Updates on the Bozek Matter...

...from the Post-Dispatch:

The Rev. Marek Bozek was firm with his supporters Tuesday morning. They were assembled outside the Catholic Center on Lindell Boulevard to pray, he told them. They were not there to antagonize St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke. They were not there to argue with Burke's supporters across the courtyard. They were to pray the rosary.

And so they did. Minutes later, as Bozek was led to a conference room in the rectory at the Cathedral Basilica, 250 of his parishioners and friends waited for him in the rain, praying for his fate.

250 confused souls - 250 people who have been led astray by a man whose vows to Christ and His Church are meaningless - worth nothing.

[Archbishop] Burke has set March 5 as the date for a final meeting with Bozek. Burke said he would begin the process of returning Bozek to the status of layman, or laicization, if the priest does not repent at that meeting.
[...]
"This can't go on," said Burke "The matters are very clear, and you don't have to be a savant to figure it out … I'll give him another month, but that's the end. That's the limit."

Archbishop Burke has demonstrated more patience than most, it would appear to me. This rebellion of Marek Bozek's has been going on for over two years. And Bozek has been hearing confessions, and performing marriages and confirmations - all of which are INVALID....and those who have succumbed to this travesty of sacramental chicanery are victims, some even willingly - and the rupture and division brought about by the pride and disobedience of Marek Bozek is a grave scandal in the Church, particularly in St Louis.

At the hearing Tuesday morning, Bozek said he met with Burke and six other archdiocesan officials, most of them canon lawyers.

Bozek said he was allowed to peruse a "dossier the size of three encyclopedias of my crimes" and did so for almost half an hour. He said the dossier contained transcripts of every radio and television interview the priest had granted and documents going back to his youth in Poland, including photos of his baptism.

"This attests to one of two things," Bozek said in an interview at a lunch with his supporters after his hearing with Burke. "They think I'm either extremely important, or they are extremely afraid of me."

Those so consumed with the deadly sin of pride to such an extent as this are incapable of seeing the obvious truth - Bozek is not "extremely important," except in his own mind, nor is anyone "extremely afraid of him." The Church is concerned for the salvation of others' souls which Bozek arrogantly puts at risk by his rebellion and defiance.

The Archdiocese, no doubt, has put together a complete record of Bozek and his activities for his canonical trial, should it come to that. It's laughable, though, to even imagine, that anyone at the Archbdiocese is "afraid" of this man.

"Seemingly (Bozek) recognizes the error of his ways and recognizes that he needs to repent, but he doesn't do that," said Burke. "He puts forth conditions, and we don't do that with God. When we recognize we've offended God seriously, we repent and we make reparation. We don't say, 'I'll repent, but first I need these four things.'"

Bozek's actions are the same as those of all other arrogant and prideful individuals - deluded by the promises and wiles of the evil one, they think that they can make deals with the Almighty.

here...at the Post Dispatch.