Bishop Lucker receives peace award

St. Paul - Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, 74, retired Bishop of the New Ulm diocese and bishop president of Pax Christi Minnesota since its founding in 1982, received Pax Christi USA’s highest honor, the Ambassador of Peace Award, July 7, 2001.

Tom Cordaro, council chairperson for Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace movement headquartered in Erie, PA., presented the award to Bishop Lucker at Our Lady of Good Counsel Home in St. Paul. Bishop Lucker was admitted to the home July 3, after receiving several weeks of radiation treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. At Our Lady of Good Counsel, he will receive only palliative care for terminal cancer. He has lived with melanoma for 16 years, but last January he learned the skin cancer had spread to his bones.

The award presentation arranged by Pax Christi Minnesota was attended by retired Archbishop John Roach and Bishop Frederick Campbell of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese, as well as by approximately 40 relatives, friends and members of Pax Christi.

Bishop Lucker is one of Pax Christi USA’s "go-to bishops," Cordaro added, explaining that any time the organization has a statement that needs to be endorsed, Bishop Lucker can be counted on for his signature. Cordaro said Bishop Lucker’s signature on a Pax Christi statement is assurance that at least 10 other bishops will sign on as well. Bishop Lucker endorsed Bread Not Stones, a Pax Christi USA initiative seeking to redirect military spending toward social needs like education and health care. He endorsed The Morality of Nuclear Deterrence: An Evaluation by Pax Christi Bishops in the United States, a pastoral letter signed by more than 100 bishops calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

He has also been a consistent supporter in the campaign to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. As part of this effort, he joined with more than 50 of his fellow bishops in signing a 1996 letter to President Clinton urging an end to the sanctions.

Bishop Lucker is a model for those who advocate for nonviolence, Cordaro said, adding that the bishop is both prophetic and pastoral in his dedication to the cause of peace and social justice.

"You speak your truth in all clarity and yet accept everyone, embrace everyone," he said to Bishop Lucker, who now uses a wheelchair because of tumors in his pelvis, left knee and spine.

In reading the words inscribed on the award, Cordaro called Bishop Lucker a disciple of nonviolence who courageously lives what he preaches, teaching that nonviolence is central to Christianity. The award has been bestowed on 15 individuals, including Detroit auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and the late Eileen Egan, a noted author and advocate for the poor.

Bishop Lucker spoke of the difficulty of following Jesus’ example of nonviolence and compassion: "We are so filled with violence," he said. However, peace is "not just the absence of conflict," he added, explaining that peace is really the fullness of life. "My core of belief has become very simple," he added. "All that I am in relationship to God is peace - God is here. What can be more profound, more central than that?"

Following Bishop Lucker’s acceptance of the Pax Christi award, Sister of St. Joseph Florence Steichen, coordinator of Pax Christi Minnesota, thanked the bishop for his wise counsel, good leadership, and accessibility as bishop president of the statewide organization.

She also announced that Pax Christi Minnesota is donating $500 to the Bishop Lucker Lecture Fund, an endowed fund started last October by the bishop to bring occasional guest speakers and educators to the New Ulm diocese.

Our Lady of Good Counsel Home, located at 2076 St. Anthony Ave., St. Paul, is one of seven such homes in the United States operated by the Servants for Relief for Incurable Cancer, also known as the Hawthorne Dominicans.

courtesy of St. Cloud Visitor