he had devoted nearly 40 years of his life as a volunteer on behalf of the parish. He said the corporation bylaws prevented the board from handing over church assets without the consent of parishioners.

Of course, the Archbishop is not stating that anyone is no longer Catholic - nor can an interdiction be considered a a cause of martyrdom. Flagrant disobedience and the subsequent scandal caused by it can be considered a reason for the imposing of a just penalty, which could go beyond that of interdict:

Can. 1371 The following are to be punished with a just penalty:
2° a person who in any other way does not obey the lawful command or prohibition of the Apostolic See or the Ordinary or Superior and, after being warned, persists in disobedience.

Can. 1373 A person who publicly incites his or her subjects to hatred or animosity against the Apostolic See or the Ordinary because of some act of ecclesiastical authority or ministry, or who provokes the subjects to disobedience against them, is to be punished by interdict or other just penalties.

It would appear that the board is persistent in provoking disobedience.

A minority of parishioners have supported the archbishop, and Bialczak accepted a petition Sunday from St. Stanislaus parishioners who have been celebrating the Polish Mass at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Church since Burke transferred St. Stanislaus' priests there in August. Last week, those parishioners said they had collected 140 votes in support of the archbishop.

Source.