This letter was posted on the St. Stanislaus website...it makes clear to anyone who reads it what may have been obscured by the reporting of the Post Dispatch and numerous radio and television interviews of some of the board members...
TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CIVIL CORPORATION FOR SAINT STANISLAUS PARISH (Mr. William Bialczak, Dr. Joseph Rudawski, Mr. Stanley Novak, Mr. John Robert Zabielski and Mr. Edward Florek):As posted here, with monor corrections.
ON YOUR ACTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE OF
SAINT STANISLAUS KOSTKA PARISH
Dear Brothers in Christ,
As your Archbishop, I write about the most serious matter of the future of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish. I write to you with sincere pastoral charity and with the steadfast desire of reconciliation.
Both my predecessor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, and I have communicated with you as the Board of Directors of the civil corporation for the Parish on numerous occasions over the past 15 months. We have made it clear that the structure of the corporation as set forth in the corporate documents has been amended so that the Parish is not in conformity with the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. We have requested that you agree to amend the Articles of Incorporation and the By-Laws of the civil corporation, so that the Parish may conform to the model used for all other parishes of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
I have assured you of my commitment to keep the Parish open so long as the faithful of Polish language and ethnicity continue to gather there and to provide the support necessary for the Parish. I have also committed myself and my successors to place the assets of the Parish in an irrevocable charitable trust for the exclusive benefit of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish.
Mr. Roger Krasnicki, acting on behalf of the Board of Directors, made a complaint to the Holy See regarding my requirement that you amend the structure of the civil corporation for the Parish.
Responding to that complaint, the Congregation for the Clergy, which acts for the Holy Father in such matters wrote the following to Mr. Krasnicki on November 11, 2004:
The actions of the Board of Directors in attempting to take control of the Parish represents a clear affront to the authority of the Church and the intentions of the Parish founder. Through careful and premeditated revisions of the By-Laws of the civil corporation, you have attempted to make the role of the pastor impotent, attempted to wrest control from the local Ordinary, and attempted to transform St. Stanislaus Parish into an entity which has no resemblance to a parish as envisioned by either the tradition or current law of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Congregation, in its decree, also of November 11, 2004, stated: ".,, the current board of directors and members of the civil corporation have amended the corporate documents of the civil corporation so that the parish is not in conformity with the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church...." In conclusion, the Congregation for the Clergy rejected the complaint filed by Mr. Krasnicki.
To the present, you have not agreed to do what the Congregation for the Clergy and I have directed. You have scheduled a vote of the parishioners on January 9, 2005, but the question upon which the parishioners are asked to vote does not reflect what is being required of the civil corporation. Accordingly, the outcome of that vote will have no bearing on the future of the Parish.
The Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Rigali and I have patiently requested that you make necessary changes to the governing documents of the civil corporation for the Parish. I have given you every possible assurance regarding the future of the Parish as a personal parish for persons of Polish language and ethnicity.
Now, to bring this matter to conclusion, I am asking that you put aside your concerns, have trust in the institution of the Roman Catholic Church and agree to what has been asked of you by the legitimate pastoral authority of the Church. If, by February 4, 2005, I do not receive affirmation of this agreement from you as members of the Board of Directors, 1 will consider your refusal to be a final decision not to maintain a Roman Catholic parish as is required by the purposes of the civil corporation, and I will proceed with what I determine to be necessary in the best interest of the faithful of our Archdiocese, who have been entrusted to my pastoral care.
With this letter, in accord with the norm of can. 1347, §1, of the Code of Canon Law, I warn you that your refusal to comply with the legitimate directives of the Holy See and of me, your Archbishop, carries with it, the punishment of "interdict or other just penalties," in accord with the norm of can. 1373. I have tried by every means of pastoral solicitude to lead you to obedience to legitimate ecclesiastical authority. Your response, as evidenced by your letter to the parishioners of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish, dated December 27, 2004, has been profound disrespect toward Church authority and open disobedience (cf. can. 1341). Therefore, if you have not complied with the directives of the Congregation for the Clergy and my directives by February 4, 2005, 1 will be obliged to impose upon you the canonical penalty of interdict (cf. can. 1332), because your lack of compliance constitutes a grave act of disobedience, leading parishioners into disobedience to the Holy See and to the Archbishop and, thus, publicly manifesting lack of unity with the Church.
As your Archbishop, I urge you, for the sake of the salvation of your souls and of the souls affected by your actions, to withdraw from your disobedience and to be reconciled with the pastors of the Church. I continue to pray for this intention, invoking especially the help of Our Lady of Czcêstochowa and Saint Stanislaus Kostka.
I invoke God's blessing upon you and your homes.
Given at the offices of the Archdiocesan Curia on the third day of January, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, in the Year of the Lord 2005.
SEAL
+Raymond L. Burke
Archbishop of St. Louis
Rev. Jerome D. Billing
Chancellor
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