Last month, 299 members of St. Stanislaus (out of 510 eligible) voted against a proposal that read "Should we turn over all property, funds and parish control to the Archdiocese of St. Louis?" Only five members voted in favor.
Seems like an 'odd' thing for the church to 'deny sacraments' over ....
Bialczak said the board members would consider their options at a meeting Friday night and would make an announcement to parishioners and the public after their weekly prayer service at the church Sunday.
Some St. Stanislaus parishioners have portrayed Burke's actions as an effort to gain control of the parish's $1.2 million in assets and eight acres, which the parish has said is worth $8 million. In an article in this week's Review, the archdiocese questioned the veracity of the parishioners' assessment of the value of the property, saying "based on the known value of other parish properties, (it is) likely to be significantly less."
Board members have said they would ignore the interdict and take part in whatever sacraments they wanted to, including receiving Communion. Shamleffer said such action would not make the sacrament invalid, but, rather, illicit. If the board members were to accept Communion, the interdict "would not negate the validity of the sacrament," he said.
Interesting ... I'm an ex-catholic so my opinion on this is not as important I guess than if I was a catholic. But this seems as if the church could easily correct this via some sort of accounting or purchase, or long term transfer or some other method.
Does the church care more about the 'assets' or the parishioners is something I would wonder about this whole 'affair' that could turn into a bad PR item for the church. If the latter, simply ask for the immediate grounds around the church on some sort of 'bargain' tranfer .. the the rest be on a long term lease arrangement or something ... that over time might be given to the church in increments. The church needs to show more care and feeding of the flock and NOT show greed and desire for real estate acquisitions.
There's nearly $2 million in cash, in addition to the property, that's at stake.
As for PR, Burke has botched this from the beginning. He hasn't even been in St. Louis a year, and he's already bulldogging these people, who have been involved in this Polish parish for generations.
But, Burke decided to put his office on the line, instead of patiently negotiating, and now he has to threaten to keep Catholic people away from the source of their spiritual life in order to save face.
If they call his bluff, he's basically going to have to wait them out, which is what he should have done in the first place.