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	Vatican Tribunal Won't Consider Excommunication Appeal Omaha World-Herald February 21, 2007 http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1219&u_sid=2335312 Lincoln, Neb. (AP) — Call to Action-Nebraska will be consulting canon lawyers about how to press its appeal of an excommunication order issued by Lincoln's bishop in 1996. The Signatura - a sort of supreme court for the Roman Catholic Church - has refused to hear the group's appeal of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's blanket excommunication, which included members of the group, several Masonic organizations and abortion-rights groups Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice. Bruskewitz said the groups contradict and imperil Catholic faith. The excommunication order was put on hold while Call to Action members appealed. Call to Action, which says it has more than 25,000 members nationwide, has long criticized how the church handled allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests and questions the church's tradition of a male-only, unmarried priesthood. The appeal was filed by the president of Call to Action-Nebraska, Rachel Pokora, and member Gordon P. Peterson, in response to a letter from Cardinal Giovannia Battista Re that upheld Bruskewitz. The Nov. 24 letter to Bruskewitz said his decision "was properly taken within your competence as pastor of that diocese." The cardinal leads the church's Congregation for Bishops. Re said Call to Action holds "views and positions which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint." Call to Action members question whether the Vatican had accurate information in upholding Bruskewitz because they never presented their side. The secretary of the Signatura, Velasio De Paolis, said it can't hear the appeal because it involves a diocesan law rather than an administrative act. Pokora said she doesn't see the Signatura's decision as final. "It seems to be saying that this is not the proper avenue, so we need to find the proper avenue to state our case," Pokora said. "We're going to continue to seek justice within the church for ourselves and for all the people of the Diocese of Lincoln." About 50 members of Call to Action-Nebraska live in the Lincoln Diocese, she said.
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