Polish Festival

On Saturday we went to the Polish Festival at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis. Little did we realize we'd find a lot more in store than just a church festival.

The festival itself was, unfortunately, a bit underwhelming. But our visit to the church itself made up for the lackluster festival.

We were invited to climb up to the roof. Brad and our friend Anne are standing at the highest point we got to. The ladders were narrow and the crawl space was filthy. But it was interesting to see inside.

Looking up to where we didn't climb.

We enjoyed talking with the church's Polish pastor, Father Marek. This is a fascinating parish with quite possibly the most unique recent history of any church I'm familiar with. Like many Catholic parishes, this church's attendance had been declining in recent years. By 2005 it hadn't had a priest for two years. The parishioners asked Father Marek, who worked in a neighboring diocese, to be their pastor. When he accepted he was excommunicated by the Archbishop (and that excommunication was ultimately confirmed by Pope Benedict). An eight-year legal battle ensued between the Archdiocese and the uniquely independent parish (which had been for over 100 years self-governing and the owners of its land and buildings, valued at $8 million). A settlement was reached in 2013. The parish is no longer part of the Roman Catholic Church (although its sacraments are legitimate) and it's now owned by parishioners and fully self-supported. It got to keep all its assets. It's also incredibly progressive. Father Marek told us that he recently began conducting same-sex marriages (and I noticed on the church's website that the parish marched in the St. Louis Pride parade). The church has hired a married female priest. Marek is technically a layperson (at least in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church) and he told us he could marry if he wanted to (though he joked that he's not fool enough to do that). And they have a weekly Sunday Mass in Polish. Wow.

We definitely felt welcomed at St. Stanislaus. Afterwards, since we couldn't find a Polish restaurant in St. Louis (sad face), we went to a Bosnian restaurant and the three of us had a lovely dinner after a fascinating visit to St. Stanislaus.