Priest and Parish Board Are Excommunicated

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond L. Burke has excommunicated a priest and the board of directors of a traditionally Polish parish that resisted his efforts to put the parish’s property and assets under his control.

In an archdiocesan newspaper column, Burke said Father Marek B. Bozek and St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish’s six lay directors committed an act of schism when the board hired Bozek, who Burke said left another diocese without his bishop’s permission.

“It saddens me in particular to address such a deep wound to the church in our archdiocese in these days of our final preparation for the celebration of the birth of our Lord on Christmas,” Burke wrote.