The 1996 Bruskewitz Excommunications: 50,000 letters of support; only 300 negative

Jim Graves at the National Catholic Register (not the dissident "Reporter"), has an excellent story on Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, 76, of Lincoln, Nebraska.  He is entering his 20th year as bishop of that diocese.  There is some interesting background which then leads into an interview.  One question put forth concerns excommunications he publicized in 1996 (and which were upheld by the Holy See)

Most bishops in the United States haven’t publicized decrees of excommunication. What led you to publicize decrees of excommunication in 1996?

That year I became more famous than I ever intended or wished to be. I issued the decree to clarify that one cannot be a loyal Catholic and a member of certain organizations. Call to Action, for example, advocates homosexual “marriage” and other distortions of Catholic teaching. I said that Catholics had a certain time to withdraw from such organizations or face canonical penalties. 

It hit the national news, and I was interviewed for radio and television programs, such as The Today Show. The reaction I received was overwhelmingly favorable. I received about 50,000 letters of support, versus about 300 negative letters. I’d come home, and I could hardly get into my house, because supporters had sent me bouquets of flowers and baskets of fruit that arrived on my doorstep. Our diocese received a half-million dollars in donations. 

Many bishops privately offered me their support. Some were astonished, but many said what I did was great, even if it wouldn’t work in their part of the world. I never intended it to be an example to others. It was part of my job as shepherd and chief pastor of Lincoln. 

I believe we sometimes have to take steps to move beyond the intellect to motivate the will. Sin is not in the intellect, but the will. We do have to inform people about Church teaching, but once that is done, some choose to be willfully sinful. A great lawyer can know the law but still be a criminal. People can know what is right but do wrong. So, in regards to the excommunications, I believed I had to do something. Sometimes action must be taken.

Read the whole thing: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/how-bishop-bruskewitz-built-up-the-church-on-the-plains/#ixzz1kuhvfD00

Here is another interview from 1996 by James Likoudis on the excommunications, at EWTN.

Just think how the landscape might be different today if bishops had taken a unified approach with Bishop Bruskewitz in 1996.  Catholics involved with those organizations would know exactly where they stand, and what must be done to regularize their status.  The secular media would not be able to parade people from these organizations in front of other Catholics in an effort to create dissonance.  Ordinary Catholics in the pew who get their "catechesis" from the New York Times would not be scandalized as badly if everyone was clear about the Church's position on these groups.  Furthermore, politicians with agendas that conflict with the natural law and Catholic teaching would not be able to hide behind these people and organizations to mislead Catholic voters.

Let's pray that our bishops change their approach to groups like these in ways that will seriously hinder their ability to undermine the apostolic successors as they have done for decades.  If they operate nationally or internationally, the USCCB ought to have a list of organizations on their website that would make clear to media outlets and politicans those that are out of harmony with the Catholic Church.  It's because these groups seem to enjoy support from some bishops, even if only by their silence about them, that more of the faithful are misled by them.

I really think the HHS mandate has awoken a sleeping giant.  Perhaps God permitted all of these things to happen to light a fire under the seat of bishops' cassocks.

If you want further reading on that, Joan Frawley Desmond has a new article out: Sebelius' Contraception Mandate and the Media


UPDATE:  Here is the statement by Bishop Bruskewitz on the HHS mandate

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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

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Call to Holiness: 2007 - Bishop Bruskewitz at OLMC

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln Nebraska also spoke at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (OLMC), in Wyandotte, Michigan, after he spoke at St. Rene Goupil on the East Side of metro Detroit. His talk was entitled, The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, Church.

My next post will give you information on how you can obtain audio and/or video of these conferences. I have already received my DVD's and my MP3-CD.

The pictures came out a little dark, but not too bad considering no use of flash to distract the speakers and which minimized distraction of participants. Quality I would like is still not there, but much of it has to do with the continuous movement of the speakers, without the aid of flash.

Call to Holiness 2007: Bishop Bruskewitz at St. Rene

Grotto Photographer Jeff Williams has emailed me these photos of Bishop Bruskewitz from the St. Rene site - one of two locations to which each speaker traveled. Jeff explained that he too was dealing with the challenging lighting conditions without flash.

The Bishop Speaks!

Below, Bishop Bruskewtiz is speaks with Fr. Eduard Perrone - the pastor of Assumption Grotto in Detroit. Patrick Fabian of OLMC, who was assisting that day, looks on.

Bishop Bruskewitz mingling with participants of the conference

Some views inside of St. Rene Goupil parish in the suburban Detroit community of Sterling Heights.

More photos tomorrow.....

Just a reminder - within the next few days, I will be making a separate post providing details of how you can order audio and/or video of the conference.

OTHER CTH 2007 POSTS:

• Photo Post 1: Bishop Flores at OLMC
• Photo Post 2: Marcus Grodi at OLMC
• Call to Holiness notification post 2 (with speakers)
• Call to Holiness notification post 1 (with poster)

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Bishop Bruskewitz - keynote speaker for March 16 banquet in Michigan

THE RENEWAL OF CATHOLIC HIGHER EDUCATION NEEDS YOU!

PLAN TO ATTEND THE BENEFIT BANQUET --Friday, MARCH 16TH!

Please--if you have not done so already please plan to attend the benefit banquet that will support the founding of The Collegeof SS Peter and Paul--to be located in Michigan! This is a new Catholic Liberal Arts college--totally faithful to the Magisterium of the Church. Colleges like this one will bring the light of Christ to this dark time! It will serve to renew Catholic higher education! Please help make this college a reality. The banquet is Friday, March 16th. The cost of the banquet is only $40.00 per person. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz is the keynote speaker--truly one of the most outstanding bishops in the whole country! The banquet is at the lovely St. John's Center located at 5 Mile and Sheldon in Plymouth, MI. For $150 dollars a private reception is provided with the bishop. Please call 248 347-3649

COME --BE A PART OF THE NEW SPRINGTIME OF THE CHURCH - see the website

Click here for a PDF flyer of the event

Letter from Cardinal Re to Bishop Bruskewitz on Call to Action Excommunications

Ok - I know this will either be hard to read, or impossible. It's the only version I could find and it's a JPG. If you click on it, you may be able to see it better. If someone runs across a PDF file of this on the web, let me know and I'll swap this one out. You should find almost the entire content of the letter in the links I've provided below.



Now, this only applies to the Lincoln, Nebraska diocese. If this kind of thing doesn't start happening in other dioceses Catholics will go on thinking it's ok to belong to organizations which promote open dissent from Catholic teaching with the mistaken notion that there are "two sides to every issue".


From the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska

More from the Catholic News Agency, CNA - the reporting arm of the USCCB.

Original letter of excommunication from 1996 by Bishop Bruskewitz, including the list of other organizations which were included (not known if any others appealed the way Call to Action did)....


All Catholics in and of the Diocese of Lincoln are forbidden to be members of the organizations and groups listed below. Membership in these organizations or groups is always perilous to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible with the Catholic Faith.

*Planned Parenthood

*Society of Saint Pius X*(Lefebvre Group)

*Hemlock Society

*Call to Action

*Call to Action Nebraska

*Saint Michael the Archangel Chapel

*Freemasons

*Job's Daughters

*DeMolay

*Eastern Star

*Rainbow Girls

*Catholics for a Free Choice

Any Catholics in and of the Diocese of Lincoln who attain or retain membership in any of the above listed organizations or groups after April 15, 1996, are by that very fact (ipso-facto-latae sententiae) under interdict and are absolutely forbidden to receive Holy Communion. Contumacious persistence in such membership for one month following the interdict on part of any such Catholics will by that very fact (ipso-facto-latae sententiae) cause them to be excommunicated. Absolution from these ecclesial censures is "reserved the Bishop." This notice, when published in the Southern Nebraska Register, is a formal canonical warning.

By mandate of the Most Reverend Bishop of Lincoln.

(signed) Reverend Monsignor Timothy Thorburn Chancellor

March 19,1996"

Vatican supports Bruskewitz on Excommunication of Call to Action Members

You may recall many years ago that Bishop Bruskewitz Excommunicated members of several organizations within his diocese, unless they disassociated themselves with them. He deemed them to support things that were harmful to one's faith and the Church. This included Call to Action which has dissented on many levels including abortion and homosexuality, among others.

H/T to Domenico Bettinelli Jr. for the lead to CWNews which covers the Vatican's support for Bishop Bruskewitz. This comes about after Call to Action - Nebraska Chapter appealed to the Holy See.

Here you get more background and the latest news. I pray that other dioceses will follow suit now that Bruskewitz has the backing of the Vatican.

Vatican confirms excommunication for US dissident group

Dec. 7, 2006 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has confirmed an American bishop’s decision to excommunicate members of the dissident group Call to Action.

Call to Action is “causing damage to the Church of Christ,” wrote Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (bio - news), the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, in a letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.

In March 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz had announced the excommunication of all Catholics in his diocese who were members of Call to Action or several other dissident groups which he described as “totally incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

The Nebraska chapter of Call to Action appealed the bishop’s decision to the Vatican. In his November 24 letter to Bishop Bruskewitz, Cardinal Re reports that Vatican’s finding that the disciplinary action was “properly taken.”

The Vatican has determined that “the activities of ‘Call to Action’ in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic Faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint,” Cardinal Re writes. He concludes: “Thus to be a member of this Association or to support it, is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic Faith.”

The excommunication that Bishop Bruskewitz announced covered not only to Call to Action, but also to members of Catholics for a Free Choice, Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society, the Freemasons, and the Society of St. Pius X.

The excommunication order applies only within the Lincoln, Nebraska diocese. But the Vatican’s judgment against Call to Action raises clear questions about the status of the group’s members in other dioceses.

Red Hat Award to Bishop Bruskewitz

A Bishop cleans the house on this one!

You won't find this in mainstream media, other than to probably take one line out of context and blow it out of proportion. Catholic bloggers are sure to be buzzing about this one - mostly in a very positive light. H/T to Curt Jester. Bishop Brusketwitz gave a speech for the Catholic Citizens of Illinois on October 19, and what a speech it was! Just as a sidenote, Bishop Bruskewitz will be coming to the Metro Detroit area in April to speak at the annual Call to Holiness Conference for which he is an advisor. More on that, and the November 19 benefit dinner in a later post.

I can't help but think of the many times Jesus said the kinds of things to the people that today, would have him sent to "sensitivity training". Jesus did not give us the Church inorder to preserve our self-esteem. He gave it to us for the purpose of salvation, and this means the Church must be counter-cultural. Jesus led by example, and this is one apostolic successor who gets it!

This is very lengthy, so I'm bringing you some key excerpts to entice you to read the whole thing. This is chopped up, so you'll need to get context and background leading into these statements, and expansions in the full speech.

From a paragraph in which the Bishop speaks of various declining numbers:

"...As a matter of fact, it is an aphorism that probably can be statistically verified that the largest religious group in the United States is the Catholic Church, but the second largest is fallen-away Catholics, lapsed, non-practicing, those who have abandoned the Catholic faith. This leakage from the Catholic faith in the United States, which is undeniable, can be attributed to many factors, at least as far as can by observed...."

From the same paragraph:

"....There are many Catholic colleges and universities, some of which are trying to maintain a Catholic identity, but many of which are Catholic in name only. There is a breakdown of authority in the Church, constant and open dissent by people who call themselves theologians; great doctrinal and moral confusion, and Catholics who while professing to belong to the Church are, perhaps, within her pale but outside of her orthodoxy...."

A few lines down from that:

"...Catholics in many parts of the United States are confronted by banal, shallow, and irreverent liturgies that have no or only a most remote connection with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. In 1965, all the statistical studies showed that at least 85% or perhaps more of the Catholics in the United States attended mass each Sunday. The present statistical studies show that this has gone to 27% of the Catholics in the United States attending mass on Sundays...."

Now the bishop begins to explore causes for these problems, with a few excerpts:

"...There are, of course, many causes for these ecclesiastical crises in which we are involved. There are many causes outside of the Church. We live, for example, in a culture that is dominated by materialism and hedonism, invisibly and imperceptibly the values of those things creep in the lives and attitudes of all, including Catholics. Even the healthiest fish cannot swim along in polluted waters. In our country, especially, a serious misunderstanding of freedom has turned freedom into license, and we live in a pan-sexual and irresponsible age, in which pleasure, comfort, and material possessions appear to be the goals of human existence. Lacking solid catechetical teaching, it is very easy for people, especially young people to be lured into that kind of attitude and condition their entire life-style by such an attitude...."

"....The [Second Vatican] Council in itself we consider a great act of the Holy Spirit. However, what happened was (and I speak from first-hand experience because I was in Rome at the conclusion of the Council) that a great number of personages and causes gathered around the Council as a kind of para-Council, which gave, because of their domination of the media, an incredibly wrong impression which persist even to this day, about what the Council was and what it was intended to achieve...."

"...There was also a mistaken notion, even among some people who should have known better, that by removing or changing accidental matters, sometimes considered accretions in ecclesiastical life, it would not affect the substance of that life. I think there was misunderstanding of the Thomistic view of accidents and substances. Sometimes pulling out accidents which inhere in substances disturbs the substances themselves. Among the mistaken notions and distortions that derive from the Council was that of liturgical chaos...."

It's about time someone called these folks out on this! How shameful it is that when some networks need a priest or a nun to "speak for the Church" they go right for the most dissenting voices among the flock.

"...And so, the question arises, "Where is this church?" It is certainly not situated in Andrew Greeley or Richard McBrien, or Sister Chittester, or in the myriads of other personages and voices whose faces and words appear to dominate the media when it come to Catholic expression. No, Saint Ambrose, long ago, told us where we would find the Church, where she is always situated. He said in Latin, Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna. Where Peter is, there is the church and where the Church is, there is everlasting life. It is especially through apostolic succession, and most particularly in the apostolic succession of the See of Rome, that we are able to reach back through history, and touch, not only the bodies and souls of the apostles, but the One Who sent the apostles forth, that is the Divine Founder of our Catholic religion of the Catholic Church, the Divine Source of all faith, as well as the Object of that faith, Jesus Christ. The great martyrs who preceded us in our Catholic faith were willing to see Jesus as the Person to die for, and we certainly, to be worthy of their memory, must see Him as the Divine Person to live for...."

I know too many people who claim to have been told things by priests - in passing, in homilies, and even in confession, which blatanly counter Church teachings. They are our friends, and in our families. We worry about their salvation when they reject certain teachings because priests or bishops made them feel that "it was ok". As much as we love these people, God loves them that much more and He knows how they have been misled. I have much hope that God will mitigate some of their guilt. I am so encouraged by the great number of young priests and seminarians out there, who clearly have their heads on straight. Speeches like this one by Bishop Bruskewitz will not be the rare exception in years to come. It will be the norm!

The cassocks are coming!!!

Pray for our seminarians, priests and bishops - that they are graced with the kind of courage to be counter-cultural, in imitation of Our Lord.

Go read Bruskewitz at CCI in full for background, expansion, and context on each of these excerpts.

Bishop Bruskewitz on Call to Action

Demonstration calls for more openness in Catholic Church

Lincoln Journal Star
By BOB REEVES
Saturday, Jun 03, 2006

About 50 people demonstrated outside St. Mary’s Catholic Church and School Saturday afternoon, calling for greater openness and inclusiveness in the Roman Catholic Church.

The event concluded the 10th anniversary conference of Call to Action Nebraska, part of a nationwide organization seeking reforms in the church.

In 1996, Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz announced that local Catholics who joined Call to Action would be excommunicated. Lincoln is the only diocese in the country to impose such sanctions, said Rachel Pokora, president of Nebraska CTA.

About half of those participating in Saturday’s “non-violent action” were CTA members from other parts of the country, while the rest were from Nebraska. Many carried placards naming important issues facing the church or reforms the group supports, such as allowing priests to marry, permitting women to be priests and perform other leadership roles in the church, combatting poverty, supporting peace and inclusion of gays and lesbians.

Bruskewitz issued a statement reiterating his opposition to Call to Action, calling it “an anti-Catholic sect composed mainly of aging fallen-away Catholics, including ex-priests and ex-nuns.” Call to Action opposes church teachings “on a variety of issues, such as abortion, homosexuality, abandonment of marital and religious vows, and so on.”

continue reading...


We couldn't agree more, Bishop Bruskewitz. I wonder if the Elephant in the Living Room is on his hit list. Just a reminder: The Te Deum Laudamus blog is an Elephant Free Zone.