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	Bozek Could Leave St. Stanislaus to Start His Own Church If Agreement Is Reached By Linda Leicht News-Leader April 26, 2010 http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100426/BREAKING01/100426025/Bozek-could-leave-St.-Stanislaus-to-start-his-own-church-if-agreement-is-reached The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today that the Rev. Marek Bozek announced Sunday that he may be leaving St. Stanislaus Koska Church in St. Louis to start his own church. Bozek, a former priest of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese, confirmed the report, explaining that he will leave St. Stanislaus if the church is able to work out an agreement with the Archdiocese of St. Louis to bring the church back into the Roman Catholic Church and the archdiocese. Bozek, a native of Poland who was ordained a priest in Springfield in 2002, left the Springfield diocese in December 2005 to take the position of priest at St. Stanislaus, formerly the official Polish parish in St. Louis. The action was taken without the permission of either the bishop of Springfield or the archbishop of St. Louis. This led to Bozek’s excommunication that same month and his laicization in 2009. The issues that called Bozek to St. Stanislaus started in 2004 when then-Archibishop Raymond Burke ordered the parish to change its structure — since its founding in the 19th century the parish has owned and managed its own finances and property — to confirm to other parishes in the archdiocese by turning over control of its assets to the archbdiocese. The church’s lay board refused, at the time declaring that the archbishop was actually planning to close the parish, which is located in the inner city. Burke then refused to assign a priest to the parish or permit a priest to officiate Mass there. When Bozek requested that he be allowed to offer a Polish Mass at the church, that request was denied, as was a later plan to bus the members to Springfield where Bozek would lead a Polish Mass for them. The parish board then asked Bozek to become the church’s priest, flaunting church rules and causing Bozek to lose his standing with the church. Board members were also excommunicated, and in January 2006 the parish was officially removed from the archdiocese and the Roman Catholic Church. Since then, St. Stanislaus has continued to operate as an independent Catholic church. Without the restrictions of the archdiocese and the Vatican, Bozek has openly supported women’s ordination and welcomed gays and lesbians at St. Stanislaus, drawing many new members to the church while alienating more taditional members. Some of those members have reconciled with the archdiocese and joined in a lawsuit against Bozek and the current board.
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