Bishop Bruskewitz to "Catholic Citizens of Illinois"

[NeelyAnn]

Catholic Citizens of Illionois recently hosted Bishop Bruskewitz at their annual awards conference. Below I have posted parts of his talk that I think are worthy for discussion and consideration here. I found his talk to be very good and really worth reading in it’s entirety. You can follow the link to read the entire talk.

catholiccitizens.org/press/pressview.asp?c=36977

Bruskewitz’s Remarks:

I have chosen for the title of my talk Facing the Crisis: Some reflections on the Current Crisis in the Church…

… realize that the Catholic Church in the United States, and to a large extent throughout the Western World, is facing a very formidable series of crises. Although the Catholic population of the United States is consistently growing, and now exceeds 67 million out of our total American population of 300 million, we have to remember that almost all of the growth has taken place by way of immigration, and almost none or less than none, by natural demographic increase. It should also be pointed out that the number of conversions to the Catholic faith in our country has fallen precipitously in the last forty years. As a matter of fact, it is an aphorism that probably can be statistically verified that the largest religious group in the United States is the Catholic Church, but the second largest is fallen-away Catholics, lapsed, non-practicing, those who have abandoned the Catholic faith. This leakage from the Catholic faith in the United States, which is undeniable, can be attributed to many factors, at least as far as can by observed. Thousands and thousands of Catholics have become Protestants and many thousands more have given up the practice of religion altogether. Except for the total number of Catholics in our country, every other category of Catholic statistics is in decline. There is and continues to be a very steep decline in vocations, a very steep decline in the number of priests, an extremely steep decline in the number of religious, especially women religious. There has been the closing of hundreds of Catholic schools throughout the United States. Many seminaries are closed or have such infinitesimally small enrollments that they ought to be closed. There are many Catholic colleges and universities, some of which are trying to maintain a Catholic identity, but many of which are Catholic in name only. There is a breakdown of authority in the Church, constant and open dissent by people who call themselves theologians; great doctrinal and moral confusion, and Catholics who while professing to belong to the Church are, perhaps, within her pale but outside of her orthodoxy. Catholics in many parts of the United States are confronted by banal, shallow, and irreverent liturgies that have no or only a most remote connection with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. In 1965, all the statistical studies showed that at least 85% or perhaps more of the Catholics in the United States attended mass each Sunday. The present statistical studies show that this has gone to 27% of the Catholics in the United States attending mass on Sundays. This is still in excess of certain countries in Europe such as Belgium and France, but there are some countries in Europe that have a higher Mass attendance than the United States, such as Poland and Italy. Unfortunately, Mass attendance in Ireland is descending rapidly to the tragic American level. Recent studies show, for example, that in the Archdioceses of Newark, in New Jersey, and Boston in Massachusetts, only 17% of those who say that are Catholic go to Mass at all. At the State university of Nebraska, located in Lincoln where I live, and where most of the Catholics who attend that university are not from the Lincoln Diocese, only 25% of the Catholic student body ever attend mass on Sunday, and after freshman year, more than half of the Catholics who attend that State university have lost their faith. In nearby Chicago, here, I believe that the census taken each October by the Archdiocese shows that only 22% of those who claim to be Catholic regularly attend Mass…

 

[NeelyAnn]

I found the numbers he presented startling. I knew things were bad but I am not sure I knoew they were that bad. I would say many did not realize they were that bad. We often hear how Catholicism is on the increase… Maybe in some places this is true, but in our country and parts of Europe it is dying. Do we really want to live in a place where Catholicism is dying?

More from Bruskewitz:

… we would certainly be blind to reality if we did not also realize that there are many causes of the current crises within the church herself, and the children of the Church who are in large measure betraying her, being one of the principal causes. First of all, the creed is absolutely the basis of what we are and what we do. When heretical and erroneous teachings are allowed to run rampant, it is a very short time before total disaster engulfs the entire ecclesiastical enterprise in any one area. We should remember that there was a time when North Africa was almost entirely Christian, almost entirely Catholic. Today, one can journey across North Africa from Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, and Egypt and find very little, if any, Catholic presence in most locations on that shore of the Mediterranean Sea. We should not think this cannot happen here. Although we are promised that the Church will endure until the end of time, we have no promise that it will be enduring in North America…

…A great amount of dissent and turmoil has come about because of a very serious misunderstanding of the Second Vatican Council. The documents of the Second Vatican Council are excellent. All of the documents deserve careful study and careful consideration in all their implications and all their nuances. The intentions of the Popes of the Council, Blessed John XXIII and Pope Paul VI are also quite clear in their writings and speeches and in all the things they saw as derivative from the Council. The Council in itself we consider a great act of the Holy Spirit. However, what happened was (and I speak from first-hand experience because I was in Rome at the conclusion of the Council) that a great number of personages and causes gathered around the Council as a kind of para-Council, which gave, because of their domination of the media, an incredibly wrong impression which persist even to this day, about what the Council was and what it was intended to achieve. For example, one hears very little about the continuity of historic tradition which is inherent in the very actions of the Council and in its documents, that it always understood itself as in organic unity with the previous Councils of the Church, including both the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council which is explicitly affirmed and intended to incorporate in its outlook. This para-Council of advisors, experts and non-Catholic observers bestowed on the media incredibly distorted and even totally inaccurate impressions of the Council, giving to many Catholics even today, expectations for changes that were unrealistic and completely unintended. There was, in a certain sense the rigidities of the past and perhaps some faulty catechetics about issues in the past that made it possible for Catholics to be severely mistaken in what the Council intended and what would be within the capacities of the church to accomplish. The turbulent times of the 1960’s especially in North America and Western Europe - with problems of racial justice, war and peace, and similar matters - got mixed up in the minds and hearts of many people and some Catholics were completely led astray, that Pope John’s opening the windows to let fresh air into the church was an act they didn’t see, which Pope John actually did see, the need for screens on the windows to keep foreign bodies from entering into the Church. Thus, we heard a few years later, Pope Paul VI saying that the very smoke from the fires of hell had crept into and under the window sashes and doors of the Church…

 

[NeelyAnn]

I think we should ponder much on the good Bishop’s words. That the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church does not mean that it will not mean that it will not prevail against the Church in certain countries. It only means that the Church will exist somewhere. It may very well be that North America and Western Europe may not be part of the equation in the end - unless, of course, we act now!

Bruskewitz continues:

…There was also a mistaken notion, even among some people who should have known better, that by removing or changing accidental matters, sometimes considered accretions in ecclesiastical life, it would not affect the substance of that life. I think there was misunderstanding of the Thomistic view of accidents and substances. Sometimes pulling out accidents which inhere in substances disturbs the substances themselves. Among the mistaken notions and distortions that derive from the Council was that of liturgical chaos. We also had a completely mistaken idea of the relationships of non-Catholics, individually and in groups, to the Catholic Church. **The decree on ecumenism and the declaration on non-Christian religious, Unitatis Redintegratio and Nostra Aetate became the launching points of what later became, according to our present Holy Father, the dictatorship of relativism; **namely, that there is no religious truth, or that religious truth is good for this person, but not necessarily true or good for that person, or while emphasizing that there are oftentimes, positive and truthful elements in other churches and other religious, and other denominations, and other religious experiences, and trying to be positive about that, may have misled a lot of people into thinking that religious truth is simply not contained in its fullness, in all its integrity and beauty only in the Catholic faith, but might also be contained similarly in others…

…In Nebraska, where I come from, at this time of the year, harvest time, there are a lot of rodents who try to intrude themselves in, feasting on the corn, soybeans, and other products of the fields. This requires the farmers to put out appropriate amounts of rat poison to prevent this from happening. The rat poison that is put out is always 95% healthy, good, wholesome, nourishing food. It is only the 5% in the poison that does the killing. **I think that this has been overlooked in the ecumenical and inter-religious dialogues sometimes, that inserted into things which might have elements of truth, are also very serious elements of error that place in jeopardy one’s eternal salvation… **

…On hundred and fifty years ago, Cardinal John Henry Newman confronted the same situation in large extent that we are presently facing. He said,** “Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and taste, not an objective fact, not miraculous, and it the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. Devotion is not founded on faith. Men may go to Protestant church or to Catholic, may get good from both, or belong to neither and may fraternize together in spiritual thought and feelings without having any views at all of doctrine in common or seeing any need of them.” **

…It does not take much inquiry or insight to see how this kind of liberalism in religion affects many people of our time. Newman said this liberalism **“is the view that the Governor of the world does not intend that we should gain the truth, that we are not more acceptable to God by believing this rather than believing that, that no one is answerable for his opinions, that it is enough that we simply hold what we profess, and that we should follow what seems to us to be true without any fear lest it should not be true, and that we may safely trust to ourselves in matters of faith, and need no other guide.” **

…Newman then says that **“the Catholic faith opposes this idea of liberalism in religious. It asserts very emphatically that there is a truth, then, that there is one truth, that religious error is of itself an immoral nature, that its maintainers, unless involuntarily such, are guilty in maintaining it, that the mind is below truth and not above it, and is bound, not to descant upon it, but to venerate it, that truth and falsehood are set before us for the trial of our hearts, that our choice is an awful giving forth of lots on which salvation or its rejection is inscribed, and that before all things it is necessary to hold the Catholic faith, and that he who would be saved must think thus and not otherwise.” **

 

[Ace86]

I’ve only read the parts you put on the thread, but that bishop needs to be made a Cardinal!!! We need him as a leader. Although I think that many problems in the church are caused by misguided laity, I think the only thing that can correct that problem is good leadership, which seems to be lacking with many church leaders. He needs to become a Cardinal. I don’t know why the Pope doesn’t do that.

 

[NeelyAnn]

Many of the things discussed by Bishop Bruskewitz are regularly discussed on this forum. I think the Bishop had a good way of presenting the problems facing the Church. Maybe his words will serve to better express what many on here have been trying to get across for quite sometime. He ends his speach by exhorting the laity to work towards changing and , for lack of a better word, “saving” the Church.

Bruskewitz’s ending words:

… There must be, I think, a supreme effort to recapture our Catholic faith in all its orthodox splendor, and to take a stand for Christ as in the olden days. The Church has ever been counter-cultural. She has always and ever been that which stands against the age because she is the custodian of the Deposit of Faith, inherently and intrinsically conservative, as Pope Paul VI observed, because she to maintain the integrity of that faith without distortion or mutilation down through the centuries. It is important that we see the truths of our Catholic faith as liberating realities, and not as some kind of constraint, and that true freedom is linked with truth, and that truth trumps freedom and that unless one is in possession of the truth, one is not actually free. The words of Jesus are always appropriate to every age, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

…The clash of culture represented by the Muslim demography and onslaught in our time, which reflects the Islamic expansionism of times past, cannot be successfully confronted by an easy-going pluralistic tolerance. It can only be confronted by a reinvigorated Christianity, a reinvigorated Catholic faith. **The dynamism, the Tielhardism, the Communism, the Marxism, the Socialism, and countless other isms of the last centuries will never be successfully confronted either, apart from a reinvigorated and grace-filled Catholic faith. This duty to profess again, not just with mouth and words, but with heart and soul, the Catholic faith, the profession of faith, is incumbent, not simply upon priests, religious, and bishops, preoccupied as they are and assailed as they are by abominable scandals in their number and confusion in their thoughts, but also by a laity that takes again very seriously what Chesterton observed. “There are an infinity of angles at which one can fall, but only one at which one can stand.” Once the Catholic faith is flaming alive in the hearts of a dedicated laity, they will be able to carry out the function that the Second Vatican Council places upon them, to bring Christ and the truth of his faith and the truth of the faith He founded into the market place, into the work place, into the home and family, into the realm of politics, business, industry, commerce, the professions, arts and culture…

In summary, a laity that will be the salt, the leaven and the light that will penetrate our world…

 

[NeelyAnn]

I’ve only read the parts you put on the thread, but that bishop needs to be made a Cardinal!!! We need him as a leader. Although I think that many problems in the church are caused by misguided laity, I think the only thing that can correct that problem is good leadership, which seems to be lacking with many church leaders. He needs to become a Cardinal. I don’t know why the Pope doesn’t do that.

Ace,

I agree with you 100%. We need more bishops like Bishop Bruskewitz and we need these bishop’s to be made Cardinals!!
As for why he isn’t, I don’t know. I have been told in the past that he would have to be moved from the diocese of Lincoln to a larger diocese before that could happen. Not sure if that is true. We can pray and keep our fingers crossed that this will one day happen.

 

[Eileen_T]

We’ve even heard of Bishop Bruskewitz here in NZ.

What a dynamic bishop.

 

[ComradeAndrei]

At the State university of Nebraska, located in Lincoln where I live, and where most of the Catholics who attend that university are not from the Lincoln Diocese, only 25% of the Catholic student body ever attend mass on Sunday, and after freshman year, more than half of the Catholics who attend that State university have lost their faith.

I was there, and that statement is true. It is a pity that so few college Catholics don’t take the chance to enrich their faith while they are in Lincoln. I did, and ended up going to the seminary.

God bless His Excellency, Bishop Fabian Bruskewicz!

 

[Ace86]

Ace,

I agree with you 100%. We need more bishops like Bishop Bruskewitz and we need these bishop’s to be made Cardinals!!
As for why he isn’t, I don’t know. I have been told in the past that he would have to be moved from the diocese of Lincoln to a larger diocese before that could happen. Not sure if that is true. We can pray and keep our fingers crossed that this will one day happen.

Yes, most of the time Cardinals are put in charge of large metropolitan Archdioceses. There is one Cardinal (I forget his name) who was made a Cardinal as a Priest by John Paul II. But usually they are archbishops first. So Bishop Bruskewitz needs to be made an archbishop first, and then he can be made a Cardinal. (and maybe he’ll be pope one day too…)

 

[chicago]

In summary, a laity that will be the salt, the leaven and the light that will penetrate our world…

The bishop is contradicting himself. Earlier he speaks (understandably) about a “winter” of crisis which must be faced head on. Here he parrots what the “New Springtimers” (who he seemingly criticizes for their enthusiam about growth in the Church) always say. Which is it? I agree that much of the positive movement is coming and will come (as it really always has traditionally) from smaller, dynamic movements of the faithful who don’t just go along with the status quo. But the bishop seems to be burning both sides of his candle, wanting a certain continuity of practice and “counter culture” sensibility. He needs to make up his mind as to which one it is and find some clarity in direction. Other than that, he doesn’t seem to have any proposed solutions, just “rah rah, but YOU’RE doing great”, self congratulatory pats on the back.

 

[chicago]

Yes, most of the time Cardinals are put in charge of large metropolitan Archdioceses. There is one Cardinal (I forget his name) who was made a Cardinal as a Priest by John Paul II. But usually they are archbishops first. So Bishop Bruskewitz needs to be made an archbishop first, and then he can be made a Cardinal. (and maybe he’ll be pope one day too…)

He’s too much of a lightning rod to get promoted to a cardnialite see. So none of this will likely ever happen.

 

[Ace86]

He’s too much of a lightning rod to get promoted to a cardnialite see. So none of this will likely ever happen.

Well maybe he’ll go to the Roman Curia.

 

[Elzee]

Oh how I love this man! I also hope he one day becomes a Cardinal. I would hate for the good people of Lincoln to lose him, but if he must move to a larger diocese for this to happen, just think of even more people who would benefit from him.

 

[chicago]

Well maybe he’ll go to the Roman Curia.

I suppose that’s a possibility, if he’s not getting too old for it. But he’s probably safer for the Vatican and has much more real outreach for the U.S. Church in voice right where he is. He’s able to be that sort of renegade spokesman which gets play.

 

[chicago]

Oh how I love this man! I also hope he one day becomes a Cardinal. I would hate for the good people of Lincoln to lose him, but if he must move to a larger diocese for this to happen, just think of even more people who would benefit from him.

Just think of the great schism and mass excommunications!

 

[ComradeAndrei]

Maybe it would wake some people up. If every bishop were more like Bruskewicz, there probably wouldn’t be half the problems in the Church that there are.

 

[Elzee]

Just think of the great schism and mass excommunications!

Or…just think of the number of people whose hearts will be ignited and who will actually realize the beauty and fullness of our Faith!

 

[chicago]

Maybe it would wake some people up. If every bishop were more like Bruskewicz, there probably wouldn’t be half the problems in the Church that there are.

Eh, I think the problems would still be there. There’s just be half the Catholics “in good standing”.

 

[chicago]

Or…just think of the number of people whose hearts will be ignited and who will actually realize the beauty and fullness of our Faith!

But does he offer any real solutions? There’s lot of critique but little in the way of positive alternatives. He just says that the laity have a signifigant role to play. Well, no kidding. But the laity playing signifigant roles has been part of the problem, also. So, now what? In the long run, perhaps the reality (which he well knows) is that there isn’t ultimately a whole lot that the bishop alone can do, as where the rubber does meet the road is with the active faithful being, well, faithfully active.

 

[ComradeAndrei]

Eh, I think the problems would still be there. There’s just be half the Catholics “in good standing”.

Then Josef Cardinal Ratzinger said we could do with a smaller more faithful Church.

Bishop Bruskewicz’s “mass excommunication” in Lincoln did anything but destroy the Lincoln Diocese-rather it made Lincoln a stronghold of orthodoxy. How dare anyone think that they can be “Catholic” and pro-abortion, “Catholic” but publicly flaunt the infallible teachings of Holy Church, or “Catholic” but act in flagrant disregard of the Holy See in matters pertaining to ordaining bishops. Remember, the good bishop excommunicated enemies of the Church on both the right (SSPX) and left (Call to Action, etc.).

In the long run, perhaps the reality (which he well knows) is that there isn’t ultimately a whole lot that the bishop alone can do, as where the rubber does meet the road is with the active faithful being, well, faithfully active.

I’m sure he is painfully aware of this. He is like a voice crying in the wilderness, many of his brothers in the Episcopate do nothing or promote their own modernist agendas. Most of the laity have no idea what they should do, what is orthodox, etc. and don’t even care. But, at least he is doing something. He has been a good shepherd of the diocese under his care and has done nothing but promote orthodoxy. If people want to get in line, they know where to look-the Holy See, to Bishop Bruskewicz and other bishops like him who hold and teach the orthodox Catholic faith handed down to us from the Apostles.