St. Louis Prelate Aims to Bring Flock in Line

Voters approved the measure in November by about 50,000 votes out of 2.1 million cast.

The bishop's determination to challenge Catholic public figures was clear in his previous post, as bishop of La Crosse, Wis. Among those he contacted was Rep. David R. Obey, a long-serving Wisconsin Democrat, who traded letters with Burke after the bishop privately voiced unhappiness with Obey's votes on abortion-related issues.

Burke urged Obey to vote to deny permission to U.S. servicewomen seeking abortions in military hospitals. He also wanted him to oppose embryonic stem cell research.

"A few months ago, he wrote to me threatening to use his ecclesiastical authority to punish me if I did not conform my voting record to his view of what Catholic dogma required," Obey wrote in an essay titled "My Conscience, My Vote," in America, a Jesuit magazine. "I told him I could not do that."

While still in Wisconsin, Burke ordered Catholics not to participate in an annual hunger walk sponsored by the Church World Service because some of the proceeds paid for condoms in developing countries. It has been in St. Louis, though, that his positions -- particularly the Cardinal Glennon hospital event -- received the most attention.

Each year, the Catholic-run children's hospital's most profitable fundraiser is a benefit for the Bob Costas Cancer Center, named for the sports announcer. Top billing this year went to Crow and actor Billy Crystal.

When Burke, on the hospital foundation board, learned that Crow had campaigned for the Missouri stem cell amendment, he demanded that she be uninvited. The board refused, saying there would be no litmus test for people who wanted to help sick children.

Three days before the gala, Burke called a rare news conference to say he could not condone Crow's appearance. He resigned from the board, saying the singer "promotes moral evils."

"What if, for instance, there were someone appearing who we discovered was openly racist and who made statements and took actions to promote racism?" Burke asked. "Do you think that I would let that go on?"

The leaders of St. Stanislaus Kostka church know Burke's wrath. They ran afoul of the archbishop by insisting that their property remain independent of diocesan control, as it has for decades. Burke responded by evicting the church from the diocese and excommunicating the parish leadership, which has appealed the decision to Rome.

"From his point of view, we are nonexistent," said the Rev. Marek Bozek, the church's pastor. "I find it wrong to perceive the world in white and black colors only. Unfortunately, he does. And we are wondering why the church is losing its people?"

But when Burke declared the church out of line and parish leaders stood firm, membership more than doubled, Bozek said. And when St. Stanislaus celebrated its first Christmas Mass after 17 months without a priest, 2,500 people came.

"From the purely pastoral point of view, it's been nothing but good for us," Bozek said. "It has revitalized the parish. We are growing because people can't stand this any longer."