The embattled Mesa priests have responded to their excommunication from the Catholic Church.
This week, Dale Fushek and Mark Dippre, posted, on their Web site, their response to Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s decision, made public Monday, to issue a decree to excommunicate them for leading a church fellowship in disobedience to and “in schism” with the Catholic Church. Since November 2007, they have led the Praise and Worship Center, which now meets at the Fiesta Fountains Reception Center near Southern Avenue and Longmore in Mesa and regularly draws 250 to 300 people. In a five-paragraph letter led by “Dear Friends,” they say they are serving God with the new nondenominational ministry.
Fushek had been put on paid leave in 2005 pending resolution of misdemeanor cases brought against him for alleged sexual misconduct with male youth between 1984 and 1993 while he led the Life Teen program that he founded. Start of a trial, or trials, is delayed while a judge determines whether the five alleged victims can testify in a single jury trial or whether cases must be dealt with in as many as five separate trials.
“On Monday, Dec. 15, 2008, we learned that Bishop Thomas Olmsted has issued a decree of excommunication against us,” the letter reads at www.praiseandworshipcenter.net. “The information was given to us via a friend who had received an email from the Diocese. Later that morning, we opened a letter that had been sent to a post office box earlier in the week.”
But diocesan spokesman Jim Dwyer said the bishop’ office sent the decrees of excommunication to the men by certified letters for which they would have to give their signature acknowledging their receipt of them. The diocese said it has repeatedly sought to get the men to respond to communications in the past.
“We were deeply saddened to learn of this action,” the Fushek/Dippre letter said. “Excommunication is comparable to capital punishment in the Catholic Church. It is the ultimate penalty. According to the Diocese, our ‘sin’ has been holding unauthorized prayer meetings.” The two said they hold the Roman Catholic Church “in great respect, and we have nothing but love and gratitude for the Catholic community of Phoenix.”
“Since we have had no contact with Bishop Olmsted, it is hard to understand his action,” they continued. “However, it is our intention to pray for him, our many friends in the Catholic Church and for the universal mission of love and reconciliation that Christ gave the church.”
Fushek and Dippre, who had once served together at St. Timothy Catholic Community in Mesa, said they are being “faithful to the Lord” in founding the center and nurturing its growth.
“The mission statement of the Praise and Worship Center remains the same,” they wrote. “May we serve God well, with passion and integrity.”
