Catholic Bishop Threatens to Expel Abortion, Right-to-Die Supporters
A Roman Catholic bishop is threatening to excommunicate church members for joining abortion-rights and right-to-die groups.
Church members in the Lincoln diocese have until May 15 to drop their membership in 12 groups, including Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society and Catholics for a Free Choice.
“Membership in these organizations or groups is always perilous to the Catholic faith and most often is totally incompatible with the Catholic faith,” Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz wrote in the latest issue of the Southern Nebraska Register, the diocesan newspaper.
Catholics who still belong to the organizations after April 15 will not be able to receive Holy Communion, and one month later they will be excommunicated, he said.
Msgr. Timothy Thorburn, a spokesman for Bruskewitz, said the bishop issued the warning partly in response to an announcement that Call to Action was organizing a Nebraska chapter. The liberal Chicago-based organization of Catholic lay people promotes dialogue on issues such as women in the priesthood and clerical celibacy.
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