There was a stillness in the hills of the Intercessors of the Lamb's Omaha campus Friday, the day the archbishop of Omaha shut them down as a Roman Catholic religious group.
The people in teal and white robes who normally walk about the Ponca Hills property were gone.
The Omaha Archdiocese had bused 32 women and 16 men, members of the organization, to a Catholic retreat center in Schuyler, Neb., with plans to care for them while they discern a new future for themselves.
No one answered the door at houses on the Intercessors' property, nor at houses the group had purchased in the surrounding neighborhood. A dozen cars and SUVs with tax-exempt license plates sat still in the driveways.
A horse and a calf ate from a trough in a barn near the Intercessors' newly constructed, teal-roofed chapel. A T-shirted security guard pacing in front of the chapel said no one was around.
There was only a little activity next door on Calhoun Road, where construction crews have been working on a massive retreat center for the Intercessors. Workers said they had seen no members of the group all day.
The Intercessors came to a startling and dramatic end as a Catholic religious organization Friday, two weeks after Archbishop George J. Lucas had accepted the resignation of their founder, Mother Nadine Brown, as general director of the group.
Archdiocese officials said then that the religious group potentially could reform and restructure itself under the leadership of a priest appointed by Lucas.
But on Friday, Lucas suppressed the association, meaning it can no longer function as a Roman Catholic organization, and that its members' vows are no longer recognized by the church.
Lucas said the board of directors of the Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc., the group's civil, nonprofit corporation, had impeded him from helping the group make reforms recently identified by a Vatican lawyer.
“What began as a desire for pastoral solicitude and an effort at positive reform resulted in a refusal to accept the assistance and jurisdiction of the church by a majority of the lay board members,” Lucas said in a prepared statement.
Board members refused three times to meet with Lucas to discuss the organization's finances, why he had Brown step down and what the group's future would be, said Deacon Timothy F. McNeil, chancellor of the Omaha Archdiocese.
McNeil said the Intercessors' hermits and priests were bused voluntarily to Schuyler for their well-being. He said there were concerns about whether they would have food and other means for living.
The men and women had taken vows of poverty, and many had signed over all their possessions to the Intercessors, said the Rev. Gregory Baxter, an Omaha priest whom Lucas had appointed to oversee the group's reform.
Baxter said the hermits had nothing to wear but their teal and white habits, so the archdiocese would give them money for clothes as well as house and feed them.
On Friday, the Intercessors corporation board responded in a brief statement released through its attorney, David Levy.
It said the board members “are extremely saddened by the recent events involving the Archdiocese of Omaha and the Association of Hermit Intercessors.”
“The corporation has provided for the hermits for decades, and has continued to do so after the Archdiocese removed Mother Nadine from her home of 30 years on the Bellwether campus two weeks ago,” the statement said.
“The board disagrees with many of the actions, statements and findings of the archdiocese. The board will meet very soon to discuss how best to continue the corporation's mission.”
Levy declined to comment further Friday evening, except to say the hermits were being taken care of.
“The corporation was willing to provide for the hermits for some period of time while they found some place to go,” Levy said.
In a statement Friday, archdiocese officials said suppression means:
“Public worship and the celebration of the sacraments are prohibited on the Intercessors' property; priests and deacons are forbidden from ministering at the property; donors are advised that their contributions will not go to support the mission of a Catholic organization; Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc, is no longer affiliated with the Catholic Church; and the chapel on the campus is no longer a Catholic chapel. Moreover, the vows of the members ceased at the moment of suppression.”
McNeil said Catholics worldwide are encouraged to refrain from participating in Intercessors-sponsored activity.
It was an abrupt end for a controversial religious group that, until recent weeks, had been on the rise during its more than 20 years in Omaha.
The Intercessors, a mixed group of lay men and women and priests, were what the Catholic Church calls a “public association of the faithful.” Then-Omaha Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss granted them that status in 1998, moving them closer to becoming a religious order and placing them under further church supervision. The late Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan had recognized the group as a private association of the faithful in 1992.
The Intercessors have been developing a campus on about 75 acres at and around 11811 Calhoun Road. They have rankled neighbors with the size of their development and their buying up of houses.
They claimed more than 50 members who had taken vows, and have said they had as many as 3,000 lay members. Among other activities, they took prayer requests and provided spiritual direction.
When Lucas took over from the retiring Curtiss in 2009, he told Brown that he couldn't help group members pursue their goals without understanding who and what they are, McNeil said.
In May, Lucas hired the Rev. James J. Conn, a canon law professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, to examine the group. He studied its governance structure, in addition to reviewing the doctrinal, spiritual, moral and financial aspects.
McNeil has said that Conn made a number of alarming discoveries, including questionable financial practices, disunity, widespread dissatisfaction with leadership, intimidation tactics to secure obedience from members and a lack of safe environment policies.
Lucas then appointed Baxter, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Omaha, as trustee over the Intercessors.
Baxter said Friday that it became increasingly clear over the past few days that the board was not going to cooperate with the archdiocese.
It's unclear what will happen with the Intercessors' buildings, land and other property. It is owned by the Intercessors corporation, and the archdiocese does not plan to challenge that, McNeil said.
Nor is the future of the 48 men and women known. Baxter said they were sad Friday when he broke the news to them about Lucas' decision, “but they were very supportive of the archbishop's vision and realized he had no choice.”
“These are good people,” Baxter said. “They're very spiritual and desirous of continuing in their relationship with the Lord. That's all they wanted. Now they have to go through a very difficult time of discerning what that may look like in the future.”
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
