The priest who has been at the center of a firestorm in the Archdiocese of St. Louis has been officially stripped of his faculties, according to the Associated Press:

A priest who defied his Roman Catholic bishop in 2005 to become pastor of a largely Polish-American parish at odds with the archdiocese has been stripped of his priesthood.

The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to return Marek Bozek from priest to lay person came a year after the move was recommended by former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke.

In 2005, Bozek was serving in southern Missouri’s Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese when he accepted the pastorship of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish in St. Louis at the invitation of parishioners. Only bishops can assign priests.

Burke had removed the Polish-heritage parish’s two priests over a long-festering dispute over control of parish assets. Parishioners then took it upon themselves to hire the Polish-speaking Bozek.

Bishop James Johnston said the Vatican’s decision resulted from Bozek abandoning the assignment in Springfield-Cape Girardeau.

But Bozek said Monday he will not leave St. Stanislaus and will take his orders from a reformed Catholic bishop, who granted him temporary priestly faculties last year in anticipation of the Vatican’s decision.

That bishop, Phillip Zimmerman, is affiliated with the late 19th century reformed Catholic church movement which rejected the declaration of papal infallibility, he said.

Bozek said he was read the formal pronouncement in Springfield late Monday but that he learned the Vatican issued the decision Jan. 31. He said he was not given a copy.

At a Monday night news conference at St. Stanislaus where he was joined by dozens of parishioners, Bozek said he was disappointed by the move but will continue his ministry and offer valid Catholic sacraments.

There’s more at the link.