Calls for bishop's removal step up

Some 25 years before he was named bishop of Belleville in southern Illinois, Fr. Edward K. Braxton wrote a book titled The Wisdom Community: A Framework and a Program for Renewzing Communication and Understanding Between Priests, Bishops, Theologians and the People in the Pews.

Ironically, it is wisdom that is desperately needed in Braxton's diocese today. The pastoral crisis in Belleville, where communication has broken down during three years of Braxton's leadership, is such that on April 17, the third day of Pope Benedict XVI's U.S. visit, a quarter-page ad appeared in USA Today asking the pope to remove Braxton. The ad, reportedly costing $10,000, was written and paid for by Frank S. Ladner, 81, a Catholic philanthropist from Lawrenceville, Ill.

A few weeks earlier, in mid-March, 46 Belleville priests, representing about half of active diocesan priests, took the unusual step of signing a letter of no confidence, urging Braxton to resign "for his own good, for the good of the diocese and for the good of the presbyterate."

And in February, the province of a religious order that has served in Belleville for 138 years, the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, wrote the papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, urging him to "use all the power of your office to create a moment of change." Citing "an unraveling of both trust and hope," Sr. Jen Renz, regional superior, said, "The climate of secrecy that surrounds committee meetings and actions within the diocese must end."

Priests' complaints

In the priests' letter calling on Braxton to resign, they complained of "lack of cooperation, consultation, accountability and transparency," along with "misappropriation of funds" and "pursuit of outside donors to cover these expenditures." The bishop's response was limited to a portion of a letter read at Easter Masses, in which he contended that from the outset of his appointment, he had been unfairly targeted by a coterie of hostile clergy and would remain in office "as long as the Holy Father wants me to."

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Braxton alluded to priests' complaints that his appointment to Belleville by a seriously ill Pope John Paul II occurred without their input and over their objections. At the time of the appointment, some 50 area priests protested what they said was a lack of process in a letter addressed to Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, papal nuncio Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, and curia officials in Rome.

Braxton made no response to several calls to his office requesting comment for this article.

In several days of conversations in the diocese, priests and laity told NCR that Braxton's style is so monarchical that many diocesan boards are either dormant or barely functioning.

The communication problem "affects all important decisions," said Fr. Don Blaes, a retired priest. "The finance committee, the personnel board, the presbyteral council--everything."

Symptoms of the crisis include the resignations of three members of the personnel board last year, who said they were wasting their time because the bishop' makes personnel decisions unilaterally. Diocesan consulters have not been summoned in more than two years, and the diocesan pastoral council has been inactive.

Jerry De Soto, a pastoral council member, said he and others met with Braxton last October to question him about the moribund council. "He said he didn't have anything to talk to us about and did not want to waste our time," said De Soto. "I told him we have a lot to talk to you about," such as seeking ways to acclimate international priests to American culture. A meeting of the pastoral council is now scheduled for June.

Complaints about Braxton's style preceded his tenure in Belleville, where he succeeded Bishop Wilton Gregory, now archbishop of Atlanta. As auxiliary in St. Louis, Braxton's pastoral prudence was questioned; as bishop in Lake Charles, La., his spending was criticized.

In Belleville, complaints took on a new focus last fall when several groups questioned expenditures. The advisory board of A Future Full of Hope, a fund established for building maintenance and outreach to the sick and elderly, protested after discovering the bishop had used $10,000 without their knowledge to purchase a conference table and chairs for a meeting room in the chancery office. The bishop reportedly responded that he had used "prudential judgment" in making the purchase.

Meanwhile the diocesan finance committee learned that Braxton had used some $8,000 from funds set aside for the Propagation of the Faith to buy Mass vestments and altar linens from an exclusive provider in Chicago. Fr. Dennis Voss of the finance committee said a complaint about this was sent to the bishop and a copy filed with the papal nuncio in Washington. According to church regulations, all funds designated for the Propagation of the Faith are to be sent directly to New York and then passed on to the Vatican; never are they to be used for local purposes.