St. Louis church votes against settlement

ST. LOUIS -- Members of a predominantly Polish parish in St. Louis have voted against approving a settlement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a majority of St. Stanislaus Kostka parishioners voted Sunday that they did "not agree with the direction the Board is pursuing toward settling a lawsuit."

The settlement would return the church's standing as a Roman Catholic parish. Final approval of the settlement rests with the church's board of directors.

The dispute dates to 2004 when former Archbishop Raymond Burke demanded that St. Stanislaus conform to the same legal and financial structures as other parishes. The board refused, and Burke pulled the church's priests.

When the board appointed its own pastor, Burke excommunicated him and stripped the church of its standing as a Roman Catholic parish.