St. Louis, Mo., Jun 8, 2008 / 13:06 pm
An excommunicated board member of a breakaway St. Louis Catholic parish has reconciled with the Church after meeting privately with the Archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond L. Burke. Archbishop Burke has said he is “profoundly happy” about the man’s reconciliation.
Edward Florek was excommunicated in December 2005 for his membership on the St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation board of directors, which opposed Archbishop Burke’s parish restructuring plan and brought in a renegade priest to staff St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.
According to the St. Louis Review, The church was founded by Polish immigrants in 1880. In 1891 the then-archbishop allowed the parish to form a lay trustee board to control parish finances and own the parish property. In 2004 Archbishop Burke continued his predecessor’s efforts to persuade the board to transfer property ownership to the archdiocese, as required by canon law.
The board publicly stated it could not reach an agreement with the archbishop, saying they were concerned about the future of the parish if the property were transferred.
The archbishop excommunicated the six members of the parish board. While Florek left the board last year, his replacement and the replacement of another member were also excommunicated.