Advertisement St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke issued a decree charging the Rev. Thomas Doyle with two "canonical crimes" related to his defense of two excommunicated board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.
The decree states Doyle, a Dominican priest and canon lawyer based in Virginia, did not receive prior approval from Burke to represent the board members or immediately respond to Burke's summons to appear before him.
Burke wrote in an accompanying article in the St. Louis Review that Doyle failed to represent the board members "properly or effectively."
"As the chief shepherd of the church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I have the duty and moral obligation to uphold the teachings and practices of the Catholic faith,'' Burke wrote. ``Those teachings include the obligation of a bishop to safeguard the legal processes under which the church operates."
Doyle accused Burke of "vindictively clubbing people with canon law."
"He's making a mockery of the role of the bishop, a mockery of himself, and the role of leadership in the church when it comes to resolving disputes and problems," he said.
St. Stanislaus, founded by Polish immigrants in the late 1800s, has been in a longtime struggle with the archdiocese over control of its assets. Burke has excommunicated St. Stanislaus' board and the Polish priest it hired two years ago.
