Write On

Excommunication? Are you serious?

Wendy Sue-Altobell of the Newman Center staff at St. Cloud (Minn.) State University was so upset by the recent, apparent Vatican endorsement of the 1996 Bruskewitz excommunication that she published a long article about it in the Center Sunday bulletin Jan. 21. Here are some excerpts:

The long tradition of our Church shows us that excommunication is practiced individually, rarely, and always with careful discernment. An individual facing this grave penalty should certainly be given due process…

What does one have to do to make a member of the hierarchy impose this penalty? Apparently, membership in a group named Call To Action (CTA) will do it if you live in Lincoln, Neb. In 1996, a group of Catholics in Nebraska formed a local chapter of CTA. This caused Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln to issue an excommunication order because he believed that membership in it was “always perilous to the Catholic faith.”

So what, exactly, does this renegade group believe? Here’s a sampling: CTA believes that all of us are the Church (not just the appointed leaders); that the Church should lead the call for justice in society; that priesthood must be open to married men and to women; that gays and straights deserve equal welcome in the Church; that the Church should be a model of openness and accountability; that theologians should be free in their search for the truth; that we must embrace the poor, the divorced and remarried, and people of all races; and that the people of a diocese should be consulted in all decisions (including the selection of their bishop). I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a solid majority of Newman members believe these very same things.Now imagine being excommunicated for these beliefs.

I am concerned about so much… Excommunication was ordered for an entire group of people rather than on an individual basis. A bishop finds it easier to silence those with whom he disagrees rather than practice dialogue. The Vatican never felt it necessary to communicate with the people of Lincoln who were repeatedly requesting a response.

It is important to realize how out of step Bruskewitz is with the rest of the Church, especially with the U.S. Catholic bishops… He is the only bishop in the entire nation who is refusing to comply with the 2002 Dallas Charter to protect children in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. A press release by SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) stated, “What signal does it send when not one of thousands of pedophile priests or hundreds of complicit bishops has been excommunicated? Apparently, a lay person sending a $20 membership fee to some non-profit group is worse than a bishop sending a known serial child molesting cleric to another parish.”

Courage and My Mom

This letter came in response to news reports of RCWomenpriests celebrating a Eucharist at the CTA conference last November.

Good for you! I read your message with a lump in my throat as it brought back a powerful memory of my dear mother, Audrey Ferder, who died of heart failure Nov. 25. Several years ago, she and Dad, and John Heagle's mother, Alice Heagle, who died two years ago, came with us to a Call to Action weekend. During the closing liturgy, all were invited to raise their hands and join in the consecration prayers. As I stood between these two loving mothers, then both in their late 70's, watched them raise their hands in blessing, and pray the prayers of consecration, those words, "this is my body...this is my blood" never touched me more deeply. I had the sense that the prayer of these two older women, these mothers who baked bread in their kitchen sanctuaries and spilled their blood on delivery room altars, prayed those prayers from the depth of their being. Afterwards, I asked Mom how it felt to do that and she smiled, and simply said, "It felt right."

Fran Ferder, fspa, Seattle, Wash.

Tickled

This member photocopied her donation checks to CTA and mailed the copy to her bishop, Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., with a one-line note: “Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.”

This kind of thing tickles my toes and curls them up. A survivor of sex abuse suggested we do something like this and send it to our bishops rather than sending a check. Do you think I have a chance of getting excommunicated?

Mary Kiernan, Far Rockaway Beach, N.Y.

Kudos for CTA Action Agenda

Good leadership. I would have preferred to include 1. renewal of the U.N.; 2. deacons and women to lead Mass (not closing parishes); 3. People participation at Mass; 4. Avenues for believers to tell the bishop and tell the Pope. How long before we open the church to the believers' hopes and needs instead of keeping rules set ages ago? I approve your courage, persistence, arousing people's awareness. God loves you!

Anne Mayer, SSND, Bedford Park, Ill. (now age 101!)