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ST. LOUIS — Much has changed since Christmas Eve 2005, when the Rev. Marek Bozek celebrated his first Mass at what is now St. Stanislaus Kostka Polish Catholic Church. Many of the 2,000 people who showed up to celebrate his arrival are no longer in the pews.

National headlines have faded about the excommunicated priest and his scrappy church defying Roman Catholic authority and tradition. Bozek hasn’t worn a bulletproof vest in years.

“Nobody yells at me anymore because they know what my answers will be,� Bozek, 47, said Wednesday during a lengthy interview in the sacristy of the famous red brick church at 1413 N. 20th Street.

But some of his fire has calmed.

“I am exhausted, both emotionally and sometimes physically,� he said.

Bozek said he’s headed home to Poland in the fall. A new shepherd is supposed to arrive this summer. Bozek played down suggestions that he’d been pushed out.

“Seventeen years in one parish is a long time for a Catholic priest,� he said. “I feel like I fulfilled my mission. All the things that I dreamt of have been checked off. We are in a good place. I feel comfortable letting them swim on their own, so to speak.�

St. Stanislaus is a case study of how things can snowball when a particularly shrewd congregation and a particularly rigid archbishop get into a property dispute. The timely saga drew out strong emotions from the faithful, many who believed the Roman Catholic Church should either modernize or guard age-old practices.

“We have been brainwashed not to question church authority,� Bozek said. “The last question always was and has to be: Is it the just thing to do?�

St. Stanislaus was founded in the late 1800s with a mostly lay board of directors, whose mission was to maintain a Polish Roman Catholic church with a pastor appointed by the local archbishop. The arrangement wasn’t uncommon, particularly with ethnic congregations.

Over time, pioneer churches in the United States lost some of their clout as the Roman Catholic diocese structure caught up with the growth of its flock. Property deeds were signed over. St. Stanislaus was an exception.

During a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Archdiocese restructuring effort in 2003, St. Stanislaus still refused to turn over its property. It further fell out of grace in 2004, after the board amended its bylaws so the archbishop lost the power to remove and appoint the pastor and board members. St. Stanislaus has argued that the change was needed to protect its existence in an era of church closings and strained finances as the Roman Catholic Church paid out millions of dollars in sex-abuse claims.

In response, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Archbishop Raymond Burke removed the congregation’s archdiocesan priests. St. Stanislaus was left without a shepherd for months. The congregation eventually asked Bozek, a young, missionary priest in southwest Missouri, to celebrate Mass for them. Bozek said being told no by his superiors in the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau made the decision easy for him.

“The whole point of being a priest is to offer sacraments to people,� Bozek said.

But Burke, who would go on to be a cardinal and prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura under Pope Benedict XVI, declared St. Stanislaus was in “schism.� Bozek was excommunicated and defrocked for being pastor of St. Stanislaus.

In 2008, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Archdiocese and six former members of the congregation sued St. Stanislaus. Plaintiffs alleged that cutting out the archbishop’s authority meant St. Stanislaus was no longer Roman Catholic and violated the original bylaws signed in 1891.

Four years later, siding with St. Stanislaus, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Circuit Court Judge Bryan Hettenbach wrote in the 50-page decision: “The archbishop may own the souls of wayward St. Stanislaus parishioners, but the St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation owns its own property.â€�

Being inclusive

Though the congregation held onto the rights of their property, many didn’t think St. Stanislaus would last as an independent Catholic church.

“Even the pandemic, we survived,� Bozek said.

He was proud to report that St. Stanislaus has settled into a “sustainable,� “diverse� and “inclusive� congregation of about 250 members. Masses are offered in English, Polish, Spanish and Latin. Assistant pastors at the altar include Mother Annie, a female priest who is married with children; a married heterosexual man; and a married homosexual man.

“Roman Catholics have been talking about this for half a century,� Bozek said. “We just did it.�

Bozek is gay but not married.

“It’s hard to find somebody willing to date a pastor,� he said.

Bozek said there’s some pushback from within his flock. He said there’s a group of about 20 people who want the congregation to follow Roman Catholic traditions more closely.

“It’s not the people who are oppressed who are angry, it’s the people who are losing power,� Bozek said. “They have never gotten over us being such an inclusive community.�

While Bozek said he first mentioned to the board in September 2020 that he didn’t want to renew his contract at St. Stanislaus, an October petition signed by more than 60 congregants signaled a more complex departure scenario.

“It is with great concern we bring to St. Stanislaus Board’s attention — a matter of extreme importance,� petitioners wrote. “The failure on ratifying and extending Father Marek Bozek’s pending contract as pastor of St. Stanislaus Church.�

The board members were “overwhelmingly� elected on the platform to support and retain Bozek, the petition says. “We all know the sacrifices he has made to become and remain our pastor.�

In a Jan. 17 follow-up letter to the six-member board, petitioners again urged approval of a new contract for Bozek, whom they described as the “nucleus patriarch� of the church. “We are speaking out on his behalf and what we consider the future of St. Stans. His ministry, commitment and passion and most of all his leadership to St. Stanislaus is integral to our open and welcoming Catholic community.�

If the board voted not to extend Bozek’s contract, and he stayed to pastor somewhere else in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, the “majorityâ€� of petitioners vowed in the letter to follow him.

“I don’t want St. Stanislaus to become all about Bozek,� Bozek told the Post-Dispatch. “It’s healthy for a church to have a new shepherd. It’s not my church. It’s the church of the people.�

Board Chairman Gene Koziatek said in an interview that Bozek wasn’t being forced out.

“He’s told the board three times that he wanted to leave,� Koziatek said.

Koziatek said the board was split 3-3 on the matter earlier this spring. He said the board ultimately voted 4-2 not to extend Bozek a new contract. He said Bozek had removed himself from the running, rather than “campaign� against his possible replacement.

“It was a hard move,� Cynthia Cygan-Piekarski, a board member, said in an interview. “I think we all care very much for Father Marek, most of us anyway. We still do. There were just some things we thought needed to be changed. Hopefully, we’ll carry on without him. I voted against him. I love the man. I think he’s great, but there were other issues that we looked at.�

She wouldn’t go into much detail.

“Here, everyone is welcome to take communion,� she said. “There are other things that go on that I just can’t say. It’s been looked at for quite a few years. We have a split parish who want to go Roman Catholic, others inclusive.�

A survey of church members in December 2020 signaled that some members were open to pursuing a dialogue with the Archdiocese of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.

The Rev. Przemek Cichosz signed a two-year contract to be the next pastor. He’s supposed to take over Nov. 1. Bozek said he knows Cichosz. He said he’s an independent Catholic priest from Poland.

“They hired a priest who is probably more progressive than I am,� Bozek said.

Thankful for Cardinal Burke

Once his current contract runs out Oct. 31, Bozek said he’ll return to Poland to be close to family.

“It could be a good place for me to do nothing,� he said. “Read. Write. Cool off. See what life brings next.�

Bozek does have at least one iron in the fire. He’s a director at New Catholic Community, an Austin, Texas-based nonprofit formed in March by a handful of independent Catholic pastors.

“We would like to create some standards and some vision for others who would like to follow and imitate our success,� Bozek said.

Among his tips: Congregations need to be built from the bottom up, not the top down.

“Successful churches are run and organized by lay people,� he said.

He said hard-line views within the Roman Catholic Church will likely lead to the creation of more independent Catholic churches down the road. In that context, he doesn’t see Cardinal Burke as his nemesis. He said St. Stanislaus openly prayed for Burke last year when he had COVID-19.

“We would not be successful if it wasn’t for him,� Bozek said. “There would be no St. Stanislaus story if it wasn’t for Cardinal Burke.�

Posted at noon Friday, June 3.