CATHOLIC DIOCESE Separatist priest is kicked out

The church explained its stance in its newspaper.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest who spoke out against the church hierarchy was excommunicated for holding his own Mass at an unsanctioned, splinter church, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Thursday.
The Rev. William Hausen "has incurred an automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church," according to a statement issued by the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, diocesan spokesman. The diocese issued the excommunication decree Tuesday.
Father Hausen, 66, presided at a Mass of his Christ Hope Ecumenical Catholic Church, which met Sunday in a hotel ballroom. He has criticized what he says is the Roman Catholic church's hypocrisy, telling parishioners in an Easter 2002 homily that they should be angry about the clergy sex scandal and that married men and women should be able to become priests.
"I respect their informed conscience doing that and I would hope they would respect my informed conscience deciding to do what I'm doing," Father Hausen said of the church decree.
"I think it's part of the guilt and fear again, but I think people are wising up to it. I think it's affecting people who might want to come to my liturgy, to our liturgy ... I've had people call and say they were afraid to come because of it [the threat of excommunication]," Father Hausen said, "and I understand that."
An explanatory note in the diocesan newspaper says that Hausen's excommunication was latae sententiae, a Latin term that essentially means he separated himself from the church.
"In the sports world, if a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers becomes a free agent and signs with the Cleveland Browns, he is certainly free to do so," the note says. "To continue to wear a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey and claim to be a Steeler is simply false advertising."
Immediately after Sunday's service, Father Lengwin had said the diocese was still open to reconciliation with Father Hausen. Lengwin repeated that in Thursday's statement.
"We are all saddened by Father William Hausen's decision to start his own church and continue to hold out hope that he will return," Father Lengwin said.