Ten years ago Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska announced the excommunication of the members of Call to Action, the leading Catholic dissident group. Only a few days ago the Vatican announced that it had upheld the excommunication, which included members of 10 dissenting groups including Catholics for a Free Choice, Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society, the Freemasons, the Society of St. Pius X, St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star, and Rainbow Girls. (Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls are part of the Masons.)

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, writing to Bishop Bruskewitz, called the disciplinary action "properly taken," according to a report on CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com. These dissident groups are "totally incompatible with the Catholic faith," said Cardinal Re in his letter of November 24.

Call to Action has for thirty years stood at the center of a network of dissident organizations that advocate women priests, ending the ban on contraception, ending the discipline of clerical celibacy, the election of bishops, and the creation of an independent "American Catholic Church."

The Associated Press reports that Call to Action will appeal the decision. Nicole Sotelo, acting co-director of the national office in Chicago, said Call to Action will appeal to the Apostolic Signatura, the highest "court of appeals" in such a case.

Cardinal Re's decision comes ten years after the fact. In that time, Bishop Bruskewitz has become a hero to orthodox Catholics who wonder why more bishops don't act as decisively as Bruskewitz. The answer may be in what happened to Bruskewitz after his 1996 decision to excommunicate the unrepentant dissenters in his diocese. Bruskewitz was marginalized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Bruskewitz had committed the cardinal sin of not acting "collegially" and became, at that moment, an isolated figure.

The CNS story (12/8/06) quotes Bishop Robert F. Vasa of Baker, Oregon who was the Vicar General of the Lincoln diocese in 1996: "I'm pleased to see that the Holy See has publicly affirmed Bishop Bruskewitz's decree and authority."

If the USCCB had acted collegially to expose the dissent that was widespread throughout major institutions of the Church -- schools, hospitals, colleges, universities, media - the solitary action by Bishop Bruskewitz would not have been necessary.

As the CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com article concludes, "The excommunication order applies only within the Lincoln, Nebraska diocese. But the Vatican's judgment against Call to Action raises clear questions about the status of the group's members in other dioceses." I agree. What the Vatican has officially found to be worthy of excommunication in one diocese surely applies to all dioceses.

Cardinal Re wrote in his letter that, "The activities of 'Call to Action' in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic Faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint." He concludes: "Thus, to be a member of this Association or to support it is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic Faith."

A "coherent" faith is precisely what Bishop Bruskewitz has advocated in his diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska since his installation. Call to Action is a shadow of what it once was, but its work is now being carried on under other names.

Now that the Vatican has finally recognized the heroic leadership of Lincoln's bishop, perhaps the era of what I have called "institutionalized dissent" in the U. S. Catholic Church is coming to an end.

When the Apostolic Signatura rejects the appeal of Call to Action there will be no excuse for the nation's other bishops not to follow Bishop Bruskewitz's lead.

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