Bishop Lucker was 'gift from God'

Lucker worked

tirelessly to

strengthen parish life, Stubeda

says in homily

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- With his flock gathered about their fallen shepherd, retired Bishop Raymond Lucker, 74, was eulogized Tuesday during the Mass of Christian Burial at the Cathedral and laid to rest in the priests' section of the Catholic Cemetery.

He served as bishop of the New Ulm Diocese from December 1975 until his retirement in November 2000, because of failing health.

The bishop who brought about understanding and acceptance of Native Americans in the diocese carried with him to his grave a beaded medallion, symbolizing his friendship and support of Native Americans. It was placed in his casket by Vernell Wabasha, wife of Ernest Wabasha, hereditary chief of the Mdewakanton band of Dakota. The couple were close friends of the bishop.

"He was one of the few priests that really made us feel comfortable here in New Ulm," said Vernell Wabasha. "He accomplished a great deal because, up to then, we weren't really accepted in New Ulm."

Lucker's final act as bishop was to suppress for further use the diocesan seal that he had decided "after several years of deliberation" was offensive to Native Americans, said the Rev. Anthony "Tony" Stubeda, the diocese's director of Hispanic Ministries,

The coat-of-arms seal featured a river running through its center, Stubeda explained, "and it looked very much like a snake." Because the Dakota people had been called Sioux, a French word for snake, Lucker felt the seal was denigrating to the Dakota. The diocese's current leader, Bishop John C. Nienstedt, supports Lucker's decision, Stubeda said, and has ordered the design of a new seal.

These and other stories circulated during Lucker's funeral.

In his homily, Stubeda called the bishop "a gift from God. He worked tirelessly to strengthen parish life, to remind all of us that the life of the Church was lived in the small communities that gathered together are called the Diocese of New Ulm.

"People hungered to understand the overwhelming experience of God's love, and he worked without tiring to teach them," the priest recalled. "Anyone who ever sat on a committee or council knew that when he said, 'Have I ever told you?' we were going to be told again. I used to tease him that if someone asked how to make a salad, he was apt to begin with God's creation of lettuce. He taught as Jesus taught, every day and always."

Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Bishop of the Minnesota-Dakotas Province presided at the funeral mass. He shared his own story about Lucker's dedication to teaching.

"It was during a break at a conference we were attending that I asked him about baking bread. As Father Tony indicated, Bishop Lucker began a very detailed explanation beginning with the planting of the wheat and the depositing of each seed in the ground. We had to return to our meeting, and we never did get the bread into the oven."

Flynn also noted Lucker truly was at one with God.

"He was sitting in his room one day, and we asked him what he was doing," Flynn recalled. "I'm sitting here, letting God love me."

Stubeda quoted a poem about him written by Lucker's sister.

"I would use words like saintly or holy

But of these I know he'll disagree

He'll say he is what God

Has made and it is His grace that

Will determine what he is to be."

At the beginning of the mass, Nienstedt read a message of condolence from the Vatican. Fifteen bishops, including two archbishops and a Lutheran bishop, were among the mourners who filled the cathedral.

An image of Christ with out-spread arms painted on the cathedral ceiling appeared to welcome the bishop's soul as Flynn commended it to God.

The Knights of Columbus provided two dozen uniformed honor guards who created a walkway at the entrance of the cathedral and stood at attention at the gravesite.

More than 200 mourners traveled by bus and car to the cemetery where Nienstedt officiated. He sprinkled the casket with Holy water, and mourners filed past the casket, touching or patting it, before it was lowered into its vault.

Lucker is buried next to the diocese's first bishop, the Most Rev. Alphonse J. Schladweiler.

A funeral mass for Lucker was held Monday in Oakdale at Guardian Angels Catholic Church, his mother's parish.