Fabian Bruskewitz

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The Most Reverend

Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz
Bishop Emeritus of Lincoln
Fabian Bruskewitz 3.JPG
Bruskewitz in 2011
ArchdioceseOmaha
DioceseLincoln
AppointedMarch 24, 1992
InstalledMay 13, 1992
Term endedSeptember 14, 2012
PredecessorGlennon Flavin
SuccessorJames D. Conley
Orders
OrdinationJuly 17, 1960
by Luigi Traglia
ConsecrationMay 13, 1992
by Daniel E. Sheehan, Leo Joseph Brust, and Glennon Patrick Flavin
Personal details
Born (1935-09-06) September 6, 1935 (age 86)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
NationalityAmerican
DenominationRoman Catholic
Alma materPontifical North American College
Pontifical Gregorian University
MottoSub tuum praesidium
(Under thy protection)
Styles of
Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz
CoA Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz.svg
Reference style
Spoken styleYour Excellency
Religious styleBishop
Ordination history of
Fabian Bruskewitz
History
Diaconal ordination
Ordained byMartin O'Connor
DateMay 8, 1960
Priestly ordination
Ordained byLuigi Traglia
DateJuly 17, 1960
PlaceBasilica dei Santi Apostoli, Rome, Italy
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorDaniel Eugene Sheehan
Co-consecratorsLeo Brust,
Glennon Flavin
DateMay 13, 1992
PlaceCathedral of the Risen Christ, Lincoln, Nebraska

Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz (born September 6, 1935) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the eighth Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, and retired in 2012. He is known for often taking conservative stands on social issues.[1]

Early life and ministry[]

Fabian Bruskewitz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 6, 1935.[2] He attended a local parochial school before studying at St. Lawrence Seminary High School in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin and at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. He then furthered his studies at the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained to the priesthood by Luigi Cardinal Traglia on July 17, 1960, at the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli.[2]

Upon his return to the United States, Bruskewitz served as an assistant pastor in parishes near Milwaukee. He later returned to the Gregorian for graduate study, earning a doctorate in dogmatic theology in 1969.[2] He briefly taught at St. Francis Seminary before being assigned to the Congregation for Catholic Education in the Roman Curia, where he worked for eleven years. He was raised to the rank of Monsignor in 1976, becoming an Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1980. That same year, he became pastor of St. Bernard Parish in Wauwatosa.[2]

Episcopal career[]

On March 24, 1992, Bruskewitz was appointed the eighth Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his episcopal consecration on May 13, 1992, from Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan, with Bishops Glennon Flavin and Leo Brust serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ.[3]

The diocese has the highest priest-to-Catholic ratio in the United States. It has been suggested that this is due to Bruskewitz' emphasis on orthodoxy,[4][5] though it has also been ascribed, at least in part, to the presence of a seminary within the diocese; it has also been noted that the adjacent diocese of Omaha has the second-highest ratio.[4] With regard to Lincoln and other dioceses with many priests, it has been noted: "Fidelity to the magisterium and traditional spirituality are strikingly manifest."[6] Bruskewitz himself notes that "the orthodoxy, conservatism, and enthusiasm of the clergy, both young and old, bear witness to the splendor of the Catholic priesthood in southern Nebraska."[6]

Bruskewitz was considered one of the most conservative bishops in the Church.[7] Under Bruskewitz, the Lincoln diocese was the only one in the United States where female altar servers were not allowed diocese-wide.[8]

Bruskewitz published a book entitled Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz: A Shepherd Speaks.[9]

On September 6, 2010, Bruskewitz formally submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 for bishops. Pope Benedict accepted his resignation on September 14, 2012, and appointed Bishop James D. Conley, auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Denver, as his successor.[10]

Views[]

Opposition to LGBT rights[]

In 1997 Bruskewitz publicly opposed attempts from other bishops within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to reach out to parents trying to cope with the discovery of homosexuality in their adolescent or adult child through the pastoral document, "All our children". He called the document “Calamity and frightening disaster” and advised other Catholics to ignore or oppose it.[11]

He believes that most sexual abuse by Catholic priests is against adolescent boys and rooted in "society's acceptance of homosexuality". He has emphasized therefore that homosexual men should never be permitted into the priesthood because it encouraged temptation "since priests are regularly in close proximity with children and young men". However, he attempted and failed to get the USCCB to commission a study to examine potential links between sexual abuse by priests and allowing homosexual men into Catholic seminaries. [12] However The John Jay College of Criminal Justice was commissioned by the USCCB to study sexual abuse by priests. Their most recent report is The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010[13]

In 2016, Bruskewitz stated that efforts to legalize same-sex unions or marriage would lead to persecution of Christians who oppose such measures.[14] Alongside this he described homosexual engagement in activities such as anal sex as a degeneration and a perversion that is "repulsive to normal human beings".[15]

National guidelines on sex-abuse programs[]

Bruskewitz has been occasionally at odds with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. For example, he rejected an audit by the Conference's National Review Board of his plans to implement national guidelines on sex-abuse programs, making reference to both the Review Board and the former president of Pace University:[16]

Some woman named Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, who is the chair of something called 'A National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People,' has said that her board 'calls for strong fraternal correction of the Diocese of Lincoln.' The Diocese of Lincoln has nothing to be corrected for, since the Diocese of Lincoln is and has always been in full compliance with all laws of the Catholic Church and with all civil laws...The Diocese of Lincoln does not see any reason for the existence of Ewers and her organization.

The issue brought his diocese to national attention. Bruskewitz was the only one of 195 bishops attending a June 2002 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who refused to sign the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

He has suggested that the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church is linked to clerical dissent from Catholic sexual ethics more broadly dating to dissent from the papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae", which reaffirmed Catholic teaching on artificial birth control.[17]

1996 decree of automatic excommunication[]

Bruskewitz gained national attention[18] in 1996 for decreeing automatic excommunication on Catholics in his diocese for membership in the following groups. In his statement, he asserted "Membership in these organizations or groups is always perilous to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible with the Catholic Faith."[19][20][21]

Call to Action appealed to Rome against his decree, but in 2006 the Congregation for Bishops upheld his action.[27][28][29] Bruskewitz wrote in a letter to Call to Action at the time of the excommunications that "the difference between a Protestant and a dissenting Catholic is that a Protestant has integrity."[30]

Regis Scanlon considered that the controversy created by Bruskewitz's decree may have been one of the factors that led Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to initiate without success his "Catholic Common Ground Project" to bring American Catholic factions together, based on the belief, which Scanlon decried, that "limited and occasional dissent" from the Magisterium of the Church was "legitimate".[31]

Abortion and capital punishment[]

In 2004, Bruskewitz stated that he would deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, including 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.[32][33] In 2005, Bruskewitz voted to approve a resolution calling for an end to the practice of capital punishment. However, he said, "One can disagree with the bishops' teaching about the death penalty and still present himself for holy Communion, but one cannot disagree with a teaching about abortion and euthanasia and present himself for holy Communion."[34]

Supporter of the Latin Mass[]

Bruskewitz continued to be a supporter of the Tridentine Mass after the Novus Ordo Mass had become the main mass in the United States. Before Summorum Pontificum, Bruskewitz was identified in The Wanderer as one of the few U.S. bishops "...who have been generous in the Ecclesia Dei indult application, as requested and emphasized repeatedly by the late Pope John Paul II."[35][36] The others were Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, Bishop Álvaro Corrada del Rio of Tyler, Texas; and Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Illinois.

Opposition to yoga[]

In 2015 he issued a public letter urging women not to engage in yoga. He argued that yoga has its root in Hinduism, and thus “incompatible to Christianity.”[1]

Arms[]

Coat of arms of Fabian Bruskewitz hide
CoA Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz.svg
Notes
The coat of arms was designed and adopted when he was installed as the Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was designed by Paul J. Sullivan of Narragansett, Rhode Island.[37]
Adopted
1992
Escutcheon
The arms of his jurisdiction, the Diocese of Springfeld in Lincoln, is seen in the dexter impalement (left side) of the design. The right upper section, the gyronny of red and silver. In the center of it is a gold (yellow) plate, on which is placed a dove. The lower portion is a slight variation of the arms of the Bruskewitz family, the 1st and 4th quarters has with blue crosses.
Motto
For his motto, he has selected the title and first line of an ancient hymn of Gregorian Chant to the Blessed Virgin Mary "SUB TUUM PRAESIDIUM" which means "Under thy protection".
Symbolism
The right side of the arms is his personal arms. The upper section, the gyronny of red and silver (white), is a variation on the arms of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, where he served until his election to become the Bishop of Lincoln. The center dove, is to honor Saint Fabian, his baptismal patron. The lower portion is a slight variation of the arms of the family "Bruskewitz," and by the use of this device His Excellency honors the heritage of his parents Wendelin and Frances (Talsky) Bruskewitz. The family arms have been varied, for difference, by replacing the blue roundels in the 1st and 4th quarters with blue crosses, of the Faith.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Andersen, Erin (May 22, 2015). "Catholic bishop tells women to abstain from yoga". Lincoln Journal Star.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz".
  3. ^ Bishop Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz, catholic-hierarchy.org[self-published source]
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Priestly shortage? Not in Lincoln". Catholic News Agency. October 26, 2005. Archived from the original on March 2, 2006.
  5. ^ Lincoln, Nebraska - how to fill seminaries with vocations Archived 2006-12-06 at the Wayback Machine - Fr T.I. Thorburn, AD2000, Vol 6 No 8 (September 1993), p. 4
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Ziegler, Jeff Priestly Vocations in America: A Look At the Numbers, Ignatius Insight, originally appeared in the July 2005 issue of Catholic World Report
  7. ^ "Bishops compile song list to put Catholics on same page of hymnal".
  8. ^ https://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-03-22-altar-girls_x.htm
  9. ^ Ignatius Press Archived 2006-03-16 at the Wayback Machine Description of the book Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz: A Shepherd Speaks
  10. ^ Successor for Bishop Bruskewitz named
  11. ^ "Diocese of San Diego promotes LGBT retreat headed by Protestant dissidents". California Catholic Daily. April 30, 2018.
  12. ^ "Signs of the Times". America. July 29, 2002.
  13. ^ http://votf.org/johnjay/John_Jay_Causes_and_Context_Report.pdf
  14. ^ Chapman, Michael W. (March 8, 2016). "Catholic Bishop: Gay Marriage Is 'Repulsive' And Will Seek 'To Destroy Everything Christian'". CNSNews.com.
  15. ^ Andersen, Erin. "Bruskewitz: Gay rights seek 'to destroy everything Christian'". Lincoln Journal Star, March 18, 2016. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  16. ^ "Bishop Bruskewitz shoots back at National Review Board",Catholic World News, April 2, 2006.
  17. ^ "Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz Speech on Humanae Vitae". PRI Staff. Population Research Institute. March 11, 2003.
  18. ^ The Televised Today Show Interview Segment Archived 2006-06-18 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Bruskewitz, Fabian W. (March 22, 1996) [March 19, 1996]. "Statement of Bishop Bruskewitz excommunicating certain groups". Southern Nebraska Register. Denver, CO: Catholic Press Society. Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln. ISSN 0744-6950. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2011 – via catholicculture.org.
  20. ^ Hansen, S. L. (December 8, 2006). "Vatican affirms excommunication of Call to Action members in Lincoln". catholicnews.com. Washington DC: Catholic News Service. Archived from the original on 2016-07-10.
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b "Some Catholics in Nebraska Face Excommunication Order". New York Times. May 17, 1996. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  22. ^ Call To Action press release Archived 2006-06-18 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ DIOCESAN DIALOGUES with the SSPX Archived 2010-12-24 at the Wayback Machine May 1996
  24. ^ DIOCESAN DIALOGUES with the SSPX Archived 2010-12-24 at the Wayback Machine June 1996
  25. ^ DIOCESAN DIALOGUES with the SSPX Archived 2010-12-24 at the Wayback Machine July 1996
  26. ^ EWTN: "An Interview With Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz" 1996
  27. ^ The Call Stands: Runner is Out, Catholic World News
  28. ^ "Vatican confirms excommunication for US dissident group', Catholic World News
  29. ^ Lincoln Journal Star: "Vatican upholds excommunication ruling" December 7, 2006
  30. ^ Johnson, Dirk (March 26, 1996). "Nebraska Bishop Threatens Excommunication for Dissenters". The New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  31. ^ Regis Scanlon, "American Catholics at the Crossroads", Homiletic and Pastoral Review July 1997
  32. ^ Faith in the Spotlight, National Catholic Register
  33. ^ Michael Paulson, "A debate simmers over Kerry and the Eucharist", The Boston Globe, April 11, 2004.
  34. ^ Laugesen, Wayne (May 27, 2005). "Bishops Debate, Renew Call for Death Penalty End". The National Catholic Register. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  35. ^ The Wanderer: "Providence brings Bishop Rifan to Una Voce conference" December 1, 2005
  36. ^ "Bishops Bruskewitz and Corrada expect 1962 missal to play important future role" February 1, 2006
  37. ^ Arms of Fabian Bruskewitz Archived 2012-12-30 at the Wayback Machine

External links[]

Episcopal succession[]

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Glennon Patrick Flavin 		Bishop of Lincoln
1992 - 2012 		Succeeded by
James D. Conley
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