LINCOLN (NE)
World-Herald
By Leslie Reed
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
LINCOLN — Perhaps the story of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz’s 20-year watch over the Lincoln Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church could be told as a parable of two men.
Both were trained as priests at a select seminary in Rome, their time there overlapping during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The slightly older priest revered church tradition as a living connection between believers and Jesus Christ, established through a succession of priests tracing back to St. Peter himself. That priest, a Milwaukee native ordained in 1960, has had a storied career and went on to become the eighth bishop of Lincoln.
The younger man visualized the church as a champion of social justice, embracing all people and ending discrimination. John Krejci, a South Omaha native ordained in 1962, grew disillusioned. He left the priesthood in 1971 to become a professor of social work.
Three decades later, Bruskewitz and Krejci crossed paths again in Lincoln. Their clash of values ended with Bruskewitz excommunicating Krejci and other local members of a Catholic reform group known as Call to Action.
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