COMMENTARY: Catholic dissent and a bishop’s abuse of power

c. 1996 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. His home page on the World Wide Web is at http://www.greeley.com. Or contact him at his e-mail address: agreel(at sign)aol.com.) (RNS)-The Irish have a word that perfectly describes Bishop […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. His home page on the World Wide Web is at http://www.greeley.com. Or contact him at his e-mail address: agreel(at sign)aol.com.)

(RNS)-The Irish have a word that perfectly describes Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb. The word is”amadon.”It is applied to someone who makes a laughingstock of himself.


Bruskewitz made headlines all across America this week when he declared he would excommunicate Catholics in his diocese who belong to organizations to which he takes exception, from Planned Parenthood and the Hemlock Society to the Freemasons, organizations founded by the late ultra-conservative Archbishop Marcel LeFebvre, to the abortion-rights group Catholics for a Free Choice. Included on the list is the relatively harmless Call to Action, a liberal Catholic group that advocates, among other things, married priests and the ordination of women.

The eminent Cardinal Carlo Martini of Milan, whom some people consider a likely candidate to be the next pope, has himself called for more study of the subject of women’s ordination and of the possibility of a married priesthood. He has even suggested an Ecumenical Council to consider these issues. I imagine if Cardinal Martini ventured into Bruskewitz’s territory, he too, would be called to account by the bishop of Lincoln.

Bruskewitz’s actions have made most American bishops cringe. His blanket condemnations may well violate the code of canon law that calls for great care and caution in imposing such penalties. Moreover, his flailing with interdicts and excommunications will have no effect.

Few if any folks who belong to the proscribed organizations will quit them. Most Catholics will be offended by such medieval mummery. And many of those who hate the church will whisper about a new Inquisition.

One of the more ludicrous aspects of the Bruskewitz flap is that those threatened with excommunication merely have to cross the borders of his diocese-down the freeway to Omaha or up the freeway to Grand Island-and the penalties lose their impact.

Bruskewitz has abused the power of his office and has disgraced the Catholic Church. He ought never to have been made a bishop in the first place. And it will be interesting to see how those who now recognize that his appointment was a mistake will scramble to defuse this time bomb ticking in the Diocese of Lincoln.

The philosophy behind his action is shared by many right-wing Catholics: If you get rid of all those who disagree with you, at last you have the”real”Catholic Church. Alas, it is not clear who will pay the parish heat and the light bills when you purge the 60 percent who, according to some surveys, support the ordination of women.


Some right-wing Catholics appear to be in a curious alliance with Cardinal Carlo Martini. They, too, want another Ecumencial Council to undo, as they see it, the mistakes of Vatican II. They feel that a council, stage-managed by the Roman Curia, would bring the Catholic world to heel at last and end all the changes that have occurred in the past 30 years.

Such an event is not likely to occur. Nor is it clear that the curia can stage-manage a council as it did centuries ago at the First Vatican Council. As the curia found out in the 1960s, it is a dangerous business to bring all the bishops of the world together in one place. Even the conservatives become restless.

Cardinal Martini’s suggestion of an Ecumenical Council on married priests and the ordination of women is, however, another matter. Perhaps it is time to respond to the questions raised in the last 30 years, to focus the energies of the church into the next millennium.

Some are saying that Cardinal Martini has lost any chance of becoming the next pope by proposing such a council. Maybe so. He has, however, accomplished one very important thing. He has made certain that the next time the cardinals of the church gather to elect a new pope, they will not be able to avoid the issue of whether to convene another Ecumenical Council. And if such a council is called, the hierarchy can squarely face some of the issues the bishop of Lincoln is trying so desperately to repress.

The amadons will come to Rome, but so will a lot of men who are not amadons. And the Holy Spirit will be given another chance.

MJP END GREELEY

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