Saturday, January 08, 2005

Heated Debate Over Fate of St. Stanislaus

This was emailed to me by a parishioner of St. Stanislaus. I have posted it here since Fox2News does not archive its reports.

http://www.fox2ktvi.com/
HEATED DEBATE OVER FATE OF ST. STANISLAUS CHURCH

The heated debate over the fate of St. Stanislaus Polish Catholic Church took center stage on FOX 2 News in the Morning. Both sides joined us for a spirited debate over who should control the church and it's money the Archdioscese as Canon Law dictates or a lay board which has been doing so for years.

St. Stanislaus Spokesman Roger Krasnicki (pictured left): "The Archdiocese has continually attacked us. They took away our priests. They took away the Sacraments. People can't get baptized, they can't get married, and they can't have the Eucharist...the center of our faith. And the Archbishop is standing there with the Eucharist in his hand and he's saying to us 'You can have this. All you need to do is give me your property and your money.' What he's doing is exactly what the devil did to Jesus in the desert after the forty days of fasting. The devil came up to Jesus with a loaf of bread and said 'you can have this if you only worship me', and that's exactly what's happening in this case."


Archdiocese Spokesman Jamie Allman (pictured right): "Comparing the Archbishop to the devil is beyond the realm of comprehension here. This is an example of how these individuals, who previously were considered to be honorable individuals, would go out and accuse the Archbishop. Comparing him to the devil is beyond me."

Krasnicki: "Are you calling me a dishonorable person?"

Allman: "It is an example of how you all are not dealing with the Archdiocese in good faith."

In a letter this week, Archbishop Burke said the board members have until February 4th to hand over control or the members could be censured and not be able to participate in the liturgy or Sacraments of the Catholic church. A church spokesman says the Archbishop hasn't even made a threat that strong to pedophile priests.
I wish I would have known this was on - I would have taped it. Surely, one can see through the deceptive language in this:
"The Archdiocese has continually attacked us. They took away our priests. They took away the Sacraments. People can't get baptized, they can't get married, and they can't have the Eucharist..."
Archbishop Burke arranged for Holy Mass and the Sacraments at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Parish. Why does Mr. Krasnicki persist in not telling the truth? Are the people from St Stanislaus who attend Mass at St John's denied Holy Communion?

(Picture by Mark Kempf - from the St. Louis Review)
[ARCHBISHOP RAYMOND L. BURKE meets Jan. 2 with those who had attended the 9 a.m. Mass in Polish at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Parish in Downtown St. Louis. The archbishop used an interpreter to deliver his homily to the faithful, most of whom are Polish immigrants who have attended the weekly Polish-language Mass at St. John since the Polish apostolate was transferred there last summer from nearby St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish.]

Thursday night, for example, Richard? Bach, a spokesman for St. Stanislaus, was on 97.1 Talk FM radio and he was given free reign to distort facts as they have been presented by Archbishop Burke and free reign to distort Catholic teaching regarding conscience and obedience. I called in to inform him that he was mistaken regarding his understanding of obedience but was unable to drive, talk, shift and listen - and I was in a bad cell besides...Many of the callers, it seemed, were siding with the St. Stanislaus board, who seems to have been eager to get as much publicity as possible from this incident which the board alone has created - based upon the history probvide by the Archbishop and others.

One only has to recall some of the details of the confidential letter Archbishop Burke sent to them which, somehow, was quoted in a recent story by the Post Dispatch...What was the purpose of revealing all or part of a confidential letter if not for eliciting sympathy or presenting oneself as a "victim"?

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