Fotos

This chapter of the story is about the pioneers that are fighting the organized church for the right to control their local sanctuary, a choice based on beliefs and not money or profit to the Diocese.

Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church in the north part of St. Louis city. This church goes back a long way in American history to just before the Civil War. While the time frame is not long by most of the world standards it does put it in the period when the US was trading agriculture for industrialization. Started in 1880, this church serving the Polish community prospered. It maintained at some level all the years since and went through a rebirth in the 60’s. Today the urban pioneers are in conflict with the hierarchy of the church over this historic structure. St. Stanislaus has been maintained but the local community and has been independent for more than 100 years, today the Catholic Arch Bishop of St. Louis is demanding that control be returned to the Arch Diocese who wants to close the church and sell of the property that has become so valuable (because the community stuck out the hard times and maintained their core values).

The whole story of this is in wikipedia and it is well worth the time, including the part where a Polish cardinal from Krakow visited in 1969. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stanislaus_Kostka_Church_(Saint_Louis)