Lincoln, Nebraska has a new bishop. His name is Bishop James Conley and he is succeeding the famous and infamous Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. Bishop Bruskewitz is infamous only to so-called "post Vatican II" Catholics who think that the deconstruction of the Catholic Church after Vatican II and the subsequent loss of Catholic identity has been good for the Church. They think it is good that there are fewer vocations to the priesthood and religious life, that a majority of Catholics are now pro-choice and that the majority of Catholics could care less if the government forces the Church to provide health insurance coverage for abortion, artificial contraception and sterilization. These Catholics have the audacity to call all this "renewal."
The follow are excerpts from an article in the Omaha World-Herald by one of their reporters, Joe Duggan. The most impressive thing about Lincoln's strong Catholic foundation and identity is the number of seminarians it has. Compare that to Los Angeles or New York City and you see why progressivism in the Church as well as liberalism have been a death knell. (You can read the full article by pressing these sentences):
“The Diocese of Lincoln has never suffered an identity crisis,” said Auxiliary Bishop James Conley of the Denver Archdiocese. “In other words, the church in Lincoln has always known who she is. People want to be a part of this because people want to know where the church stands.”
The diocese is known for traditional church practices, such as boy-only altar servers and distributing Communion in the form of consecrated bread, not, as a general rule, from the cup. And unlike in many other Catholic churches, women in the Lincoln Diocese are not permitted to give the Eucharist to their fellow worshipers.
Conley said he has no plans to change those practices.
Bruskewitz, who has said he strove to preserve the “undistorted” Catholic faith, also made decisions and took actions that generated controversy.
For example, in 1996, he excommunicated Catholics who belonged to a list of 10 organizations he said opposed fundamental church teachings, such as opposition to abortion, gay marriage and assisted suicide. Among the listed groups were Planned Parenthood and Call to Action, an organization seeking church reforms such as ordination of women.
The excommunications will remain in force, Conley said.
“It can have a medicinal purpose,” Conley said. “The purpose is to not cut them off, but to persuade them to come back.”
The incoming bishop said he also wants to keep and strengthen the impressive track record Lincoln has in promoting vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. With 44 men currently studying for the priesthood, the diocese has the highest ratio of seminarians to Catholics in the nation, he said.
11 comments:
Lincoln LOVES to throw around the seminarian numbers... What they don't mention is that most of these seminarians are not native to the diocese. The other thing they don't mention is that the diocese has a 95% seminarian dropout rate. They're only ordaining 1 or 2 per year, just like the rest of the country.
Anon, source?
"...if the government forces the Church to provide health insurance coverage for abortion, artificial contraception, and sterilization"
The government doesn't have to force the Church. She's already funding birth control and supporting gay marriage, through the Catholic Campaign For Human Development, and Catholic Relief Services. The bishops' protests against Obamacare are effectively null and void, and the Supreme Court will see it that way, thanks to the CCHD and CRS.
Anonymous: "They're only ordaining 1 or 2 per year, just like the rest of the country."
False. Though certain types love to throw stuff like this around, always anonymously, it seems.
Fact: The Diocese of Lincoln ordained SEVEN (7) new priests in 2010. Source:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/996/called_by_name.aspx
Not only should ordination rates be examined, but retention rates. How many priests remain in active ministry after 5, 10, or 15 years? I think that is a more telling statistic than the number of seminarians a diocese may have at any given time.
In my own seminary class of 38, 5 have died, 13 have left active ministry, 19 are "active" and 1 is retired. (The first "departure" came after just 6 months. The last to leave and get married happened in our 24th year of ordination.)
Among those remaining is . . . Bishop Jim Conley, newly of Licoln!
Bishop Hartmayer, in establishing a mentoring program for our newly ordained, and newly appointed pastors, hopes that in building relationships with "senior" priests, the drop out rate may be minimized.
@Henry -
False. It appears your statistics are skewed also:
http://www.dioceseoflincoln.org/SouthernNeRegister/front/front061110a.aspx
4 priests and 2 deacons that year. 2010 was an abnormally large class over the course of the past decade.
In other news, the bishops will consider a proposition for the reintroduction of obligatory meatless Fridays throughout the year:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/11/card-dolan-hits-it-out-of-the-park-listen-to-the-audio-here/
Father, are you aware Fr. Z is currently taking up collections to buy you a biretta?
You may soon have to get over your concerns about your hair being messed up and don a biretta purchased by his army of followers...
I'm a little miffed at this because it is painting your parishioners, who have been asking you and offering to buy you a biretta for years, look pretty bad amongst Fr. Z's readers.
I know for a fact, having discussed it with other parishioners of yours, that there is a core group willing to purchase any items necessary for the more rich celebration of the Liturgy. This campaign for your biretta is making us look slack. After all, we did purchase this item for your parochial vicar immediately upon receiving his head size...
Addendum to my last comment re: the biretta and Fr. Z...
I hope someone who is approved to comment there will post a comment and vindicate our rights! I, alas, have not gone thru his approval process.
And 3 new Lincoln priests reportedly ordained in 2011, so it looks more like 3 or 4 per year (rather than the 1 or 2 originally claimed).
Which is statistically consistent with their 44 seminarians--divide by 7 or 8 years per seminarian, then subtract the 1 or 2 dropouts per year that would be minimally expected.
So I conclude that Lincoln's annual ordinations per capita ratio is at the top, as is their seminarians per capita ratio.
And I conjecture--without complete data--that because of the unusually high esteem in which Lincoln priests are reputedly held by their laity, the retention rate there is similarly high.
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