A Little More From St. Louis

Board member Stan Novak said, "Poland was the first country to defeat Communism, and we can beat the archbishop if we stick together."

Church member John Komos, 71"It doesn't look good now, but what the archbishop doesn't understand is that we'll never give in," he said. "He might be following the law of the church, but he is not following the law of God. My goal is to dig in and stay here."

James Blebins, 62, "It's an abomination that he[Burke] comes up with something like that[interdict]."

Board member Robert Zabielski to a standing ovation,"The bishop is the king in his castle and we are his villagers. They don't want us to leave the Roman Catholic Church, but they're not helping us."

Roger Krasnicki, spokesman for the board, “This is a terrible thing that’s been done to these people. It’s immoral and unjust and it’s an absolute abuse of power.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Board members have said they would ignore the interdict and take part in whatever sacraments they wanted to, including receiving Communion."

Mind you Archbishop Burke had something to say about their actions.
"[the board members] openly and defiantly refused to follow the directive given by the Archbishop of St. Louis" to conform to traditional parish structure. Such actions, it continued, "manifest a grave defect in the obedience owed to the Diocesan Bishop and the Apostolic See. They wound deeply the unity of the Church and are a cause of most serious scandal."

"You have incited among members of the faithful animosity against the Diocesan Bishop and the Apostolic See, leading some of them to join in public disobedience to legitimate pastoral authority."

Burke said that the "offense" committed by the board "is the public refusal to obey legitimate Church authority, namely the Holy Father's Congregation for the Clergy and the archbishop of St. Louis, and the incitement of others to such disobedience."