Catholic Chaos

Recent news articles and stories have led me to believe that the new Archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, is kind of being stubborn about several things. It would seem that he is thumbing his nose at the parishoners of St. Stanislaus Kostka as well as at the teachers of the Catholic school system. The outcry caused by Burke's actions has been heard far and wide, and will undoubtedly continue to have a place on the 10 o'clock news.

It is my understanding that with regards to the teachers, Burke simply refuses to recognize them as a union and will not agree to meet with them to discuss or bargain their contract options. Apparently, there is a board set up of elected Catholic officials and members to decide such issues and Burke doesn't see the need to speak with the teachers. Now I am not a union man at all, but this seems to be a little hard-headed. Sit down with them and listen to them at least. Tell them what you have to offer and then if nothing is agreed upon, simply walk away and deal with the aftermath. Instead, Burke seems to be trying to ignore the teachers and is essentially telling them that he doesn't want to talk to them. I think this is a bad move.

Now, regarding the closing of the Polish church, Burke comes off as some kind of control freak. I don't know if it is the assets that the church wants to take control over or not, but it would appear that the church has little concern about its followers spiritual "needs". By removing the two priests from the church, Burke has basically told the parishoners at St. Stanislaus to either change parishes or perish. You see, you cannot serve communion without the priests, so a proper mass cannot be held while all of this posturing is going on. St. Stanislaus has been around a lot longer than Burke and has survived just fine on its own, doing things the way it has done them. It seems as though Burke simply wants to "own" the church building and is not really concerned with the effect this is having on its members.

Does Burke simply love the publicity?
Does he love making the news as often as possible?
Is it that he wants to be the center of attention?

I don't know. And personally, I don't care because I am not Catholic.
However, if I were Catholic, these issues, along with many more, would have me scratching my head and doing a lot of thinking about what the motivation is behind all of this mess...