Polish parish votes to protect itself in standoff with bishop

ST. LOUIS -- An independent Polish parish at odds with St. Louis' archbishop over its control has protectively agreed Sunday to release its assets to a Roman Catholic charitable group -- not the archdiocese -- if the parish or its corporation ever dissolves.

Though the St. Stanislaus Kosta church's solvency may not appear in doubt, the vote favoring a slate of administrative changes amounts to insurance protection in an archdiocesan feud with little hope for compromise, parishioner Roger Krasnicki said.

Parishioners have challenged Archbishop Raymond Burke, in office only a few months, who has demanded that they relinquish control of $9 million in assets and a lay board's leadership, calling that an unlawful takeover.

Sunday's vote "shows we're very united," said Krasnicki, a 62-year-old retired lawyer whose family has been with the parish for more than a century.

A message left Sunday with a spokesman for the archdiocese was not immediately returned.

The church was established in 1880 when Irish and Polish immigrants settled the neighborhood. In May 1891, then-Archbishop Peter Kenrick and parish leaders signed a deed "forever" conveying church property from the archdiocese to a private parish corporation with a board of lay church members.

But last year, the archdiocese told the congregation the structure wasn't in accordance with canon, or church, law that came more than 20 years later.

Burke, only months into his St. Louis post, has said the archdiocese -- not a lay board -- must administer a parish's assets. In a March letter to the parish, he wrote: "It is simply not right that a parish call itself Catholic and be so recognized by church authority, and at the same time, be under the exclusive direction of a civil corporation."

If the lay board and parishioners refused, Burke pledged to declare St. Stanislaus no longer a Roman Catholic parish and establish a Polish-speaking parish elsewhere.

The matter came to a boil during March 28 meeting at St. Stanislaus, where Burke -- with his canon lawyer -- was booed, heckled and laughed at by angry parishioners who interrupted his remarks with shouts of "rip-off," "We are the church, not you," and "That's communism."

Though parishioners wondered why Burke apparently seeks to suddenly unwind a century-old arrangement with the archdiocese, Burke said he had no plans to close St. Stanislaus if the parish yielded control to the archdiocese. He said the parish's assets would be held in an archdiocesan charitable trust.

Afterward, he said he saw no room for compromise.

Sunday's vote -- 199 in favor and just 17 dissenters -- would put the church's assets in the hands of a Catholic charitable group "that would keep up the Polish heritage and traditions," Krasnicki said.

St. Stanislaus Kostka next month is sending one of its members to Rome for an audience with Pope John Paul II -- also Polish -- and a separate meeting with the pope's advisers. The parish also has solicited the support of Poland's 11 bishops and cardinals serving in the Vatican.

As part of Sunday's vote, the parish's directors -- once appointed and allowed to serve indefinitely -- will be nominated, voted upon by parishioners and be limited to two three-year terms. And though the church had no mechanism for parishioners to request the board for changes, the bylaw revision calls for a board discussion or vote on a matter if 50 parishioners petition for it.

"We're being more inclusive than we were before," Krasnicki said, calling Sunday's vote part of an effort to "modernize" the parish. "We decided if we're going to make one change, we're going to make them all."