Minnesota man urges Bruskewitz to participate in audit

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By DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star

The clouds had departed and the sun was shining on Lincoln when Bob Schwiderski parked his SUV at a convenience store a couple of blocks from the gleaming Cathedral of the Risen Christ.

The  Minnesota man worked a cell phone as he headed toward the front steps of the Catholic church on Sheridan Boulevard

Orange pylons blocked one entrance to the parking lot, and signs on another near the chancery warned that unauthorized parkers would be towed.

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Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz

Because he was most certainly not a guest, and not authorized to hold a press conference outside the church and bishop’s office Friday morning, Schwiderski stuck to the public sidewalk.

Schwiderski clipped on a microphone and explained what prompted him to drive from Denver to Lincoln on Thursday:

He’s a member of an advocacy group for victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy. And that group — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — had him stop in Lincoln to nudge one of its favorite targets: Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.

Bruskewitz is the only U.S. bishop who refuses to voluntarily participate  in the church’s annual audit of sex abuse cases.

The Lincoln Diocese — home to more than 89,000 Catholics in 136 parishes in southern Nebraska — has not participated since the first audit was conducted in 2003 and recently skipped the audit again. Bruskewitz has said the audit is flawed and ineffective.

SNAP and other victim advocacy groups have called Bruskewitz out for this before, and today it’s Schwiderski’s job to call for Bruskewitz to be banned from all events related to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to America later this month.

When he was done Schwiderski got back in his SUV and headed to another event in Sioux City, Iowa, before heading back to his home in Minnesota.

Minnesota is where this started for Schwiderski. He was sexually abused from age 7 to 11 by the Catholic priest in his small hometown of Hector. He sued that church in the 1990s — when he was trying to get to the root of his drinking, drugs and promiscuity.

“I’m one of the first people who ever stood up in the cornfields of Minnesota,” and took on the church, he said.

He sued not for money, but for validation, an apology and counseling.

As he stood outside the office of the Lincoln bishop, he recalled what happened after his parents — Catholic parents of 10 —finally learned what had happened to him after his older brother refused to attend altar boy sleepovers.

His parents went to the church with the allegations, and then the bishop paid them a visit, asking, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

In the end, Schwiderski settled his lawsuit and signed a confidentiality agreement. But he’s not keeping quiet about sex abuse in the church.

It’s not clear whether the bishop was in during Schwiderski’s press conference.

Monsignor Mark Huber sent the Journal Star away with a press statement nearly identical to the one given last time SNAP was rattling the chancery’s cage. The statement says the diocese is fully compliant with all civil and church laws and takes “appropriate steps” to prevent child sex abuse.

Huber also attached an interview Bruskewitz did with the editor of Catholic World Report this month. In it, Bruskewitz says his diocese isn’t known for having problems with sex abuse “at all” and notes that his diocesan newspaper publishes an abuse hotline number.

He says the audits SNAP so wants him to participate in are ineffective because the dioceses with the most sex abuse problems “get the best marks on the audits.”

The bishop says the audit doesn’t get at the basic problem,  noting, “Most of the abuse scandals these past decades have been homosexual. We are not talking about little children but adolescents.”

Which is why he doesn’t think homosexuals should be allowed into the priesthood, which he likened to allowing pyromaniacs to watch gas storage tanks or kleptomaniacs to be bank tellers.

Schwiderski says bishops like Bruskewitz need to talk to the victims, saying they’re mistaken if they think victims will come to them for help.

“You gotta go and reach out instead of sitting up here on some pearly chair,” Schwiderski said as he left the diocese alone.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.