Chicago Tribune on St Stanislaus

ST. LOUIS -- On a recent Sunday at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, the file of faithful streaming up to receive Communion stretched from the nave to the back pew.

Hands clasped and heads bowed, the parishioners returned to their seats reverentially after Rev. Marek Bozek placed a wafer into each palm and uttered the phrase "the body of Christ."

In the eyes of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, those who accept the consecrated bread and wine from this priest are committing a mortal sin.

This statement is inaccurate - anyone capable of reading and understanding should be able to grasp the fact that this is not something which the Archbishop has made up - it is the law, the law duly constitued and promulgated by the Holy Father who has the God-given authority to bind and loose. The fact remains that those who, week after week continue to receive Holy Communion from this excommunicated priest who has no faculties granted by any bishop, commit mortal sin upon mortal sin which separates them from spiritual life and condemns them to eternal punishement in hell. Those are the facts. Those who are promoting and receiving Holy Communion from this "priest" are committing spiritual suicide - The "priest" is engaged in the spiritual murder of once faithful Catholics. It is quite sad and requires our attentive prayers.

Leslie Tentler, a scholar of American Catholic history at The Catholic University of America, said more bishops are using the sacraments as "weapons" to enforce church teaching. During the presidential campaign, she noted, Burke threatened to deny Communion to Democratic candidate John Kerry, who supports abortion rights. But the strategy sometimes has little effect on independent-minded Catholics, Tentler said.

"More than in the past, Catholics don't perceive the sacraments as something that are the property of the hierarchy or the church," she said. "The sacraments belong to all of us. Today, an excommunication has a slightly different feel emotionally."

A scholar whose credentials and opinions are no more authoritative than yours or mine, or of any of those who have made themselves a self-proclaimed pope...Little does it matter what one thinks or feels - especially if one is an "independent-minded" schismatic Catholic. Such a person has already placed himself outside the Church. He has, in essence, appointed himself 'pope', deciding authoritatively, what is right and wrong, lawful and unlawful. And, contrary to the facts and the law, he has decided that what is unlawful is lawful and that which is wrong is right. He has chosen the path and the attitude of Satan, himself.

Secondly, the fact that the safeguarding and regulation of the Sacraments have been entrusted to the Church and not the laity seems to elude even those who should know better. But then, spiritual and moral blindness abounds most everywhere today.

Rev. Thomas Doyle, the canon lawyer defending Bozek and the other officers, said an appeal was hand-delivered to the apostolic nuncio in Washington on March 12.

"They have been using the Eucharist as a political bargaining chip," Doyle said. "I find it very distasteful and certainly very contrary to the fundamental notion of what the Catholic Church is all about."

It should not come as any surprise who the St Stanislaus board has selected to represent them. The choices the board makes always seem to be somewhat questionable, but then perhaps, that's the nature of pride and obstinance.

It's unfortunate that this sad spectacle continues to receive coverage. It's even sadder that those who were once Catholic have chosen a path which places themselves in opposition to Christ and His Church.

Of course, there are other comments in the article which demonstrate the schismatics' demeanor and "belief" system - which one can readily see is anything but Catholic.



HatTip to Harry S