Is Lincoln, Nebraska the future of American Catholicism?

by Rosemary Radford Ruether

Recently I gave a lecture in Lincoln, Neb.,where all members of CTA were declared excommunicated by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in 1996. Although a member of CTA since its beginning 25 years ago, I did not expect any particular difficulty. My speaking engagement was with the local Methodist college, Nebraska Wesleyan. I was speaking on the topic of my new book, Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family (Beacon Press, August 2000).

The term family was seen by many at the college as making this a ho-hum topic. In my lecture I planned to show that, far from blessing the "family values" type of family, Jesus appears distinctly hostile to the family. Recall his startling words in Luke 14:26-27: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." For most of Catholic history the choice of marriage was seen as distinctly second rate to that of celibacy. My book explores the ambiguity toward marriage and family in the Christian tradition.

However, shortly before my arrival in Lincoln, I was informed that the Catholic diocese had raised a great furor over my coming. An editorial in the diocesan paper declared that I was a "phony," not a Catholic at all, certainly not a theologian, and that I "advocated witchcraft!" The diocese coupled this protest with an assault on the college, declaring that Nebraska Wesleyan was guilty of "anti-Catholicism" for having invited me.

Mentioning a list of various other offenses against Catholics supposedly committed by the college, such as having condom machines on campus (untrue), the diocese threatened to advise the graduates of Catholic high schools not to go there and also to prevent education students from the college from having teaching internships in Catholic high schools. Spokespersons from one Catholic high school threatened to bring picketers to my lecture. In fact, no picketers showed up, but the result of the furor was that my lecture was packed with eager listeners.

CTAers celebrate house liturgy

In contrast to the vitriol pouring from the diocese, I was warmly welcomed by CTA Catholics of the area who invited me to a home liturgy. This gathering gave me a glimpse of the situation of CTA Catholics in Lincoln since their excommunication. Some, I was told, simply moved to Omaha. Others stopped going to church. Some attend a regular CTA house liturgy in Lincoln. For a while they invited priests from outside to say Mass for them, but these priests received letters from the diocese threatening them with excommunication as well. Now they do eucharistic liturgies themselves. The one I attended was led by a woman religion professor.

A determined core group of CTA members tough it out in the parishes, continuing to go to Communion at Masses of friendlier priests. But the situation in all the parishes sounded distinctly unwelcoming for open-minded Catholics. One Catholic professor who came to teach at Wesleyan two years ago went to her local parish once. She was immediately told by the pastor that if her views on birth control were known, he would have to deny her Communion. She did not go back again. Others have been informed by priests verbally (and one by letter) not to come to Communion at their Mass.

CTA members told me that some older priests are quietly friendly, but dare not speak out publicly in any way. CTA members on parish or diocesan committees were told to resign. More ominous, the diocese seems to have become the refuge of younger right-wing priests. Bruskewitz clearly wishes to extend his thought control not only to all Catholic institutions, but to the entire town. Nebraska Wesleyan and the University of Nebraska, as well as the local newspaper, the Lincoln Journal-Star, are kept under surveillance. Speakers or articles deemed questionable to the conservative Catholic party line are quickly protested. Newman Club activities are tightly controlled. Faculty and staff are told they are unwelcome at Newman Club Masses. The bishop plans his own seminary where he can produce priests to his liking.

What about the next generation?

Is Lincoln, Neb., the future of American Catholicism? Progressive American Catholics may regard Lincoln as a "freak" situation of a right-wing extremist bishop. But those who cherish an open church need to remember that the people who control Catholic institutions control the future of the American Catholic Church. Autonomous house churches are wonderful as support groups, particularly for older people whose Catholic identity is confirmed. But these informal groups will not deliver church membership in the next generation.

By and large, progressive Catholics are not very successful in getting their own children to become regular churchgoers. If we are interested in having the creativity of the Vatican II generation of progressive American Catholics carried on into the future, it is time to get concerned about younger Catholics, those born after Vatican II. And this means defending the base for progressive Catholicism in Catholic institutions: parishes, religious orders, high schools, and colleges and seminaries.

This will entail a degree of investment of time and effort in Catholic institutions that many progressive Catholics have spurned, preferring to create house churches or independent movements, such as CTA. This option for voluntary organizations is not to be dropped. These are the main bases of progressive Catholicism at the moment. But movements such as house churches should not be set against institutional church reform. Rather they should become a base for efforts to enter into such institutions and find ways to defend progressive Catholicism there. Otherwise I fear that Bruskewitz, and not CTA, will command the future of the American Catholic church.

A founding member of CTA, Ruether is professor of theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill. This essay, slightly edited here, appeared in the National Catholic Reporter March 31.