Lincoln man is denied Communion at the altar
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 03/05/2005 2:07:18 PM PST by NYer
The nine-year-old decision of Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz to excommunicate members of Call to Action and other groups has withstood an appeal, the Diocese of Lincoln announced Friday.
The diocese said that the Vatican rejected the appeal "some time ago." Call to Action Nebraska filed the appeal in protest of the blanket excommunication, but the group never heard back from Rome.
The Rev. Mark Huber, a spokesman for the diocese, said the appeal was rejected because it challenged a church law - specifically, legislation from the 1996 Synod of the Diocese of Lincoln - that prohibited membership in the organizations.
"They can't appeal a particular law," he said. "They can appeal a judicial sentence or an administrative decree. Excommunication is part of the law."
Patty Hawk, the national and state president of Call to Action, a group pushing for change in the Catholic Church, said no one has ever told her organization that the appeal was rejected.
"The Vatican, by rule, should have to contact us," she said. "We're the ones who requested (the appeal)."
The excommunication and appeal had been a nonissue until recently.
In 1996, the bishop excommunicated members of 12 groups, ranging from Call to Action to Planned Parenthood, but he said he did not intend for confrontations during communion. He said excommunication was a matter of the heart.
Members of Call to Action Nebraska, saying that the excommunication was invalid, have continued to take communion.
A few weeks ago, however, the bishop waved away one group member at communion time. Two other priests later denied communion to that member, co-founder John Krejci.
Hawk said no other Call to Action members have been denied communion, as far as she knows.
But even if the appeal has been rejected, she said, that shouldn't change things for members of the group.
"Most people see the excommunication as invalid," she said. "Regardless of what happens with this, it doesn't change our understanding of ourselves as Catholics."
| A Call to Action | The most visible dissenting group which is a movement of laity and religious seeking to reform the "sinful structure" of the "patriarchal" Church. One could call them the "mother of all dissenting groups" - feminist pun intended. CTA is infamous since its 1994 conference coverage on the CBS news program 60 Minutes. CTA promotes dissent against Church teachings on a broad front, including women's ordination, homosexuality, creation spirituality, married priesthood, and liturgical reforms, while incorporating new age and Wiccan spirituality. Bishop Bruskewitz excommunicated those that belong to this group in his Diocese. Many members belong to local groups called "small faith communities." Renew 2000 also promotes small faith communities. Membership draws heavily from former clergy, feminist nuns, and homosexuals. Members staff COR. CTA serves on the national task force for the We Are Church referendum. Get a more complete understanding of their position from their own information. For a list of their speakers at the 2004 conference, click here. |
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Lincoln man is denied Communion at the altar
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
"Hypocrisy In Action" should be the name of this group. Because they do not believe in the beliefs of the church does not mean the CHURCH should change! They need to find a church that does agree with their beliefs or start their own.
It seems that most of the Catholic Cardinals, Bishops and Priests should also be excomunicated for their support of the politicians supporting Abortions and Homosexuality.
They should be defrocked and removed from their offices. They are Heritics and are not defending the Laws of the Lord or the Cathoilic Church, and I certainly do NOT mean the Novus Ordo Catholic Church, which is Heresey itself.
I must say I am completely bewildered by people who receive communion as a way to make a political statement. If you are excommunicated, you are excommunicated. If you voluntarily go up and receive communion in such a state, you are only heaping damnation on your own head and making it worse for yourself.
What is the point? If you believe the teachings of the Church, it is a very stupid thing to do. If you don't believe the teachings of the Church, then why are you wasting your time going to Mass and receiving communion?
They might be happier there, because then they could have the lofty churches, the vestments, and the pomp and ceremony without having to believe in anything in particular . . .
He took a wafer by himself???? What arrogance.
Did you hear the one about the burning question mark they found in the front lawn of the local Unitarian church?
It was a hate crime.
They march to their own agenda.
They need to find a church that does agree with their beliefs or start their own.
I believe they will find their place in the 'Old Catholic Church' which went into schism about 500 years ago. Here is what they are looking for and she too, was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. She now serves as a minister in the schismatic Old Catholic Church.
"'Hypocrisy In Action' should be the name of this group. Because they do not believe in the beliefs of the church does not mean the CHURCH should change! They need to find a church that does agree with their beliefs or start their own."
Excellent advice. Another dissident group, the SSPX, has done exactly that.
You are certainly entitled to your opinions, even if they are in error.
As Francis Cardinal Arinze said in his Feb. 11 interview with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN's The World Over Live
"You don't need a Vatican Cardinal to tell you that when someone presents themselves for communion, wearing a rainbow sash, that they should be denied communion."
These people flaunt their personal beliefs in order to stand out and make a statement before those who adhere to church doctrine. IOW, this is an opportunity to deliver thier message "in your face". God bless Bishop Bruskewtiz for his efforts to have these groups excommunicated, and the Vatican for supporting him.
"Renew 2000 also promotes small faith communities. Membership draws heavily from former clergy, feminist nuns, and homosexuals. Members staff COR. CTA serves on the national task force for the We Are Church referendum. "
RENEW and RENEW 2000
RENEW is a parish renewal program begun in the Archdiocese of Newark in the 1970s under Archbishop Peter Gerety. Promoted through the RENEW International office of the Archdiocese it has spread to hundreds of dioceses in this country and overseas.
In preparation for the Great Jubilee a second program was established called RENEW 2000. Its literature states,
RENEW 2000 is a thorough spiritual renewal and evangelization process designed for parish life in the 21st century. It incorporates themes suggested by Pope John Paul II for pastoral life in this new millennium and implements his call for a new evangelization.
The RENEW concept envisions small faith communities in which groups of ten or so people meet for prayer and discussion of the faith over a period of months and even years. As an evangelization or re-evangelization method, it was designed to be non-confrontational so as to encourage people to a deeper participation in parish life without feeling threatened by doctrinal or moral issues.
However, this approach has been subject to tremendous criticism over the years. Being non-catechetical and non-judgmental it has been accused of being subject to manipulation by those who wish to further dissent within the Church, as they attempt to build up communities at odds with the hierarchical Church. This charge gained even more weight with the publication of the RENEW 2000 materials, which contained contributions from known dissenters, changes of liturgical texts to conform with feminist ideology, new age prayers and ideas and other heterodox material.
These charges were taken seriously by the former Archbishop of Newark, now Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, Theodore McCarrick, who ordered that the deficient materials be changed. I am not aware of the current status of those changes. In the interim many dioceses have continued to use the materials, with some bishops forbidding the use of the objectionable Leader Books. However, even when these problematic texts are not used, the design of the RENEW and RENEW 2000 programs continue to make them greatly dependant upon the orthodoxy of the local clerical and lay leadership who conduct them, and thus subject to great variability in their implementation throughout the Church.
Ubi Petrus, Ibi Ecclesia.
Roma Locuta, Causa Finita.
"I believe they will find their place in the 'Old Catholic Church' which went into schism about 500 years ago."
You are thinking of the original Protestants. The Old Catholics went into schism right after Vatican I.
If you are of the Novus Ordo Sect, it is not I who is in schism, but you! The Novus Ordo is not defending the Laws of God, but breaking them.
So many people have left the Mew and Improved version of the Socialist Multicultral Catholic Church that the echos from the Tombs of the Novus Ordo Churches is deafening.
Sorry that have unresolved toilet training issues, but the topic of the thread was the excommunication of Call to Action.
FYI Blackelk, 26lemon is a sede.
That said, I'll leave you two tinkling clanging cymbals to bash away at each other as perfect counterparts.
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