{"id":950,"date":"2008-12-15T17:55:22","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T17:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html"},"modified":"2008-12-15T17:55:22","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T17:55:22","slug":"fushek-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html","title":{"rendered":"Fushek Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up last week’s excommunication of Fr. Ray Bourgeois<\/a> for his participation in women’s ordination ceremonies, word comes down that Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix has excommunicated Lifeteen Founder Dale Fushek and another, Mark Dippre.<\/a>
\nFushek and Dippre, those who follow the story might recall, have established their own “praise and worship” center in Mesa.<\/a><\/p>\n

Two Valley Catholic priests, Monsignor Dale Fushek and the Rev. Mark Dippre, have been excommunicated by Bishop Thomas Olmsted for defying his order to not engage in public ministry, an activity that was deemed out of accord with the Roman Catholic Church.
\nThirteen months ago, the priests, who had served together in the 1990s at St. Timothy\u2019s Catholic Community in Mesa, founded the nondenominational Praise and Worship Center, which meets Sundays at the Fiesta Fountains Reception Center, 1316 S. Longmore, Mesa.
\nFushek was put on paid leave of absence in late 2005 after he was indicted on 10 misdemeanors related to sexual misconduct across almost a decade while he led the Life Teen program.
\nThe Diocese of Phoenix Monday made public the bishop\u2019s order. The statement, posted on the diocesan Web site <\/a>(diocesephoenix.org), said, \u201cFushek and Dippre have incurred the censure of excommunication because they have chosen to be in schism with the Catholic Church by establishing and leading an opposing ecclesial community known to the public as the Praise and Worship Center.\u201d
\nThe statement said the two men had \u201cconsistently refused to comply with explicit directions by Bishop Olmsted to discontinue engaging in public ministry.\u201d
\nThe two priests were informed by letter a week ago of the bishop\u2019s action and given a week to respond before the diocese would make it public, said Jim Dwyer, diocesan spokesman. He said, for more than a year, the bishop has sought reconciliation with the two men in asking them to abandon the ministry that regularly draws 250 to 300 each Sunday to the services. Fushek and Dippre speak at the 90-minute services that are rich in music, but do not include religious sacraments like communion or baptism. The pastors have repeatedly said their services are not to be considered as \u201cCatholic\u201d in any way.
\nDwyer, on Monday, said the action was taken in consultation with the Vatican.
\n\u201cAs excommunicated priests, Fushek and Dippre cannot participate in the celebration of the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist or in any other ceremonies of worship,\u201d the decree said. \u201cThey are also prohibited from celebrating or receiving any of the sacraments.\u201d They will also forfeit the \u201cbenefits of dignity, office or any function they previously acquired in the Catholic Church.\u201d That would include Fushek\u2019s honorary title of \u201cmonsignor.\u201d
\nThe decree said the bishop continues to express his \u201cgrave concern for Catholics who may be misled or confused by the actions\u201d of the two clergymen.
\n\u201cThey always claim that they are not doing something in opposition to any denomination, but they are always holding their worship services at a time that coincides with a lot of Catholic Masses,\u201d Dwyer said. The center\u2019s services begin at 10 a.m. Sundays.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up last week’s excommunication of Fr. Ray Bourgeois for his participation in women’s ordination ceremonies, word comes down that Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix has excommunicated Lifeteen Founder Dale Fushek and another, Mark Dippre. Fushek and Dippre, those who follow the story might recall, have established their own “praise and worship” center in Mesa. Two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFushek Out - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fushek Out - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following up last week’s excommunication of Fr. Ray Bourgeois for his participation in women’s ordination ceremonies, word comes down that Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix has excommunicated Lifeteen Founder Dale Fushek and another, Mark Dippre. Fushek and Dippre, those who follow the story might recall, have established their own “praise and worship” center in Mesa. Two…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-15T17:55:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fushek Out - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fushek Out - Via Media","og_description":"Following up last week’s excommunication of Fr. Ray Bourgeois for his participation in women’s ordination ceremonies, word comes down that Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix has excommunicated Lifeteen Founder Dale Fushek and another, Mark Dippre. Fushek and Dippre, those who follow the story might recall, have established their own “praise and worship” center in Mesa. Two…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2008-12-15T17:55:22+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html","name":"Fushek Out - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-15T17:55:22+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-15T17:55:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/12\/fushek-out.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fushek Out"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}