His Excellency  Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewitz
Bishop of Lincoln
See	Nebraska
Enthroned	May 13, 1993
Predecessor	Glennon Flavin
Successor	Incumbent
Ordination	July 17, 1960
Consecration	May 13, 1993
Personal details
Born	September 6, 1935 (1935-09-06) (age 74) Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz (born September 6, 1935) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Bishop of Lincoln.

Contents 1 Early life and ministry 2 Episcopal career 3 Views 3.1 National guidelines on sex-abuse programs 3.2 Pro-choice politicians 3.3 Automatic excommunications 4 References

[edit] Early life and ministry

Fabian Bruskewitz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Wendelin and Frances (née Talsky) Bruskewitz; he has a sister, Collette, who is a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis. He attended the local parochial school before studying at St. Lawrence Seminary in Mt. Calvary 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.

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. 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.

[edit] Episcopal career

On March 24, 1992, Bruskewitz was appointed the eighth Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 13 from Archbishop Daniel Sheehan, with Bishops Glennon Flavin and Leo Brust serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ.^[1]

The diocese has the highest priest-to-Catholic ratio in the United States. Fr. Robert Matya (pastor of a local Newman Center) attributes the fact to Bruskewitz' emphasis on orthodoxy, though others credit part of the success to the presence of a seminary within the diocese, and the Catholic News Agency points out that the adjacent diocese of Omaha has the second highest ratio.^[2] Msgr. Timothy Thorburn attributes its success in attracting men to the priesthood to the bishop's fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church and to the Pope.^[3] With regard to Bruskewitz' and other vocation rich dioceses it has been noted: "Fidelity to the magisterium and traditional spirituality are strikingly manifest in several vocation-rich dioceses."^[4] 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." ^[4]

He is considered one of the most conservative bishops in the Church.[1] He has described homosexual acts as "intrinsically disordered" and as not coming "from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity".^[5]

Bishop Bruskewitz published a book entitled Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz: A Shepherd Speaks.^[6]

[edit] Views

[edit] National guidelines on sex-abuse programs

Bruskewitz is willing to express himself forcefully, and is occasionally at odds with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, in rejecting 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:^[7]

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. Furthermore, Ewers and her board have no authority in the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Lincoln does not recognize them as having any significance. The words attributed to Ewers seem to confirm the suspicion that the members of her Board are unfamiliar with Catholic teachings, Catholic ecclesiology, and even the basic rudiments of the Catholic Catechism. Rather than concerning themselves with the Diocese of Lincoln about which they appear completely ignorant, Ewers and her colleagues would occupy themselves in a better way by learning something about the Catholic religion and the traditions and doctrines and laws of the Catholic Church. 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 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas in June, 2002 to deal with the sex abuse scandal in the Church who refused to sign the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

[edit] Pro-choice politicians

His declaration that he would deny the Eucharist to 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry was seen by some as a politicization of a matter of moral theology.^[8]

His is the last diocese in the United States that prohibits female altar servers.^[9]

[edit] Automatic excommunications

Bruskewitz gained national attention^[10] in 1996 for asserting that membership by Catholics in his diocese in the groups listed below that are "totally incompatible with the Catholic Faith" would incur automatic excommunication.^[11]

• The reform Catholic group Call to Action and its Nebraska affiliate Call to Action Nebraska^[12]
• Planned Parenthood, for its pro-abortion activities and its affiliate Catholics for a Free Choice
• The Society of St. Pius X and its chapel in Lincoln (Saint Michael the Archangel Chapel)^[13]
• The Freemasons and their affiliate organizations, Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star, Shriners and Rainbow Girls
• The Hemlock Society (now renamed Compassion & Choices) for its advocacy of euthanasia.

His pronouncement was appealed to Rome, but in 2006 the ruling was upheld by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.^[14][15]

[edit] References

Preceded by Glennon P. Flavin

Bishop of Lincoln (Nebraska) 1992 -

Succeeded by Incumbent