As you may know, I have been following the events at St. Stanislaus Parish in St. Louis for some time. Because of my personal history with church closings and my membership in the PNCC the issues raised there resonate with me.
I came across this posting over at Catholic World News. They were posting on Fr. Marek Bozek’s appearance at the installation of a pastor in a St. Louis area church which styles itself as the —Ecumenical Catholic Church—
I cried. Sts. Clare and Francis, it appears, belongs to something called the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, which received its warrant of apostolic succession from the Old Catholics of Utrecht, along with an accredited degree in refrigerator repair at the same low price. SCF’s pastor, unsurprisingly, is a partnered gay man who used to be a Catholic priest, and who’s done a great job of coaching his flock that it is they who sit in judgment of the Gospel, and not vice-versa. Parishioner Jessica Rowley gushes:
Now just to clear things up for the sake of accuracy:
The —Ecumenical Catholic Church (ECC)— is not a member of the Old Catholic Churches in the Utrecht Union. Their membership directory makes no mention of the ECC. As a matter of fact, the only North American Church that was a member of Utrecht was the PNCC. Thankfully, once Utrecht went all innovative with gay marriages and women priests the PNCC said goodbye.
As of today, there is one North American parish, a former PNCC parish, in Toronto Canada, that is a parish under the jurisdiction of the International Bishop’s Conference of Utrecht.
Generally, these American churches are churches that style themselves as Old Catholic, Liberal Catholic, etc. and trace their way back to Episcopal vagantes like Joseph Rene Vilatte, Arnold Hans Mathew, Carmel Henry Carfora, William Francis Brothers, etal.
In my opinion, Fr. Bozek is reaching. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he is so far outside the mainstream by cavorting with people who are heretics and self obsessed that I could not see myself as being supportive of that.
I began to get suspicious when I heard he was creating more —Special Ministers of Holy Communion— at his parish (nooooooooo!). That action, coupled with his statements about the ECC show him to be just another N.O. created ‘do whatever feels right’ cleric.
I would hope that the Board at St. Stans sets him back on the road to traditional Catholicism, be it Roman Catholic, PNCC, Orthodox, or SSPX. The faithfulness of the St. Stan’s parishioners will be harmed a second time by yet another clergyman who cannot see the beyond his own ego.
And, when did our catechesis begin turning out non-Catholics?
The following are excerpts from an article at the Times Newspapers Online about the ECC pastor’s installation, the history of this church, and Fr. Bozek’s appearance:
Sts. Clare & Francis
Ecumenical Catholics establish Parish in Webster Groves
by Fran Mannino
Sts. Clare and Francis Parish was welcomed into the fold of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion on Saturday, Feb. 25, during a celebratory Mass at its borrowed home, Evangelical United Church of Christ in Webster Groves.
“Inclusivity” is a word that resonates with the ECC, and is what distinguishes it from the more traditional Roman Catholic Church.
The clergy of the ECC are a prime example of these beliefs in action. The newly-elected pastor of Sts. Clare and Francis, Rev. Francis Krebs, is an openly gay former Roman Catholic priest. ECC presiding bishop Peter Hickman is the married father of five.
Sts. Clare and Francis parish currently has two women pursuing the deaconate and priesthood, Jessica Rowley and Lisa von Stamwitz.
In The Beginning
The ECC is a group of independent Catholic faith communities with roots in the Old Catholic Church. The Old Catholic Church separated itself from the Roman Catholic Church in 1870, in rejection of the First Vatican Council’s decree of Papal Infallibility, and other church dogma.
“Most of the clergy who are part of the ECC are former Roman Catholic clergy,” said Hickman. “I was raised in the American Baptist Church, and ordained a baptist minister in 1979.”
Three years later Hickman converted to Catholicism through the Old Catholic Church. He founded St. Matthew Church in Orange, Calif., in 1985, and became a bishop in 1996.
“I began to have contact with other independent Catholic faith communities and Roman Catholic clergy who wanted to look at another way of being Catholic,” he said. “That’s how the ECC came into being. We’re about 21 communities at this time across the nation, and continuing to grow.”
Sts. Clare and Francis
“Sts. Clare and Francis has been around in a formative stage for slightly more than a year,” said Rev. Krebs. “Our first eucharist together was on the 23rd of October, 2004.”
Inclusion is evident even in the name parishioners chose for their parish – that of St. Francis of Assisi, a man, and St. Clare of Assisi, a woman. The two were contemporaries in the 13th century, and are important figures in Catholic history.
In his former calling as a Roman Catholic priest, Krebs served as pastor of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Soulard for 13 years. Although he left the priesthood in 1990, he missed the ministry.
“I’m a gay man, and have been in a committed relationship for the past seven-and-a-half years,” he said. “That’s a primary feature in my life, and I didn’t want to leave that. I thought, ‘How can I be a priest and still live as a gay man?'”
Krebs began searching for options. He looked to the Episcopal church, a community he admired, but soon found what he calls a “more cultural fit” within the Ecumenical Catholic Communion.
Krebs, along with another ECC priest, Bob Blattner, began forming a faith community that eventually became the parish of Sts. Clare and Francis. The congregation now has approximately 50 registered members, with about one-third of them coming from the Webster-Kirkwood area.
“We would love to be able to have our own space, and when we grow I presume we will,” said Krebs. “At the moment, we are very grateful to the Evangelical United Church of Christ.”
Sts. Clare and Francis draws parishioners from all over the St. Louis area. Acting president of the parish council, George von Stamwitz, lives in the Lafayette Square neighborhood of St. Louis.
“We’re trying to grow, develop ministries, and be a lively, functioning church,” he said. “Within the next couple of years, we hope to certainly have another ordained person, and also hope to have space of our own.”
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“The Catholic Perestroika”
Bishop Hickman spends part of his time traveling the country, speaking to lay Catholics and Catholic reform organizations about the ECC.
While in St. Louis he spoke with local and visiting clergy, including Rev. Marek Bozek, pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.
Bozek was recently excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church for his efforts to minister to the parishioners of St. Stanislaus, which is battling with the Archdiocese of St. Louis over control of the church.
“I wish Sts. Clare and Francis all the best, and congratulate the new pastor and the new candidates for ordination,” said Bozek. “I wish there was a way that Sts. Clare and Francis could be part of the Roman Catholic Church, because I believe that what they are doing is very Catholic.”
Bozek received a standing ovation from celebrants at the installation Mass for Sts. Clare and Francis, but said he was not there looking for options for either himself or St. Stanislaus.
“I hope and I pray that there will be a day when there will be room in the Roman Catholic Church for diverse communities such as Sts. Clare and Francis,” he said. “The purpose of theology is to bring God’s word to a new generation of people. The message does not change; how we proclaim this message and the means we use has to change.”
“It’s an issue of justice,” said Hickman. “The church needs to be a voice of hope for the future, rather than looking like an antiquated institution dragging us back to the past. If the church is the people of God, let the people have a voice.
“The Catholic faith tradition is much larger than the Roman Catholic hierarchy, or the Roman Catholic Church,” he added. “We need to put our emphasis on the Gospel of Jesus, rather than canon law. We’re the Catholic Perestroika.”
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