Curriculum Vitae
Born in Milwaukee on September 6, 1935,
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz attended St. Wenceslaus
parochial school in Milwaukee, and then attended
St. Lawrence Seminary at Mount Calvary,
Wisconsin, St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, the Pontifical North American College
and the Gregorian University in Rome.
He was ordained a priest on July 17, 1960, in
Rome, at the Church of the Twelve Apostles by
Cardinal Traglia, the Vicar General of Rome. He
served as an assistant pastor in parishes near
Milwaukee, and then did graduate work at the
Gregorian University in Rome, where he received
a doctorate in Dogmatic Theology in 1969. He
taught for a very brief time at St. Francis
Seminary, and then worked in the Congregation
for Catholic Education, a department of the Holy
See, in Rome, for eleven years. Bishop
Bruskewitz was named a Monsignor in 1976 and
elevated to be a Prelate of Honor 1980. In 1980,
he became the pastor of Saint Bernard Parish in
a suburb of Milwaukee, and in 1992, was named
the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln,
Nebraska. He was consecrated a bishop and
installed in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ
in Lincoln, on May 13, 1992.
As Bishop of Lincoln in 1995, he inaugurated
a year of reflection, teaching and adoration of
our Eucharistic Lord by promoting parish prayers
and days of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, a
diocesan pilgrimage to the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception, and the year
culminating in a Eucharistic Congress Mass with
approximately 5000 people in attendance. This
was a year of preparation for the Diocesan Synod
of 1996. The Diocesan Synod, in which the entire
Diocese participated, had a reflective,
prayerful focus on all aspects of diocesan life.
The sponsorship of the Madonna Rehabilitation
Hospital was assumed by the Diocese to preserve
its local ownership and the Catholic nature of
this well-known rehabilitation facility. Two new
parishes have begun as well as two new Catholic
elementary schools and additional building
projects to keep up the parishes and schools.
Paul VI Heights was built in Lincoln to provide
affordable housing in the promotion of family
life for those with poor or moderate incomes. A
new college seminary, Saint Gregory the Great
Seminary opened in the Diocese in 1998. Among
other events, Bishop Bruskewitz greeted the
arrival of a group of Carmelite nuns in the
diocese, and in 2000, he welcomed the opening of
Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary of the Priestly
Fraternity of Saint Peter, as well as the
arrival of a group of men religious following
the Cistercian Rule. Priestly and religious
vocations, Catholic education, Catholic health
care, and Catholic social services are some of
the many areas of diocesan life that continue to
be promoted by Bishop Bruskewitz.
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