Church Frees Itself from Roman Leviathan

[Jerome]

St. Stanislaus of St. Louis Becomes Independent Church

The legal dispute began in 2008 when the archdiocese sued the church to regain control of the parish's finances. . . .[There was] an agreement made in 1891 in which then-Archbishop Peter Kenrick allowed a lay board to oversee the church's finances. . . . . St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Bryan Hettenbach ruled against the archdiocese, citing the 1891 agreement. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the court's decision was "shocking, according to church-state scholars."