By Fr. Kenneth Borowiak
for the Register
When cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel at St. Peter’s Basilica May 7 to begin the process to elect a new pope, a Friend family can recall when one came to visit their farm.
Cardinal Raymond Burke visited Friend Aug. 9, 2001, to speak at a Catholic Rural Life conference at the farm of Sheldon and Judy Kohout of rural Friend. More than 150 attended that conference.
At the time, Bishop Burke was Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisc., and chair of the Catholic Rural Life Office for the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. He was invited by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, then Bishop of Lincoln, to speak about issues affecting farm and ranch families in Nebraska. Father David Bourek, then pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Friend, organized the meeting.
Reflecting on the visit nearly 25 years later, Sheldon and Judy Kohout were grateful for the message of Bishop Burke.
“We truly appreciated him recognizing and promoting the small family farm,” Judy said.
“Farming is not simply an occupation but a way of life,” Sheldon added. “To have our Church leaders recognize this and affirm us in that way of life means a lot,” he said.
A native of Wisconsin, Bishop Burke went on to become the Archbishop of St. Louis and then was named prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (the Supreme Court of the Catholic Church) and later the Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Pope Benedict XVI made Burke a cardinal Nov. 20, 2020.
In addition to being a longtime friend of Cardinal Burke, Bishop Emeritus Fabian Bruskewitz knows 12 of the papal electors: Cardinals James Harvey, archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls; Blasé Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark; Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, Daniel DiNardo, retired Archbishop of Galveston- Houston; Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church; Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship; and Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.
When asked what he believed the cardinals electing a new pope will look for in a candidate, Bishop Bruskewitz said, “I hope he will be a holy and learned man who deeply loves the Church, Her history and Tradition.”
Bishop Bruskewitz said some of the major issues in the Church and in the world that the next pope will have to address include those related to synodality and morality, doctrine and faith.
Knowing the Church always has the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, Bishop Bruskewitz is optimistic for the Church’s future. He said one of the top opportunities for the next pope to explore and develop is family life in the Church and the world.
