Fawley Court - drawing by John Preston
The emigres have lambasted priests in Poland, who have profited from the sale of the historic estate.
Reverend Jozef Jarzebowski set up a boarding school at the house in 1954. It was founded for the children of Polish emigres who could not reconcile themselves with the installation of a communist regime in Poland.
Ten years later, when Jarzebowski died, he was buried on the grounds of the idyllic estate, in accordance with his last wishes.
However, last year, the Catholic Order of the Marian Fathers sold the property to a Mrs Aida Hersham, who intends to gradually restore the estate.
A clause within the contract stated the Marian Fathers must exhume the late priest, and organise his reburial elsewhere, on pain of losing a fifth of the overall 16.5 million pounds sale price.
The order succeeded in gaining legal consent to carry out the exhumation from Britain's justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, but the action was immediately challenged by emigres, including a 54-year-old relative of the priest, Elzbieta Rudewicz.
However, following a two-day High Court hearing, Judge Heather Hallet rejected the complaint.
“Unfortunately, rest in peace does not mean RIP for eternity in a fixed burial site,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Rudewicz lamented the ruling.
“This is a great disappointment, “ she said.
“None of us can understand why the Marian Fathers have sold this property which our families spent years collecting money to buy,
“I think the decision to sell was made by priests from Poland who saw the prospect of making a lot of money and don't understand or respect the strength of feeling in the community here. They did not consult with the lay Polish community." (nh/pg)
Source: Guardian, Independent Catholic News