[sinkspur]

This is a huge mistake.

[Siobhan]

I would agree with you. Of course, I do not see this from Archbishop Burke's perspective. My guess is that they will either seek out the Polish National Catholic Church, or perhaps it will seek out the SSPX for sacramental assistance -- I have no idea which way it would go.

I only know that this is the sort of thing that alienates children from their father in the way that the Scriptures warn fathers not to provoke their children, and I can see very little good coming from this gameplan. I can see an unintended thoughtless disaster -- the Polish National Catholic Church withdrawing from their reunion talks with the Roman Catholic Church.

[Antoninus]

This is a huge mistake.

Yes. Strong disciplinary actions like this are only appropriate when a priest dares to celebrate the Mass in Latin or refuses to incorporate sex ed into Catholic school curriculum.

/sarcasm

[Jaded]

Here's an update to a lingering problem....

From Dom Bettinelli's blog

Ignoring the interdict

The board members of the independent Polish church in St. Louis have said they won’t appeal Archbishop Raymond Burke’s interdict against them. (He said that because of their intransigence and flouting of his authority, they will be denied the sacraments.) Instead, they said they are seeking help from other Church officials.

Rather than file a formal appeal, the board wants “other individuals to take up our fight, cardinals and bishops in the U.S. and Europe as well as the Vatican, and they have agreed to,” spokesman Richard Bach said. He declined to name prelates who have sided with the parish.

I highly doubt that. For one thing, Burke has sovereignty in this matter. No other bishop has the authority to tell Burke he can’t do this, especially since the parish corporation itself is in violation of canon law. (Short version: For 100 years the archdiocese allowed the mainly Polish parish to be run by an independent corporation, not as a parish directly under the control and authority of the archbishop.)

Meanwhile, I have received interesting information from a friend in St. Louis about the parish:

St. Stanislaus is not a Polish parish in any real sense. There are Polish immigrants, but they have sided with the archbishop and are attending what amounts to “St. Stanislaus in Exile” at another church. St. Stanislaus has no resident parishioners. It is located in an abandoned urban area—near the notorious old Pruett-Igoe public housing that you may have heard of. The parishioners come from all over the metropolitan area.

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