Some neighbors of the Intercessors of the Lamb's Omaha campus expressed relief Saturday that the Catholic Church removed most of the hermits and banished the Intercessors as a Catholic organization.
“About time,” said Shawn McCartney, who grew up in the secluded Ponca Hills area and still lives there. “A cult is what I called it.”
But a clean break between the neighbors and the Intercessors may not occur.
The 75-acre campus and 13 homes nearby still belong to the Intercessors' board of directors. The Catholic Church has no interest in owning the property, and if a few people want to continue following Mother Nadine Brown on the campus, that's their decision, a Catholic official said.
“They still own it,” Deacon Timothy McNeil, chancellor of the Omaha Archdiocese, said of the Intercessors of the Lamb Inc. and its board.
The Omaha Archdiocese on Friday bused 48 hermits, priests and others to a Catholic retreat center in Schuyler, Neb. They will receive spiritual counseling, and possibly psychological counseling, there over the next two weeks.
After that, the five priests in that group will be reassigned and the hermits will have to decide whether they will remain together or rejoin society at large.
They are sad but in good spirits, said the Rev. Gregory Baxter, who was appointed by the archbishop to oversee the situation. Baxter called them “very resilient and wonderful, holy and spiritual people.”
Archbishop George J. Lucas hired a canon law professor in May to examine the group. The professor questioned the Intercessors' financial practices, found dissatisfaction with its leaders and discovered intimidation tactics.
McNeil said there were no findings of physical or sexual abuse.
Two weeks ago, Lucas accepted the resignation of Brown, the Intercessors' founder, as general director of the group. On Friday, Lucas formally shut down the group as a Catholic organization.
Neighbors on Saturday generally weren't derisive in their descriptions of the Intercessors but expressed annoyance about some of their practices and privileges.
As members of a Catholic organization, many of the Intercessors drove tax-exempt cars. The Intercessors also bought homes at asking price because they wanted to live next door to each other or desired homes adjacent to the campus, some neighbors said.
This led to high purchase prices and drove up home values and property taxes for neighbors, said George Cullen, who lives in Ponca Hills. His property taxes went up a total of $380 over the past two years, he said.
“Realistically, you could have a lot worse neighbors,” Cullen said. They weren't really neighborly, he said.
“You could say hi when they walked down the street and you might get a nod, or they might act like they didn't even see you,” Cullen said.
“It's not like David Koresh and the nuts down in Waco. These people are walking down the street, praying.”
Tina and Mike Cameron can see the turquoise dome of one of the large buildings the Intercessors erected over the past 20 years or more. They said traffic was surprisingly heavy some nights during Intercessor functions.
The Camerons, who are Catholics, said they had no prejudice toward the hermits. But Tina Cameron said the hermits were secretive, and it was hard to consider them neighbors.
“They didn't want to be known,” she said.
Bruno Kozimor, chairman of the sanitary and improvement district east of the campus, said he had plenty of questions about the situation.
“I'm even more skeptical now than I was before,” Kozimor said Saturday afternoon.
He said that if the archdiocese's investigation had turned up dubious financial practices, a local or federal auditor should go through the group's records. If the Intercessors board retains the property, he said, it's hard to say what the future will hold for it.
“If I sound pessimistic, I am,” he said. “And I don't think the problem's over yet.”
McNeil said he believed Brown was still on the campus with about 10 followers.
He said the Intercessors have $300,000 in unpaid bills and are in the middle of a $4 million construction project on the campus that has incurred $2 million more in change orders.
Change orders are changes in design requested by the owner of a property.
Contact the writer:
444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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