Free Republic

ST. LOUIS - St. Louis' Roman Catholic archbishop has issued a "decree of suppression" of St. Stanislaus Kostka church, ending the historic church's standing as a Catholic parish in the St. Louis archdiocese.The traditional Polish parish, which is at odds with the archdiocese over control of the parish's property and assets, is appealing the suppression, along with last year's interdict and last month's excommunication of its lay board of directors and priest."We saw it coming," parish spokesman Roger Krasnicki said, adding that St. Stanislaus has retained a canon lawyer. "We're doing as much as we can as fast as we...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — At least 1,500 people attended Christmas Eve Mass presided by an excommunicated Roman Catholic priest, despite warnings from the archbishop that participating would be a mortal sin....Bozek said he doesn't believe that receiving sacraments at St. Stanislaus, especially Holy Communion, puts a Catholic at risk of mortal sin. The Rev. Charles Bouchard, moral theology professor and president of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, said Burke was following canon law "to the letter" in excommunicating Bozek and the board. But some argue that St. Stanislaus' more than century-old governing structure holds the same authority as...

For 17 months, the St. Stanislaus Kostka Church has been without a priest. Wednesday, that changed. Father Marek Bozek left his post in Springfield, Missouri to come to St. Louis. Archbishop Raymond Burke promptly excommunicated him for his decision, as well as the lay board that hired him. Father Bozek says, "It causes me a lot of pain, a lot of fear. But I believe that this is a very unjust decision. And I pray that our appeal will be successful and we can be fully reconciled." He hopes for reconciliation between St. Stanislaus and the Archdiocese, ending a longstanding...

A day after he pulled into town, the Rev. Marek Bozek, the new pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka church, introduced himself to the St. Louis media. Literally. Minutes before a news conference at the church hall Wednesday, Bozek walked around the room and shook hands with every reporter, photographer and cameraman. Bozek plans to celebrate his first Mass as St. Stanislaus' pastor on Christmas Eve. He has been declared excommunicated, along with the six members of the church board, by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke. His voice breaking with nerves, Bozek read a statement saying that he had received more...

Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defense, was on the board of technology giant ABB when it won a deal to supply North Korea with two nuclear power plants. Weapons experts say waste material from the two reactors could be used for so-called “dirty bombs”. The Swiss-based ABB on Friday told swissinfo that Rumsfeld was involved with the company in early 2000, when it netted a $200 million (SFr270million) contract with Pyongyang. The ABB contract was to deliver equipment and services for two nuclear power stations at Kumho, on North Korea’s east coast. Rumsfeld – who is one of the...

eBay, ever anxious to up profits, bends over backward to provide data to law enforcement officials"I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's," says Joseph Sullivan. A little bit later, Sullivan explains what he means by the term "flexible." Sullivan is director of the "law enforcement and compliance" department at eBay.com, the largest retailer in the world. Sullivan was speaking to senior representatives of numerous law-enforcement agencies in the United States on the occasion of "Cyber Crime 2003," a conference that was held last week in Connecticut. His lecture was closed to reporters,...

A French marksman is missing somewhere in the US. There is a slim chance he might be THE SNIPER. Why isn't his (the French guy's) picture shown on television?