| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OSV STORY FOR April 14
NEWS
The canons of the Church and the
aims of the faithful
Lincoln, Neb., Catholis in groups
opposed to Church teaching may find themselves on the outside
looking in
By Ann Carey
Catholics in the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., have until May 15 to disassociate themselves from several organizations deemed by their local bishop to be dangerous to the Catholic faith. According to a directive issued by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Catholics in his diocese will be excommunicated for continued membership in the following organizations:
* Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country.
* The Hemlock Society, which promotes legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide.
* Catholics for a Free Choice, an "abortion-rights" group that is Catholic in name only.
* The Society of St. Pius X, the schismatic sect of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, which does not accept the authority of the Second Vatican Council or the current pope.
* The Freemasons, including its affiliated or auxiliary organizations: Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls.
* Call to Action, a loose organization of liberal Catholics who favor ordination of women and married men, as well as popular election of bishops and a loosening of Church laws on sexual behavior.
This news left people wondering if Bishop Bruskewitz indeed has the authority to take such action. And, if a bishop does have such authority, will other bishops follow suit?
Our Sunday Visitor contacted three canon lawyers, all of whom were reluctant to comment on the specific situation in the Diocese of Lincoln, since they did not know all the details. However, speaking in general terms, all the canonists agreed that a bishop does possess authority to issue such legislation for his own diocese. But these canonists couldn't be certain whether Bishop Bruskewitz's actions would hold up under appeal to the Vatican. Moreover, they don't anticipate that other bishops will take the same action, for a number of reasons.
First, excommunication is the ultimate penalty for a Catholic, depriving him or her of the right to receive the sacraments or to have a Catholic burial. Thus, excommunication is reserved for the most serious offenses, such as schism, heresy or direct involvement in abortion. Excommunication is to be used only "with the greatest moderation and only for more serious offenses," according to Canon 1318.
Also, Canon 1341 directs, "Only after he has ascertained that scandal cannot sufficiently be repaired, that justice cannot sufficiently be restored and that the accused cannot sufficiently be reformed by fraternal correction, rebuke and other ways of pastoral care is the ordinary then to provide for a judicial or administrative procedure to impose or to declare penalties." Even then, other means of correction and penalty are to be used before excommunication is imposed.
Furthermore, excommunication is
intended as an aid to the excommunicated person, a means of calling
for repentance and reconciliation with the Church. Appeal of the
excommunication may be made first to the bishop who decreed the
penalty, and then to the Vatican. Once an appeal is initiated,
the excommunication is suspended until the entire appeal process
is completed.
Rare occurrences
Excommunication of laity has been rare in modern times. One muchpublicized case occurred in 1962, when the late Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans excommunicated three prominent Catholic lay people for repeatedly trying to block desegregation of New Orleans Catholic schools. Archbishop Rummel's action was what is called an imposed excommunication.
The other type of excommunication is called ipso facto, which is automatically incurred for certain serious actions defined in canon law, such as desecration of the Blessed Sacrament. Some clerics in modern times have incurred automatic excommunication for schismatic acts. A prominent example is the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was automatically excommunicated in 1988 when he consecrated bishops for his Society of St. Pius X without authorization.
However, none of the canon lawyers consulted by Our Sunday Visitor could think of an example in modern times of a bishop imposing automatic excommunication on Catholics for membership in an organization.
The notice of Bishop Bruskewitz's diocesan legislation was carried in the March 22 issue of the diocesan newspaper, the Southern Nebraska Register. The notice stated that Catholics of the diocese were forbidden to belong to the organizations. "Membership in these organizations or groups is always perilous to the Catholic faith and most often is totally incompatible with the Catholic faith," it stated. Any Catholics still belonging to the groups after April 15 was to be "absolutely forbidden to receive Holy Communion." Any Catholic persisting in membership after May 15 would be excommunicated automatically, according to the notice.
An editorial accompanying the notice indicated that "certain groups" had been asserting that membership in them did not contradict membership in the Catholic Church. The editorial explained that this misinformation resulted in confusion, so the bishop acted to clarify the situation. The editorial did not address what criteria had been used to select the organizations to be banned. Nor did it reveal any intermediate actions that had been taken prior to the decree threatening excommunication.
The editorial did report that action was taken "only after the bishop engaged in extensive consultation over many months with innumerable inquiries and discussions." But there was no information about whether the other two Nebraska bishops had been consulted, even though canon law directs that bishops should strive to keep penalties as uniform as possible in the same region. Nor was there an explanation about how the excommunications would be declared for individuals, since canon law makes no provision for general excommunications. Calls to Msgr. Timothy Thorburn, chancellor of the Lincoln diocese, were not returned.
Charles Wilson, executive director of the St. Joseph Foundation, a canon-law advocacy organization in San Antonio, voiced support for the interdict. "Bishop Bruskewitz is acting within his competence, and I think properly," Wilson said. Wilson called Bishop Bruskewitz's action "medicinal," and he hopes other bishops will follow suit.
A source in Nebraska told Our Sunday Visitor that Bishop Bruskewitz's action seemed to have been prompted by the recent arrival of a Call to Action chapter in the Lincoln diocese. Indeed, in its Dec. 1995/Jan. 1996 newspaper, the national Call to Action group had announced a nationwide campaign for dialogue about ordination of women and married men. Many Catholics consider such activity to be inappropriate as well as disobedient, in light of Pope John Paul II's 1994 apostolic letter on reserving ordination to men (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) and the 1995 statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith confirming that this teaching belongs "to the deposit of faith."
However, Bishop Bruskewitz appears to be the first bishop to consider membership in Call to Action serious enough to warrant excommunication.
The week after Bishop Bruskewitz issued his decree, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago issued a statement regarding Call to Action, which is headquartered in Chicago. According to Cardinal Bernardin, Call to Action had "taken certain positions which are contrary to Church teaching and discipline," which often resulted in "confusion and tensions within the Catholic community." But he explained, "My approach has been not to engage in open conflict with the group but to use with them the powers of moral persuasion and dialogue on specific issues."
But Bishop Bruskewitz has taken
a different approach. "This is Bishop Bruskewitz's judgment,
his diocese, and his way of handling what he considers to be a
very serious situation," one canon lawyer said. "But
I don't expect other bishops to follow suit. The other bishops
seem to be using Canon 1341 instead," which calls for "rebuke
and other ways of pastoral care." q
Carey is a senior correspondent
for Our Sunday Visitor
HEADLINES FOR April 14
The 'lifestyle option' previously
known as marriage (editorial)
Sister Prejean: Seams in her garment
of life?
The great national resource -
religion
Holy Things
Playing to win in the battle against
abortion
Renewing the Church one family
at a time
Assisted suicide: Back to the (pagan) future