LINCOLN, March 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A member of the formally excommunicated organization, Call to Action (CTA), John Krejci took matters into his own hands at Mass at Sacred Heart parish on February 7. After being instructed not to present himself for communion, Krejci marched up to the altar where the Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz was concluding the Mass, and took one of the consecrated Hosts himself.
Krejci complained to the press that the bishop had gestured to him with “an unfriendly wave of his hand,” to indicate that Krejci could not receive what Catholics call the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Body of Christ.
Krejci complained to the Sioux City Journal that he was “unsure” why he “suddenly” had been denied communion. “I don’t know if he acted spontaneously or what,” Krejci said in an apparent attempt to depict himself as a bewildered and innocent victim of episcopal capriciousness.
Krejci, however, is well-known to Bishop Bruskewitz as a long-time campaigner against the Catholic Church. He is a former priest and as a founding member of the Lincoln branch of the extreme dissident organization Call to Action has campaigned for decades to undermine and abolish key doctrines of the Catholic religion, including many of the moral teachings. Membership of CTA draws heavily from former clergy, feminist nuns, and homosexuals. Krejci also attended Gregorian University in Rome in the 1960’s with the young Bruskewitz who has been his bishop for many years. All members of Call to Action have been formally excommunicated since 1996.
At the Mass on February 7, Krejci said that after Bruskewitz put down the vessel containing the sacrament, Krejci walked over and took one himself. No one reacted, he said. Krejci said he returned to Sacred Heart on Feb. 20 and was again denied communion, this time by the Rev. Tom Walsh.
In 1996, Bruskewitz issued a formal decree of excommunication that specified members of Call to Action along with Catholics for a Free Choice as “sects” whose members had separated themselves from the Catholic Church. A formal decree of excommunication means that the person so affected cannot under normal circumstances receive the sacraments of the Catholic Church.
For an excommunicated person to take the Blessed Sacrament is considered by Catholics to be a crime against God and constitutes the civil offense of disrupting a religious service. Bruskewitz did not call police, however, or make any move to have Krejci barred from Catholic churches in the diocese.
Instead, the Lincoln chancery office issued a mild statement saying, “Mr. Krejci’s behavior toward the Holy Eucharist has raised many concerns among the faithful who have heard of it. Any faithful Catholic realizes that he may not approach the sanctuary and take Holy Communion on his own. Mr. Krejci can be assured of our prayers, but must understand that we are obligated to follow the teachings of Christ and the laws of the Church.”