Omaha archbishop shuts down Intercessors of the Lamb [CNA]

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I have stayed a few days with that order and a close relative of mine was a member of that order. I am very sad to hear of what happened. The members of that order were beautiful people just trying to serve the Lord the best they could.

God Bless the members of this order who now have nothing. My heart breaks for them and I pray they are able to follow God’s will always. I don’t believe this was a bad order. I believe it was a good order that had gone bad. There were good people in that order.

God be with them all!!
 
they will be taken care of for 2 weeks by the Bishop and then what??
 
milesofsmiles21 said:
they will be taken care of for 2 weeks by the Bishop and then what??
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based on what I’ve read on the 2nd link) they are looking for a permanent place… I hope they really start a new order. An order with order. I love them so much.
 
milesofsmiles21 said:
they will be taken care of for 2 weeks by the Bishop and then what??
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I’m not sure assistance will be limited to only two weeks. The Catholic Voice article does mentions that accommodations in Schuyler are temporary and that the former Intercessors hope to re-organize as a community.
Gathered with the 48 former Intercessors as they boarded the bus, Father Baxter said the former members will stay in their temporary housing for the next two weeks while a more permanent arrangement for the community is made.
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“They’ll continue to do community discernment and look at eventual possibilities for the formation of a new community,” he told the Catholic Voice. "I’m going to continue to help moderate that process with them, to work with them to do community discernment, to be the liaison between the community and Archbishop Lucas.
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It think it reasonable to assume that the Benedictine monks at Schuyler wouldn’t want their conference center/retreat house to be used long term for housing another religious community. The monks accommodated an emergency situation. What the long term arrangements will be, I don’t think they have been worked out yet. But I don’t think there is any reason to think that the archdiocese will simply turn the former Intercessors out on the street.
 
Hi, my sister is one of the former nuns of the IOL. She’s currently here in the Philippines among with two other former IOL nuns. It was just shocking and heartbreaking to know that their vows ceased. She will have to adapt to being a lay person once again. My heart goes out to my sister for I saw how much she loved her vocation and how dedicated she was to their mission (deliverance and intercessory prayer). She gave up her career, her life, her family, her country to join the group in 2002.

I am also saddened because I experienced firsthand the peace and joy her being into this vocation brought to our home and our lives. She influenced me to have a deeper prayer life and faith in God.

Please, I’m asking for you all here to pray for them. They sided with the Archbishop, although they were not there when it all happened. They said they have to be obedient to the Archbishop and the Catholic church’s stand. Lucky for those who are there under the care of the Archbishop and others, but they are left here on their own, except for some of their companions in the former IOL who are willing to take care of them temporarily.

Please pray for them that they may be enlightened as to which path to further take. Please, they need our prayers.

thank you for taking the time to read and God bless you!
 
CDNowak said:
There are a number of rather specific charges in the press release: financial irregularities, intimidation tactics, violation of interior/exterior forum, illegitimate and irreverent custody of the Blessed Sacrament. None of these are necessarily ‘charismatic’ problems, they are structural and systematic problems in the leadership of the community.
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Yes you are correct, they are structural and systematic problems that the order stated they were working on to CORRECT with the Bishop. IRREVERENT CUSTODY of the Blessed Sacrament was clarified as Nadine Brown stated her former Bishop was aware and GAVE PERMISSION until they had a formal herritage to house the Blessed Sacrament in. The formal herritage was in the works. I mean you know, when you are just getting started things are not as they should be exactly…one thing at a time.

We will not know the whole story for a while, I wouldn’t imagine. Why in the world did 2 other Bishops give them the go ahead but this one shut them down??? Something is not quite right here. Or the order is not being up front about things.

As others have said, one thing is certain…they ALL NEED OUR PRAYERS!!!
 
Teelynn said:
Yes you are correct, they are structural and systematic problems that the order stated they were working on to CORRECT with the Bishop. IRREVERENT CUSTODY of the Blessed Sacrament was clarified as Nadine Brown stated her former Bishop was aware and GAVE PERMISSION until they had a formal herritage to house the Blessed Sacrament in. The formal herritage was in the works. I mean you know, when you are just getting started things are not as they should be exactly…one thing at a time.

We will not know the whole story for a while, I wouldn’t imagine. Why in the world did 2 other Bishops give them the go ahead but this one shut them down??? Something is not quite right here. Or the order is not being up front about things.

As others have said, one thing is certain…they ALL NEED OUR PRAYERS!!!
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‘herritage’-uhm, no such word. I think you mean ‘hermitage’.
 
I happened to come across this article on Renew America taken from RCF (Roman Catholic Faithful) it’s from 2006…whether or not it has any relevance to motives to shut down the Intercessors, I don’t know, but from the looks of the article Archbishop Lucas doesn’t seem to be terribly traditional in his theology.

renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/060531
 
Teelynn said:
Sorry…a typo:)
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Hey, that’s OK…😉

Can happen when you type fast and your thoughts ‘get ahead of your brain’. I should know-it happens to me all the time when I comment here at CAF or at other Catholic sites. Thank goodness for ‘preview post’ and ‘edit’! :o
 
Teelynn said:
I happened to come across this article on Renew America taken from RCF (Roman Catholic Faithful)
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hmmm… Roman Catholic Faithful may not be a good source. According to the site review by CatholicCulture.org, RCF has problems with fidelity:
The Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) is an organization of Catholics who claim to be completely faithful to the teachings of the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Some of their members are priests and religious, but most are ordinary laity. Their main goal is to fight actively and spiritually to restore Holy Mother Church. While this is a laudable goal, unfortunately RCF’s methods often reveal a lack of prudence and humility. The language used on the site and in RCF publications, as well as many of its public campaigns, tend to call into question the authority of the Pope and the Bishops to regulate Church matters.
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catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=356&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=670302
 
One of the reasons for the decline of religious life is that very few bishops have any idea what it is about.

The Vows of a religious are made to God; the Church is only the honoured facilitator. A religious cannot be switched off so to speak. Once Vowed, always Vowed; to say as is being said is akin to divorce. Vowed for life is simply that. Period.
 
Teelynn said:
I happened to come across this article on Renew America taken from RCF (Roman Catholic Faithful) it’s from 2006…whether or not it has any relevance to motives to shut down the Intercessors, I don’t know, but from the looks of the article Archbishop Lucas doesn’t seem to be terribly traditional in his theology.

renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/060531
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Yes, I think the link is not good. Just a source of gossip.
The Bishop knows why he suppressed the community. It’s necessary. Read the links I posted yesterday.
 
Beau_Ouiville said:
"A public association of the Catholic faithful has now been suppressed by Archbishop George Lucas. The Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc. lived within a secluded community of Ponca Hills. Friday, after a recent examination of the association by a Canon Law Professor, the Archdiocese of Omaha shut them down.

The community, living under a vow of poverty, has been cloaked in a bit of mystery and secrecy since their beginnings in 1992. They were private then, and they went public in 1998. They have been in controversial positions, while fighting neighbors over expansion, and in achieving tax-exempt status.

The group of lay brothers, sisters and clerics were governed by a civil board of directors. It is that board, said Archdiocese Chancellor, Deacon Timothy McNeil, that was “offended” by the examination this past two weeks, refusing to change certain bylaws to come in line with Canon Law. “We learned a whole lot of weaknesses. Some we were aware of. Some we weren’t aware of,” he said. “Questionable financial practices. I think intimidation tactics to try and control the members.”

He said there was also a problem with “spiritual direction and breaches of confidentiality,” he said. In addition, “Not enough controls about protection of adults being with children, just our safe environment policies,” he said. Though McNeil was quick to add no indiscretions involving children were discovered."

wowt.com/news/headlines/105083884.html
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Just a note, and one on a topic probably already addressed, but the HIOL were ALL lay persons and their vows were private vows. They were allowed to wear the habit and use titles against the day their group was erected as an institute of consecrated life, but they were still a public association of the faithful, and so, not religious. This means that their vows of poverty were, in some ways, imprudent if they were left with no provision for the future. Their group and the members themselves were in a transitional situation, a discernment process and there was no certainty they would ever become ICL.

The community itself obscured and members may have been insufficiently cognizant of this fact. Certainly the lay public seems to be largegly unaware of it. Having companions and associates and stressing the distinction between vowed and non vowed members when one is still a lay organization where vows are private, not public is one symptom of this. Making no prudent provisions for members’ futures in case of dissolution for any reason is another.

Those interested in this problem should take a look at Therese Iver’s website (Do I Have a Vocation?). Ivers is a canonist specializing in consecrated life and she writes about the risky nature of belonging to such a group. She also cites another canonist who notes that such groups are encouraged/advised to keep resources in trust until a member dies in case the member needs these for some reason (leaves the community, dissolution of the community, etc).

While the situation came to a head abruptly and one may and should certainly feel sympathy for the members’ very real losses, it is important to keep their lay status in perspective. Otherwise, one can conclude the Archbishop simply stripped religious of their habits, vows, etc in a cruel act rather than understanding suppression or dissolution was something which could happen at any point because this was still an experimental or novel group in a process of discernment (which involves the Church’s own discernment re this vocation as well as the members’) without public standing as religious.
 
New developments:

omaha.com/article/20110212/NEWS01/702129887/1009
The leader of the Intercessors of the Lamb and a handful of her devoted followers are trying to create life after the death penalty for their controversial religious group…
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Brown’s backers have said Intercessors of the Lamb Inc. would continue as a nondenominational Christian group. A glimpse of what that might look like is on display Saturday at the group’s Nebraska campus in the Ponca Hills north of Omaha, where the Intercessors have hooked up with an evangelical Christian group from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area of eastern Iowa, the IHOPE House of Prayer, to host a prayer meeting.
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The Intercessors also are marketing their annual conference for July, saying they’ve booked the Qwest Center Omaha. The conference had grown to attract thousands of people from the United States and abroad. This summer’s will be the first since the Intercessors ran afoul of the Catholic Church.
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“There is life after suppression,” said Judith Sellers, treasurer of Intercessors of the Lamb Inc. “It’s a new beginning
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So now that they consider themselves “nondenominational” I guess they won’t answer to anyone.
 
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