Not a failure to excommunicate
Dawn Eden sent me this editorial from Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine on the excommunications issued in 1996 by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.
When Bishop Bruskewitz first issued his statement in 1996, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago and other bishops questioned the move. And no other U.S. bishops have issued similar declarations regarding membership in these 12 organizations.
That is not exactly an indictment of Bishop Bruskewitz. It is like complaining about the hero that steps forward and acts when everyone else looks on.
As can be expected, the news 10 years ago and this past November were met with press releases and statements galore. But what was missing and continues to be missing is dialogue.
And threatening those who do want to engage in dialogue is hardly the way to start the conversation. Bishop Bruskewitz’s actions come off as the equivalent of a parental “Because I said so” to the “why’s?” and “why not’s?” of an adult laity.
Condemning organizations that support abortion, euthanasia, active homosexuality, that deny that God has revealed himself or established a Church is not exactly a parental "because I say so." It is simply what the Church teaches.
We have just begun to emerge from a very painful time in our Church with the clergy sex-abuse crisis. Polls are showing that confidence in our bishops is growing and so are numbers for Mass attendance. This raises the question: Is this really the best time to be showing people the door? Maybe first we should seriously talk about areas of disagreement.
First off the excommunications were issued 11 years ago so the timing argument is rather silly. The other point is that excommunication as an ecclesial penalty is not showing people the door, it is calling them to repentance and entering that door that is Christ. To enter the narrow way that leads to salvation.
What we need is a greater spirit of dialogue in our Church. And that means some real, honest, open-minded and open-hearted dialogue—on all sides. No more threats, no more name-calling, no pushing our agendas. Let’s just talk and listen. In the process we might learn something or see things from a different perspective. It can’t hurt to talk. We are, after all, members of one Church.
The Church has talked and dialoged, but most of all taught through her teaching authority. Killing children in the womb is not a different perspective, killing the elderly or the severely ill in a false sense of compassion is not a different perspective. Outright disobedience and denial of the Church's authority again is not just a different perspective. Perspectives can be quite mistaken no mater how sincerely believed and when this happens informing those of the truth is the "greater sprit of dialogue." Excommunication is an act of dialogue when dialogue has broken down and by its very communication is a call to conversion and repentance.
If the Bishop had only excommunicated members of the Society of St. Pius the X we wouldn't hear this endless mumbling from progressives on this issue. I bet they were not upset when the Archbishop of New Orleans excommunicated several people because they fought against segregation. Racism is certainly a great moral evil and shouldn't the deliberate killing through abortion and euthanasia received the same treatment?
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I think I could take this more seriously if the Catholic church would expel a few of dictators or other monsters in its ranks. I mean its too late to do anything about Mate Boban, Franyo Tudjman, Franco, Pavelic, Pinochet, but they could always go after the still living mafia types. Ante Gotovina, Mirko Norac, and some other Catholic hooligans would also serve as good examples given their crimes.
But authoritian dictatorships rarely punish each other. It sets a bad precedent.
It is up to local bishops to do this, and unfortunately, Bishop Bruskewitz is one of the few bishops doing his job and doing it well in the US. Also, you do not need an official letter by a Bishop to be excommunicated. Automatic excommunication occurs whenever anyone is involved in certain actions, including murder.
I just sent my letter to St. Anthony Messenger, and I encourage others to do the same. Lets support this faith-filled man and let these liberal rags know that we do. I also send money to his diocese's seminary (St. Gregory the Great) so that we have more sheperds just like him.
Archbishop Rummel excommunicated several segregationist Catholics when they fought against his DEsegregation of Catholic schools in New Orleans. I wasn't there, but I'm old enough to remember it.
The St. Anthony Messenger is not exactly on the shelf of orthodox must-reads. It fits more comfortably with Roger Cardinal Mahony's coffee table edition of the Pictoral History of Great Liturgical Dance.
LOL,LOL,LOL!! Thanks for the hearty laugh John!
If some humans had been around during the Rebellion, they would have chastized Michael for not "dialoguing" with Lucifer.
Hoodlum, murderous mafiosi are automatically excommunicated and their mortal sins exclude them from receiving Communion. During my father's boyhood, priests and a bishop were harrassed for publically calling on mobsters to repent. They named names, too. There were a couple of priests murdered for standing up to them, including one in Ohio that convinced my family never to move there.
"Dialogue" means one thing to ecclesial liberals: keep the other side busy yammering while we do what we want and then claim--later on--that what we want is now the de facto teaching of the Church b/c we've been doing it so long now that stopping would be pastorally hurtful (e.g. female altar servers).
Here's the ultimate question to ask a liberal whining about the need for "dialogue:" are you prepared to conclude at the end of this dialogue that you might be wrong? Can you imagine women's ordination advocate honestly answering Yes to this question? If he/she can't answer Yes then there is no point to dialogue other than to obscure dissent and normalize error by talking it into the mainstream.
Fr. Philip
"I mean its too late to do anything about Mate Boban, Franyo Tudjman, Franco, Pavelic, Pinochet, but they could always go after the still living mafia types."
Don't know much about Boban, Tudjman and Pavlevic, but why excommunicate Franco when he was the one who ended massacres of priests and religious by Communist fanatics? As for Pinochet, considering how split down the middle opinion in Argentina was about him, I don't know if the bishops there could ever muster the collective effort to excommunicate him. I think its the same reason Hugo Chavez has not been excommunicated himself.
Hoodlum, I hate to feed the troll, but feel that I must ask--Which of these folk do you find in Bishop Bruskewitz' diocese? Gee, is there a Mafia presence in Lincoln that we have failed to notice? Is there a Cosa Nebraska? Do tell!!
On a more serious note, is the Lincoln diocese known for being pedophile friendly? Has the good Bishop been known for sheltering abusive priests? Gee, if so, please give chapter and verse. My understanding is that Bishop Bruskewitz has made it known that this is something up with which he will not put! Now, I am not a member of this diocese, but I am from an area quite close--so, if I am mistaken, I'd be glad to know.
Fr. Philip,
That "It's a tradition" argument has been used in the Rochester NY diocese to justify a lot of liturgical abuses. I'd like to know how 30 years justifies tradition while some 1,970 does not. Does anyone out there know?
Miss Jean,
Have you ever read Mother Aneglica's biography by Raymond Arroyo? I am wondering if the priest who was murdered at your family's parish is the same priest who was murdered at Mother's parish when she was a girl. She was also from Ohio. Great book!
The exommunication of Boss Perez was on page 1 of the NYT. And I heard not a syllable, then or since, about the archbishop "imposing his belief" in integration.