By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has suspended church services at St. Stanislaus Kostka in north St. Louis.
The Polish parish has long been at odds with the Roman Catholic archdiocese.
A local council administers parish finances. Burke and his predecessor Cardinal Justin Rigali have both said the arrangement violates canon law.
Monsignor Vernon Gardin is archdiocesan vicar general. He says the final straw came when the St. Stanislaus board made unreasonable demands in a letter to the parish priest.
"The resolution would occur if the board decided to resolve it. Basically, to join the more than 200 parishes of the archdiocese, which enjoy a collaborative relationship with the archbishop and their pastors and their lay finance councils.
But parishioner Roger Krasnicki says money is the reason for the Archbishop's decision.
"Everything that the archdiocese has said has been a ploy to gain our property and our funds, in an effort to bolster its own financial position," Krasnicki said.
The archdiocese says the parish has not been closed or merged.