Bells, White Smoke Will Announce New Pope

VATICAN CITY - Responding to Pope John Paul II's request, the Vatican will depart from centuries-old tradition by ringing bells in addition to sending up white smoke to signal the election of his successor.

Before he died Saturday at age 84, John Paul also made his wish known "to be buried in the ground" and not placed in an above-ground tomb, Archbishop Piero Marini said Tuesday.

John Paul will be laid to rest with a white silk veil on his face, a rosary in his hands and his body clad in liturgical vestments and the white miter. Following the centuries-old custom for burying popes, his body will be placed inside three coffins — wood, zinc and wood — a design meant to slow decomposition, the Vatican confirmed.

More...

Cardinals Meet to Prepare for Papal Vote

VATICAN CITY - The College of Cardinals met Tuesday for a second day to prepare for the election of Pope John Paul II's successor, which will be announced by a ringing of bells in addition to the centuries-old practice of sending up puffs of white smoke.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the cardinals hadn't yet decided on a date for the conclave, which according to church law must occur between 15 and 20 days after the death of a pope.

Navarro-Valls said 91 of the 183 cardinals were in Rome as of Tuesday. Only 117 of them — those under the age of 80 — can vote in a conclave.

Brazilian Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, archbishop of Sao Salvador da Bahia, told Italian state radio Tuesday that he thought a new pope would be chosen quickly.

The next pope is likely to follow John Paul's conservative bent closely — the late pontiff appointed all but three of the 117 cardinals entitled to vote. John Paul opposed divorce, birth control and abortion, the ordination of women and the lifting of the celibacy requirement for priests, issues that sharply divided the church.

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Note the issues which "sharply divide the Church" - all but one are doctrinal matters for which there is no room for dissension. This issue of celibacy, being a disciplinary matter, could - in theory - be changed. However, one must ask why one would wish to reject a great charism - the great gift of celibacy. It is a unique and precious gift from God - what ingratitude would be shown if it were to be rejected? What other of God's gifts, then, would we be willing to reject?

Secondly, those who reject the irreformable teachings of the Church in the other matters cannot, properly speaking, claim to be Catholic. They hold positions which are opposed to the teachings of the Church - they hold positions which are, simply put, heretical. One who holds an heretical position should be viewed as an heretic. They are more than 'dissenters'. Those who openly and defiantly promote their contrary 'opinions' in matters of faith and morals, should be publicly excommunicated - after having been adequately warned and admonished to repent. Failure to dispense the healing medicine of the Church allows further rot, disease, and corruption to occur within the Church. The unwary become afflicted - and souls could be lost.

Although it is to be understood that in recent times we are more likely to label the act or position of a person rather than the person himself, it seems disingenuous to refrain from acknowledging that the person who holds an heretical position is a heretic, at least, materially. Do we not call a person who steals, a thief? Or do we say that 'the man engages in thievery'. Do we call a murderer - a murderer - or do we call him a 'man who commits murder'? Does not St. Paul note that those who are engaged in fornication are "fornicators"? Does he not refer to individuals by their deeds - the idolators, the adulterers, the effeminate, the liers, the thieves, the covetous, the drunkards, the railers, the extortioners...(1 Cor 5)?

Are we not doing ourselves a great disservice by refusing to refer to certain individuals as to what they really are? Does Jesus, Himself, refer to some as "hypocrites"?

Vatican does not know identity of "secret" cardinal

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - The Vatican still does not know the identity of a cardinal nominated by Pope John Paul II two years ago but whose identity he kept secret, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said, adding that it may be contained in a testament he had left for cardinals.

"At the moment, nobody knows anything about it. Before the pope's death, it wasn't revealed," Navarro-Valls told reporters at the Vatican.

"We don't know if there is something in the text of the testament left by the pope. Naturally, if there is something we will communicate it when it is read." He said the document has not yet been read by cardinals...

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Judge Denies Opening Abuse Records in Terri Schiavo Case

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A local judge refused to open the records of a Florida agency that is looking into allegations of abuse and neglect against Terri Schiavo by her estranged husband Michael. Florida media outlets had wanted copies of previous investigations in the case.

The Department of Children and Families had received 89 allegations of abuse and neglect in the years leading up to Terri's starvation death.
...
Greer ruled the records belong to the DCF and he said that Michael Schiavo can have access to them, but they can't be made public.

During a Thursday hearing, according to an AP report, DCF attorney Jennifer Lima-Smith asked Greer to keep the records sealed, saying "It's time to end this case." She said the DCF investigation is ongoing.

Hide the truth, bury it...Maybe it will all go away.

Link

Long Lines to See the Holy Father

Thousands wait hours to pay last respects

VATICAN CITY - On Monday morning, the barriers began to go up along Via della Conciliazione, the long, wide boulevard leading from the Tiber river to St. Peter's Basilica. By the afternoon, news that John Paul II's body would be carried across St. Peter's Square and into the basilica had brought thousands of people to the Vatican grounds.

It was another beautiful, sunny day in Rome, and around 4 p.m., in order to avert a stampede, police began directing waves of about 200 through the barricades every few minutes.

More here.
See also Special Masses across the area

Archbishop Raymond Burke will be part of a memorial Mass at 7 tonight at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Catholic Church, 15 Plaza Square, northeast of Union Station downtown. The service is especially for the Polish Apostolate of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, but the public is welcome. Some hymns will be sung in Polish. The Rev. Adam Hurbanczuk, pastor of the Polish apostolate, will participate.

Gospel for Tuesday, 2nd Week of Easter

From: John 3:7b-15

The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)

(Jesus said to Nicodemus,) [7b] "You must be born anew. [8] The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes and whether it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." [9] Nicodemus said to Him, "How can this be?" [10] Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this? [11] Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony. [12] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you Heavenly things? [13] No one has ascended into Heaven but He who descended from Heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life."
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Commentary:

3-8. Nicodemus' first question shows that he still has doubts about Jesus (is He a prophet, is He the Messiah?); and our Lord replies to him in a completely unexpected way: Nicodemus presumed He would say something about His mission and, instead, He reveals to him an astonishing truth: one must be born again, in a spiritual birth, by water and the Spirit; a whole new world opens up before Nicodemus.

Our Lord's words also paint a limitless horizon for the spiritual advancement of any Christian who willingly lets himself or herself be led by divine grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are infused at Baptism and enhanced by the Sacraments. As well as opening his soul to God, the Christian also needs to keep at bay his selfish appetites and the inclinations of pride, if he is to understand what God is teaching him in his soul: "Therefore must the soul be stripped of all things created, and of its own actions and abilities - namely, of its understanding, perception and feelings - so that, when all that is unlike God and unconformed to Him is cast out, the soul may receive the likeness of God; and nothing will then remain in it that is not the will of God and it will thus be transformed in God. Wherefore, although it is true that, as we have said, God is ever in the soul, giving it, and through His presence conserving within it, its natural being, yet He does not always communicate supernatural being to it. For this is communicated only by love and grace, which not all souls possess; and all those that posses it have it not in the same degree; for some have attained more degrees of love and others fewer. Wherefore God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love; namely, that has its will in closest conformity with the will of God. And the soul that has attained complete conformity and likeness of will is totally united and transformed in God supernaturally" (St. John of the Cross, "Ascent of Mount Carmel", book II, chap. 5).

Jesus speaks very forcefully about man's new condition: it is no longer a question of being born of the flesh, of the line of Abraham (cf. Jn 1:13), but of being reborn through the action of the Holy Spirit, by means of water. This is our Lord's first reference to Christian Baptism, confirming John the Baptist's prophecy (cf. Mt 3:11; Jn 1:33) that He had come to institute a baptism with the Holy Spirit.

"Nicodemus had not yet savored this Spirit and this life. [...]. He knew but one birth, which is from Adam and Eve; that which is from God and the Church, he did not know; he knew only the paternity which engenders to death; he did not yet know the paternity which engenders to life. [...]. Whereas there are two births, he knew only of one. One is of earth, the other is of Heaven; one is of the flesh, the other of the Spirit; one of mortality, the other of eternity; one of male and female, the other of God and the Church. But the two are each unique; neither one nor the other can be repeated" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 11, 6).

Our Lord speaks of the wonderful effects the Holy Spirit produces in the soul of the baptized. Just as with the wind - when it blows we realize its presence, we hear it whistling, but we do not know where it came from, or where it will end up - so with the Holy Spirit, the Divine "Breath" ("pneuma") given us in Baptism: we do not know how He comes to penetrate our heart but He makes His presence felt by the change in the conduct of whoever receives Him.

10-12. Even though Nicodemus finds them puzzling, Jesus confirms that His words still stand, and He explains that He speaks about the things of Heaven because that is where He comes from, and to make Himself understood He uses earthly comparisons and images. Even so, this language will fail to convince those who adopt an attitude of disbelief.

St. John Chrysostom comments: "It was was with reason that He said not: `You do not understand,' but: `You do not believe.' When a person baulks and does not readily accept things which it is possible for the mind to receive, he may with reason be accused of stupidity; when he does not accept things which it is not possible to grasp by reason but only by faith, the charge is no longer that of stupidity, but of incredulity" ("Hom. on St. John", 27, 1).

13. This is a formal declaration of the divinity of Jesus. No one has gone up into Heaven and, therefore, no one can have perfect knowledge of God's secrets, except God Himself who became man and came down from Heaven--Jesus, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of Man foretold in the Old Testament (cf. Dan 7:13), to whom has been given eternal Lordship over all peoples.

The Word does not stop being God on becoming man: even when He is on earth as man, He is in Heaven as God. It is only after the Resurrection and the Ascension that Christ is in Heaven as man also.

13. This is a formal declaration of the divinity of Jesus. No one has gone up into Heaven and, therefore, no one can have perfect knowledge of God's secrets, except God Himself who became man and came down from Heaven--Jesus, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of Man foretold in the Old Testament (cf. Daniel 7:13), to whom has been given eternal lordship over all peoples.

The Word does not stop being God on becoming man: even when He is on earth as man, He is in Heaven as God. It is only after the Resurrection and the Ascension that Christ is in Heaven as man also.

14-15. The bronze serpent which Moses set up on a pole was established by God to cure those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents in the desert (cf. Numbers 21:8-9). Jesus compares this with His crucifixion, to show the value of His being raised up on the cross: those who look on Him with faith can obtain salvation. We could say that the good thief was the first to experience the saving power of Christ on the cross: he saw the crucified Jesus, the King of Israel, the Messiah, and was immediately promised that he would be in Paradise that very day (cf. Luke 23:39-43).

The Son of God took on our human nature to make known the hidden mystery of God's own life (cf. Mark 4:11; John 1:18; 3:1-13; Ephesians 3:9) and to free from sin and death those who look at Him with faith and love and who accept the cross of every day.

The faith of which our Lord speaks is not just intellectual acceptance of the truths He has taught: it involves recognizing Him as Son of God (cf. 1 John 5:1), sharing His very life (cf. John 1:12) and surrendering ourselves out of love and therefore becoming like Him (cf. John 10:27; 1 John 3:2). But this faith is a gift of God (cf. John 3:3, 5-8), and we should ask Him to strengthen it and increase it as the Apostles did: Lord "increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5). While faith is a supernatural, free gift, it is also a virtue, a good habit, which a person can practise and thereby develop: so the Christian, who already has the divine gift of faith, needs with the help of grace to make explicit acts of faith in order to make this virtue grow.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

What Are Some Cardinals Thinking About?

From an Inside the Vatican Newsflash

VATICAN CITY, April 5, 2005 -- Never has Rome been so filled with words, and yet so silent. Never have so many major world news organizations devoted so much time and energy to chronicling, minute by minute, the events surrounding the death and funeral of a Pope.

And never have such crowds of people waited in a line on the via della Conciliazione to enter St. Peter's Basilica.
...
During the evening, by chance, I met Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud walking on via della Conciliazione with two of his assistants. I asked him a question which the BBC had asked me earlier in the day, and I had been unable to answer: "What other decisions did the cardinals make today?"

"To speak with one voice," he said. "That is, to refer all questions to Monsignor Marini (the Master of Papal Ceremonies under John Paul II)."
...
Earlier in the day, I had been received by Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, Germany. Meisner had not attended the morning meeting of the cardinals. We met at 4 p.m. in the very simple pension where he is staying, just near the offices of Inside the Vatican magazine.

...the Pope also became very critical of Western societies, Meisner said.

"I made two great intellectual errors in my life," he said. "The first was thinking that communism would end only after 100 years; the second was thinking that when communism fell, all our problems would be solved. That has proven false."

He said, "Western hedonism, as communism, will also someday collapse, and perhaps even quite soon, in four weeks."
...
Then he spoke about the task he now faces, of entering a Conclave and choosing a successor to Pope John Paul. "Until the death of the Pope, I refused to speculate about a possible successor, out of respect for the Holy Father. Yesterday, I began to think. There are two things I know for certain: that it won't be me, and that it will be someone else. The one I have in mind is as intelligent as a dozen professors and as devout as a child receiving its first communion." (my emphasis).

Full NewsFlash Article here.

Protecting Yourself Properly - a 'Living Will' or a 'Will to Live'

Why Not Sign a Living Will Instead of the Will to Live?

Many people who simply do not want what they see as a lot of medical technology prolonging the last few hours or days of their lives when they are terminally ill sign living wills. If you do, in many states you may not know what you're really signing.

Webster's Dictionary defines "terminal" as "of or in the final stages of a fatal disease." And this is what the ordinary person thinks: that somebody who is "terminally ill" is someone who will inevitably die, whose death cannot be prevented by medical treatment.

But in many states, that is not what it means. Instead, for the purposes of the living will you are legally in a "terminal condition" even if your life could be saved--so as to live indefinitely--by medical treatment, so long as you would still have a permanent disability of some kind.

More...

This is a MUST read -

The bottom line is this: if you are someone who doesn't want medical technology to prolong your last hours, but who also doesn't want to be starved or allowed to die just because you have a disability, your wishes will be far more likely to be respected if you sign a properly prepared Will to Live than if you sign a living will.

Why the Need for a "Will to Live"?

In many states, the "living will" really means:
- you may be starved and dehydrated if you cannot swallow on your own

- you will be denied life-saving medical treatment even if you could live indefinitely if you have disabilities a doctor or court think make your life not worth living.

Download a "Will to Live" now for your State (from the National Right to Life Committee)

American Life League is another excellent source.
See "The Loving Will: An ethical alternative to 'living will' documents"

Prayer for a Deceased Pope from the Roman Missal

Deus, qui inter summos Sacerdotes famulum tuum N. ineffabili tua dispositione connumerari voluisti: praesta quaesumus; ut qui unigeniti Filii tui vices in terris gerebat, sanctorum tuorum Pontificum consortio perpetuo aggregetur. Per eumdem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

God, Who, in Thine ineffable providence, didst will that Thy servant N. should be numbered among the high priests, grant, we beseech Thee, that he, who on earth held the place of Thine only-begotten Son, may be joined forevermore to the fellowship of Thy holy pontiffs. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

The Accomplishments of Pope John Paul II

VATICAN, April 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican Information Service has made available the following impressive summary of the accomplishments of Pope John Paul II.
...
He has written 14 encyclicals, 14 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 42 apostolic letters and 28 Motu proprio in addition to hundreds of other messages and letters. In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul wrote the Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio Adveniente," dated November 10, 1994, and published four days later. He also created the Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

He wrote five books: Crossing the Threshold of Hope (1994), Gift and Mystery (1996), Roman Triptych (poetry, 2003), Arise, Let us Be Going (2004) and Memory and Identity (2005).

More at LifeSiteNews here.

The Holy Father's Latest Journey....

...to Paradise

Despite the profound sadness at the passing of our Holy Father, I found some delight in this cartoon that a reader sent to me.

Crowds Begin Paying Last Respects to Pope

A military officer salutes as Pope John Paul II's body is carried through St. Peter's Square and into St Peter's Basilica for public viewing, Monday April 4 2005, four days before his remains will be entombed in the grotto below the church. With tens of thousands of mourners outside hoping for a glimpse of the body, 12 pallbearers flanked by Swiss Guards carry the late pontiff's body on a crimson platform from the Sala Clementina, where it had laid in state since Sunday.(AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti)

Archbishop Burke on the Death of our Holy Father

STATEMENT OF ARCHBISHOP RAYMOND L. BURKE
REGARDING THE DEATH OF POPE JOHN PAUL II

The death of His Holiness Pope John Paul II brings to fullness a life consumed in the service of Christ and His Church, under the maternal care and protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. With the universal Church and the world, I mourn the loss of his earthly presence, and entrust him into the all-merciful hands of God. Surely, the Mother of God, to whom our Holy Father had confided his life and his priestly ministry, has held him in her loving care in the hours of his last agony and his passage from this life to the life which is to come.

Complete statement here...

Thomas More Law Center Statement on Death of Pope John Paul II

ANN ARBOR, MI — The Thomas More Law Center joins all people of faith throughout the world in marking the death of Pope John Paul II. The news of the passing of the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church is a cause for both mourning and celebration.

His remarkable life truly represents one of the most profound in modern human history – calling all people to a life of prayer, holiness and dedication to Jesus Christ in the midst of a fallen world.

He warned not only Catholics, but all people of good will, of the “enormous and dramatic clash” between the culture of life and the culture of death, between good and evil. As a champion of life, he boldly proclaimed the responsibility of all people to build communities of faith and respect for the inherent dignity of every human being. He was one of the principle architects of the defeat of communism. He spoke out against abuses of the human person and rejected the selfishness of the west manifested in abortion, homosexuality, and the destructive forces of materialism and secularism. He once stated, “A nation that kills its own children has no future.”

The third longest reigning Pope, elected on October 16, 1978, he faithfully protected the traditions and doctrines of the Catholic Church, defending them with intellectual vigor and pastoral discernment.

Pope John Paul II transcended national and religious boundaries by calling all people to a life of faith and hope. He will forever be remembered by the first words of his pontificate – “Be Not Afraid!”

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.

Cardinal Pell Reassures Faithful

SYDNEY, (AFP) - Australian Cardinal George Pell reassured fellow Church traditionalists that the Vatican conclave that will meet this week to choose a successor to Pope John Paul II will pick another conservative.

Pell, who arrived in Rome on Sunday to help choose the next pope, told ABC radio that the one certainty about the next pontiff is that he will hold to John Paul's staunch conservative line on theological issues.

"I'm quite sure that the general line -- fidelity to basic Catholic teachings -- is absolutely unassailable," he said.

"There will be debate and discussion on what is the best way to present the message of Christ, the best way to live a Catholic life," he said, but added, "I don't think that anyone who really knows the church believes that any radical change is likely."

Source.

Pope's Funeral Will Be Friday, Burial in St. Peter's

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II's funeral will be held Friday morning, and his remains will be interred in the grotto of St. Peter's Basilica where pontiffs throughout the ages have been laid to rest, the Vatican said Monday.

More.

From "Inside the Vatican" NewsFlash

From the NewsFlash by Dr. Robert Moynihan, Editor, Inside the Vatican

What are the cardinals meditating on with regard to the upcoming election of a successor to Pope John Paul?

By good fortune, I was able to speak today with two cardinals, Lubomyr Husar and Achille Silvestrini. I spoke with Husar, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which celebrates the liturgy according to the Byzantine rite, but which is in union with Rome, at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, after we both had flown to Rome on the same flight from Philadelphia. (We chatted for 30 minutes as we waited for his suitcase to come through on the conveyor belt.)

Husar said the cardinals -- in his view -- are looking "for a man, not a program." He said the man they are looking for with be able to balance the claims of conflicting groups so that Church teaching does not get "out of balance." He used the words "synodality," "collegiality" and "communion" in his discussion of the need to find a way for the Petrine office to function which does not compromise the prerogatives of "Peter" but yet allows legitimate space for other bishops beside the Bishop of Rome, as themselves successors of the apostles, to exercise an authoritative doctrinal and jurisdictional role in the Church. He said no one now has the answer to that question.

I spoke to Silvestrini in the Vatican Press Office. Silvestrini, now past 80, will not vote in the conclave. He was once the Vatican's "foreign minister" and so one of the most influential and high-ranking of all curial officials. And he was quite direct: "The Church needs to find a way of governing which is more collegial. This is the key point."

I deduce from these two conversations that, among the very many issues of concern to Church leaders, ranging from issues of sexual morality to Third World debt, one issue that is on the "front burner" right now is summed up in this word "communio" or "communion." That is, how can the Church remain unified, while allowing legitimate variation and difference. Finding the balance point is an extremely delicate task, for too much allowance for "difference" could fracture "communion" altogether, while too much "uniformity" could be seen as an oppressive and stultifying "centralism." This is by no means the only issue on the cardinals' minds, but it is one issue, and a key one.

It is especially key because its solution could open the way for something nearly everyone in the Church desires, but few believe is possible: an end to the schism of 1054, the reunion of the Orthodox Churches with Rome.

It was John Paul's great hope that he would move much closer to this union than he did; it will now be his successor's task to complete.

More collegiality...based on many, many stories over the years, it seems that this has more problems than benefits. Recent history is replete with statements and practices by different bishops and cardinals which differ, in varying degrees, from the teachings and disciplines of the Church. Rather than enumerate the countless examples, perhaps, our Lord will find it beneficial for us to have a Pope and bishops who are united in teaching and practices with the result being less confusion among the faithful and a true unity of the Church. I fail to see how too much "uniformity" would be considered "oppressive".

St Louis Area Faithful Honor the Holy Father

Nearly 1,800 people crammed into the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica on Sunday night for a memorial Mass for their beloved leader, Pope John Paul II.

"We mourn the loss of our spiritual father who has taught us and guided us with extraordinary wisdom and courage," Archbishop Raymond Burke said from the pulpit. "We wonder how we shall go forward without him."

But Burke cautioned the crowd to heed what the pope had said so many times. "Do not be afraid," Burke said.
...

Burke's homily was interrupted by a man who walked down an aisle, arms raised, muttering something like, "living Christ in our midst." Burke looked up and briefly stopped talking, twice. The man went nearly as far as the Communion rail when three priests intervened and escorted the man outside.

There, police officers leaned him against a minivan and handcuffed him. They planned to seek warrants against him for disturbance of the peace.

The man was bare-chested, wearing a blue blazer and untied military-style boots.

"I'm peaceful," the man said to officers outside. "I'm a Catholic, I just wanted to say my piece."

Full article here.

National Mourning in Poland (pictures)

More here.

Despite Order of Archbishop, Church Celebrated Easter

March 27, 2005.
By Victor Ojeda

A church told it could not celebrate Easter defied those orders and held services anyway.

St. Stanislaus Kostka -- a Roman Catholic church with a Polish-heritage majority had its Easter Mass Sunday morning with a secret and unidentified priest as a celebrant. The parish is at odds with the Archdiocese of St. Louis -- because its lay board of directors refuses to relinquish control of its property and assets to Archbishop Raymond Burke. In June of last year, Burke removed their priest and banned Masses.

For Easter -- they defied the order and found a priest from Poland sympathetic to their cause. The board of directors flew in the celebrant, but would not name him because they fear repercussions from the archbishop. "We don't like to put our supporters in jeopardy you could say. He has volunteered to come and help us out and we welcome that all the time," lay board member John Baras said.

This is only the second time St. Stanislaus has had a priest since their public feud with the archbishop began almost a year ago. The only other time they had a mass here was Christmas. Parishioners said it is sad that they must shepherd a celebrant cloaked in secrecy, but one member, Vicky Aitken, said they refuse to give up their Roman Catholic religion. "It means so much to us as Polish people that we want to make sure our spiritual needs are taken care of," she said.

Even if it means doing so without the blessing of their church leaders. An archdiocese spokesperson said Archbishop Burke would not comment on Sunday's Easter Mass, nor would he take any action against the priest or St. Stanislaus.

Copyright © 2005, KPLR

Copyright © 2005 Tribune Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.

Source.

This was proudly posted, it seems.