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	Burke Warns Two New St. Stan's Board Members By Tim Townsend St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 6, 2007 http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/religion/story/EB3B22518F4DED798625738C00182FA4?OpenDocument St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has warned two recently elected members of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Church board that by joining the church's leadership they could face excommunication. Stan Rozanski, 59, of south St. Louis County, and Bernice Krauze, 65, of St. Louis, were elected to the board in August, replacing two board members who retired. The outgoing board members, Edward Florek and Stanley Novak, were part of the original Stanislaus Six — the board members whom Burke declared excommunicated in late 2005 after a prolonged battle over the church's property and assets. Soon after they were elected to the board, Rozanski and Krauze received letters from Burke instructing them to resign their positions on the board. On Friday, they received letters telling them that the archbishop had rejected their choice of a lawyer and had assigned them one from within the archdiocese. By accepting a position on the St. Stanislaus board, Burke wrote Rozanski, "you also have placed in danger the eternal salvation of your soul and have inflicted a most severe wound to the communion of the Roman Catholic Church." Rozanski, a construction superintendent, and Krauze, a homemaker, each said this week that they knew they'd hear from Burke because of their election, and that they had no intention of quitting the board. They said they expect to be excommunicated like the other St. Stanislaus board members. "I anticipated exactly what has happened, and I figured that I would probably suffer the same fate as they did," said Rozanski. "Burke is ridiculous and his medieval tactics don't sway me." Krauze said she was doing what her Polish parents and grandparents would have expected of her. "I'm not really that worried about it," she said. "Maybe I'm supposed to be, but I haven't done anything really wrong." She said that when she got the first letter from Burke, telling her to get a canon lawyer to represent her, she did so. "I thought I was doing what he wanted, so I got a lawyer," said Krauze. When they received their letters from Burke, Krauze and Rozanski called the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and canon lawyer in Virginia who is handling the appeal of the earlier excommunications to the Vatican. But in his most recent letters, Burke rejected the choice of Doyle and instead assigned Msgr. Mark Rivituso, head of the church's state appellate court. The archdiocese's head canon lawyer, the Rev. John Shamleffer, said the letters were meant to inform Rozanski and Krauze about "the consequences of their decision, and reevaluate whether this is something they really want to do." The purpose of excommunication, he said, "is to show what the serious results of your actions are. The hopeful remedy is that they would remove themselves from the board. Excommunication is more a desire for healing, not to kick somebody out." Shamleffer said all future directors at St. Stanislaus would face similar consequences. That Florek and Novak retired from the board does not mean they've escaped excommunication, according to Shamleffer. "They would have to present themselves to the archbishop and ask to be released," he said. It's been nearly two years since Burke declared Bozek and the Stanislaus Six excommunicated. Contact: ttownsend@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8221
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