I think my biggest reason for ceasing my involvement with the Catholic Church, and my reluctance to join any other, **is that organized religion inevitably is a flawed system of spiritual progress. **
People involved in churches and church organisations always succumb to the ordinary evils of bureaurocracy. They hold positions of power that is in their personal self interest to protect. They do this in usual ways, such as squelching their opposition, securing their power base, creating political alliances.
All religions form around a strong leader and wants to aspire to form a community that adheres to its founding ideals. They inevitably, though, succumb to the same failures and corruptions across the board, losing their founding ideals and becoming just another manmade bureaurocracy mainly interested in maintaining itsself, even at the expense of truly serving God.
Again, this is backwards. The flaws come from NOT obeying the Church. See below about a schimatic church in our diocese.
By Tim Townsend
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/10/2008
St. Louis — It was just before midnight on Christmas Eve 2005, and the Rev. Marek Bozek was the focus of 2,000 souls crammed in pews or standing on tiptoe in the aisles, straining to see him.
They came to St. Stanislaus Kostka church to be a part of Bozek’s first Mass as pastor. He had arrived in St. Louis from Springfield, Mo., thumbing his nose at the Roman Catholic hierarchy and riding to the rescue of fellow Polish countrymen deprived of the Eucharist for more than a year by their archbishop.
For many St. Stanislaus parishioners whose ancestors had built the church just north of downtown, Bozek became a hero.
***But more than two years later, Bozek has reshaped the church into a community that would be unrecognizable to those 19th-century founders. ***
His vision for a reformed Roman Catholic faith calls for supporting female ordination, allowing priests to get married and accepting gay relationships. Bozek’s stands have attracted hundreds of new St. Stanislaus parishioners who share the priest’s reform-minded vision.
But they have also divided the church, ***pitting newer members against traditional parishioners unhappy with how far the priest has gone in condemning the Roman Catholic church.
There have also been questions about the priest’s trappings. He has negotiated a 143 percent salary hike, moved into a $157,000 Washington Avenue loft and leased a 2008 BMW for $450 per month.
Some parishioners point to another sign that alarmed them: Bozek, while in Poland last year, bought a silver ring custom-made for a bishop there. When he returned, he showed the ring to his parish at a Sunday Mass and spoke about it from the pulpit.
Because it’s a bishop’s ring and he is only a priest, Bozek says, he has not worn it. But he won’t say he never will — he does not rule out the possibility of becoming the leader of what he calls an “underground Roman Catholic” movement.***
The three parish leaders who recruited Bozek say they now regret it.
St. Stanislaus “is now home to anyone who has a gripe with the (Catholic) church,” said Stan Rozanksi, one of the men who vetted Bozek and a former board member. ***Bozek says the people who hired him knew about his vision for St. Stanislaus. He dismisses critics who accuse him of shifting his priorities as having “selective hearing.”
“I came because I saw injustice being done here,” he said. "There are red-button issues, and I’m daring enough to touch them. If
you’re sexist or homophobic, you will passionately hate my vision."
Bozek was supposed to be St. Stanislaus’ savior. But for many longtime church members, it could be Archbishop Raymond Burke — the man they’ve been fighting for five years — who may save it.
After Burke was installed as the archbishop of St. Louis in 2004, he took up the cause of changing the structure of St. Stanislaus more seriously than any of his predecessors. That summer, the board members eliminated their pastor’s authority over church property and assets. Burke responded by removing the pastor, leaving the church without a spiritual leader.
A year later, board members approached Bozek, then a 30-year-old priest and Polish national working in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, to lead the church.
From 2004 to 2006, the image of a feisty Polish church standing up to the Roman Catholic hierarchy struck a chord. And St. Stanislaus gained a national reputation — the front page of the Wall Street Journal, a segment on CBS’s “Early Show.”
For many area Catholics, the church became a proud example of the laity standing up to church authorities — with red “St. Stan’s Lives!” and “Save St. Stan’s!” stickers adorning car bumpers.
Burke’s declarations of nine St. Stanislaus-related excommunications only enhanced the image of the church’s leaders as countercultural Catholic heroes, and of St. Stanislaus as an oasis for disenchanted Catholics.
Bozek seized on that momentum and used the church’s new-found fame to double its membership, to what he says is now 500 families.
GOING TOO FAR?
***As the membership has grown, so has tension among some parishioners, as Bozek continues to take stands that clash with Roman Catholic teaching.
He has welcomed gays and divorced people into the church. In November 2006, he invited an openly gay pastor — the leader of a Catholic community separate from the Vatican — to celebrate Mass.******
This past November, Bozek took part in a ceremony in which two women were ordained as priests of an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. ******Bozek has also taken repeated shots at the Roman Catholic hierarchy. In a sermon earlier this year, Bozek set out his vision for the Roman Catholic church, while denouncing its leaders.
“The Roman Catholic family can be described today as dysfunctional, toxic or abusive,” Bozek said. “For decades we have allowed the men who claim to be our shepherds to abuse us.”***
Richard Bach, who heads a group called the Concerned Parishioners of St. Stanislaus, said a large number of older members — about 100 families — had gradually come to oppose Bozek’s leadership and the new members.
“They’re concerned about the path of the church and where he’s leading them,” Bach said. “A lot of the old parishioners don’t consider the new ones parishioners at all.”
Grzegorz Koltuniak, a longtime parishioner, calls Bozek’s tenure at St. Stanislaus "a disaster."
“Before Bozek, we were all together,” he said. “Our fight was about property, but never about religion. The people who have come here since then are here for different reasons. … Where are they taking this church?”
Marybeth McBryan, one of the church’s newer members, said she came to St. Stanislaus because it was more inclusive and accepting than her previous parish.
“There’s a group of parishioners who have been there a long time and who don’t like change,” McBryan said. “They are not very fond of us who are not Polish.”
Timothy Kyle, who joined the church about six months ago, says longtime members want Bozek “to break the rules important to them, but not stand up for the ideals and beliefs he has himself.”
"If you hire someone who doesn’t follow along the dotted line," Kyle said, "you can’t expect him to follow it when you want him to."
FOOTING THE BILL
They also feel he remains critical to St. Stanislaus’ future. So when Bozek had to return to Poland last year to reapply for a work visa, the board paid an immigration lawyer $80,000 to help with the process, according to some church leaders. Bozek said it was more like $55,000.***
But longtime parishioners were further put off when Bozek negotiated a new contract with the board.
Bozek’s contract was up last December, and he had several demands.
***He wanted to move out of the rectory. He wanted a big salary bump. And he wanted a new car. He got what he wanted.
He moved into a downtown loft; he started driving a new BMW; and his salary jumped to $56,000 from $24,000.***
Bozek said he was paying for the car himself. And, he said, the $31,400 down payment for the loft came from his savings.
***Bozek said he needed to move out because it was “exhausting mentally” for him to live in a busy rectory, where he rarely had time to himself.
“It was not good for my physical health,” he said. “My blood pressure was up.”***
People also need to understand that “ministers are normal people,” he said. “We need food to eat, cars to drive, places to live.”
