TOP STORY: DISSENT AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Excommunication decree sows confusion, outrage

c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Three U.S. Catholic bishops are among the members of Call to Action, a liberal Catholic organization targeted in a sweeping excommunication threat by Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz. Bruskewitz said March 19 he would excommunicate Catholics in his diocese who refuse to quit Call to Action and 11 other […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Three U.S. Catholic bishops are among the members of Call to Action, a liberal Catholic organization targeted in a sweeping excommunication threat by Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz.

Bruskewitz said March 19 he would excommunicate Catholics in his diocese who refuse to quit Call to Action and 11 other groups he said were dangerous to Catholicism.


Call to Action, which advocates female ordination and married clergy, includes as members Bishop Raymond Lucker of New Ulm, Minn., Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and retired Bishop Charles A. Buswell of Pueblo, Colo., the National Catholic Reporter, a liberal biweekly Catholic newspaper, said in its current edition, to be published April 5. Call to Action, based in Chicago, has a total of 16,000 members, including more than 5,000 nuns and priests.”I am a member of Call to Action,”Lucker said.”I was invited to speak at their conference last November. It’s a wonderful group of people, concerned with social justice in the church and in society.” Gumbleton said he is”very concerned about this kind of action on the part of a bishop. Instead of promoting unity, obviously, this will drive people away from the church.” Bruskewitz’s warning was aimed at Lincoln Catholics who belong not only to Call to Action, but five affiliate groups of the Masons, a society once strictly banned by Rome; two organizations linked to the movement of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an ultra-conservative who was excommunicated in 1988 for ordaining bishops without Vatican approval; the right-to-die Hemlock Society; and Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice, organizations frequently condemned by church leaders because of abortion-rights stances.

Bruskewitz said his excommunication warning was, according to a diocesan official, intended to”make clear the church’s stance … and the relationship of the church”to groups the bishop deemed”perilous to the Catholic faith.” But the only thing clear in the days following the pronouncement is that Bruskewitz’s action has raised confusion and controversy within the church.

Bruskewitz described Call to Action in a March 18 letter as”inimical to the Catholic faith, destructive of Catholic church discipline, contradictory to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and an impediment to evangelization.” But Lucker said the great majority of Call to Action affiliates”are very respectful, open and concerned about authentic Catholic teaching.” Lucker said he formed this firsthand impression during Call to Action’s annual conference last November. He delivered a major address to the group on central Catholic teachings.”I came face to face with thousands of very dedicated, active Catholics who are concerned about the church, who love the church and who are interested in church renewal,”he said.”There are some who I would say would be people with whom I would not agree, but you’d find that at any number of Catholic gatherings. It is worthwhile to talk with them.” The starkly different views of Call to Action illustrate the deep divide among U.S. Catholics, including members of the hierarchy, regarding a basic vision of the church. One is open to wide participation by laypeople and discussion of controversial issues; the other relies heavily on church law and unquestioning obedience.

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This is not the first time Bruskewitz, who was named bishop of Lincoln after the retirement of Archbishop Glennon D. Flavin in 1992, has taken a controversial position.

He is one of only two bishops in the country who still prohibit altar girls. And at the November 1995 annual conference of U.S. Catholic bishops, Bruskewitz challenged the translation of two segments of the church’s English-language liturgical prayer book. He proposed 841 amendments to the translation of one segment of the sacramentary, or Roman Missal.

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The severe and highly unusual nature of Bruskewitz’s new sanctions raises questions of whether he represents a common line of thinking within the hierarchy or is an anomaly even in the eyes of conservative prelates.”I do not think that cutting off Call to Action’s members completely from the Catholic community would serve any good purpose,”Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of the Chicago archdiocese said in a statement.

Bernardin also expressed concern”that controversial positions are publicly taken by Call to Action,”resulting in”confusions and tensions within the Catholic community.”But he said he has opted”not to engage in open conflict with the group but to use with them the powers of moral persuasion and dialogue on specific issues.” The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, said Bruskewitz’s actions are likely to send tremors throughout the U.S. bishops’ conference.”This is the kind of action that embarrasses the bishops. This kind of unilateral action by a bishop is really a pain in the neck for the other bishops,”said Reese, who has written extensively on the U.S. hierarchy. He said bishops all over the country will be asked,”Are you going to excommunicate people in your diocese who are members of these organizations, and if not, why not?” Bruskewitz, Reese added,”is going to confuse the faithful by this decree.”(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)


Several bishops queried by the National Catholic Reporter did not want to comment directly on Bruskewitz’s action. Kenneth Untener, bishop of Saginaw, Mich., however, said the action”raises questions of credibility”for the church and places fellow bishops in an awkward situation.”A thousand questions come into my mind. How does one arrive at these judgments? These judgments-the kind implied in this mandate-could appear to be judgments of the heart. And you can’t apply sanctions to judgments of the heart,”said Untener, who said he has attended a Call to Action conference.

Untener expressed concern that the”largeness of this family we call church”be taken into account. Broadening the analogy, he asked:”When do you say to a family member, `You are no longer part of the family and you can’t come to any of our gatherings?'”This is not just an organizational tightening,”Untener said.”You’re dealing with people.”(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Gumbleton, the Detroit auxiliary bishop, said an action such as Bruskewitz’s runs counter to”a church committed to dialogue.” Bishops, he said, should be engaging people who voice concerns and questions in a churchwide conversation, not”pushing them further away.” University of Notre Dame professor of history Jay Dolan, meanwhile, described Bruskewitz, who is 60, as”an extreme example of a new breed of bishops”who”want to stifle any discussion or debate, rule by fiat, by their authority.”Bruskewitz’s warning, he said, is”a throwback to 200 years ago. It’s not the way you do things in the church today.” Bruskewitz has received some strong support from conservative sectors.

William Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, commended him for”enforcing the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.” A representative from St. Michael the Archangel Church in Lincoln, a Lefebvre organization on Bruskewitz’s list, praised the bishop’s outlawing of the other forbidden groups but said members from his church and from the Society of St. Pius X should not be included.

Regis Martin, a professor of theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, MDULOhio, said he was entirely sympathetic with the Lincoln bishop for imposing minimal standards of orthodox beliefs to protect a church”ravaged by wolves.”He said he hoped the action would prove contagious among the hierarchy. Martin, however, admitted he was only vaguely aware of Call to Action and had no idea why the group was included.

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The day before issuing the extra-synodal legislation, Bruskewitz condemned Call to Action in a March 18 letter to Lori Darby and John Krejci, the co-chairs of the Nebraska chapter that officially formed in February. Apparently, none of the other groups on the list received similar letters, although there have been ongoing confrontations between the bishop and Planned Parenthood of Lincoln over the construction of a clinic providing abortion services.


Darby and Krejci informed Bruskewitz, in a two-paragraph letter March 6, of the formation of a Call to Action chapter in Nebraska. The two quoted Pope John XXIII:”In essentials, unity; in other things, diversity; in all things, charity.” In addition to denouncing Call to Action in his March 18 response, Bruskewitz said his letter should be considered”a formal canonical warning.”He asked the co-chairs to advise members that”membership constitutes a grave act of disrespect and disobedience to their lawful bishop.” Bruskewitz began his letter stating,”the difference between a dissenting Catholic and a Protestant is that the Protestant has integrity.” Most of those interviewed said they feel the launching of a Nebraska Call to Action chapter in Bruskewitz’s Lincoln diocese prompted his severe decree.

Bruskewitz moved swiftly against the Rev. John O. McCaslin, an Omaha priest who celebrated the Eucharist at the chapter’s first meeting Feb. 3. Two days after the event, McCaslin received a letter from Bruskewitz prohibiting him from exercising priestly duties in the Lincoln diocese”in perpetuity.””He goes dropping atom bombs to kill a mouse,”said McCaslin, who remains the pastor of two parishes in the Omaha archdiocese. The priest said he is writing Bruskewitz a letter,”suggesting he look over Paul’s letters to Timothy to learn how to be a bishop … then he might check out the good shepherd in the Gospel to see how a shepherd functions.”

MJP END RNS

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