Several hundred people attended the first service of an independent church founded by a priest who broke from the Catholic Church, despite warnings that Catholics who affiliated with the new church risked excommunicating themselves.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette The Rev. Bill Hausen says prayers during the first service at Christ Hope Ecumenical Catholic Church yesterday at the Sewickley Country Inn. Click photo for larger image.

"The only reason for coming to church is to learn how to love," the Rev. Bill Hausen preached at Christ Hope Ecumenical Catholic Church, which met at the Sewickley Country Inn.

"God does not need praise. God has all the praise he needs. We don't have to love God, because God is love."

A spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, said that Hausen and any Catholics who attended with the intention of separating themselves from the Catholic Church had effectively excommunicated themselves. However, he stressed that excommunication no longer carries the medieval connotation of being condemned to hell, since the church recognizes the salvation of Christians outside the Catholic tradition.

Hausen's excommunication is not due to his views on women's ordination or other teachings he has questioned, Lengwin said yesterday.

"The issue is that he has established a new church, and a priest cannot do that," he said.

Liturgically, the 75-minute service differed from a Catholic Mass only in that Hausen absolved the worshipers of their sins when they had not been to private confession. The Catholic Church permits that only when people are in immediate danger of death.

Hausen told reporters that he believed 500 to 600 people attended the service. There were empty seats in the room with a posted seating capacity of 400; the Post-Gazette estimated attendance closer to 300.

Many people said they were visiting out of curiosity or to show support for Hausen. Those included 18 Unitarians from Slippery Rock who had skipped their own service at Ginger Hill Unitarian-Universalist Church.

"We came to show support for a more liberal viewpoint," said Lois Ament, who said she was a former Catholic who had been outraged more than 40 years ago when she was not permitted to become an altar server.

During the service Hausen spoke of his battle with alcoholism, and said the church would help people with addictions.

"It has often been said that religion is for those who are afraid to go to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there," said Hausen, who was ordained 39 years ago this week and will turn 66 on Wednesday.

"I've been to hell in my own addictions."

In October Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh banned Hausen from all ministry, and from identifying himself as a priest. According to Lengwin, the ban "was related to issues involving his alcoholism."

In 2002, Hausen was transferred from St. James, Sewickley, to his home parish of Sacred Heart in Shadyside after delivering an Easter homily in which he urged discussion of ordaining women and married men, and in which he said Catholics should be "pissed off" about the sexual abuse scandal in the church.

At the time, church officials said that, while his language and views were inappropriate for the pulpit, the major reason for the transfer was that he had created a division in St. James parish. Yesterday Lengwin elaborated.

The 2002 homily "only touched on the real problem, which was his announcement to us that he intended to leave the Catholic Church and begin a new church, as he did today," Lengwin said.

Diocesan officials kept silent about it then "because a process of possible reconciliation had begun and was achieved for a while," he said.

Hausen's drinking was a problem after he left St. James, Lengwin said.

"We reached out to him in his serious illness, which he has discussed publicly. We supported him in many ways. The only provision that we established was that he couldn't drive, because we were afraid that someone could get hurt," Lengwin said.

In yesterday's church bulletin, Hausen attributed his alcoholism partly to boredom, and said the new church was a response to that.

"I found myself, at least in the last 10 years, in boring situations after boring situations. I wallowed in self-pity and took on the 'victim' role, unable to pursue my dream and speak my word," he wrote. "It is my hope, in helping to form Christ Hope parish, to share my experiences with everyone who is stuck in boredom."

He opened his sermon with a dig at Wuerl, who shares a first name with the tycoon featured in a popular reality TV show.

Hausen said he had had a nightmare in which the phone rang as he was writing his homily. "And there, on the phone was Donald" ---- Hausen paused for dramatic effect ---- "Trump! And he said, 'Father Hausen, you're fired!"

The congregation broke into laughter and applause.

While his liturgy was Catholic, the sermon was not exclusively Christian.

The New Testament declares that God is love, "and you can exchange the words and put 'Love is God,'" Hausen said.

"When you see anyone, whether they are Hindu or Buddhist or Judaism or Christian or Islam ...no matter what color they are, what sex they are, or whatever orientation they are . . . if you see anybody doing selfless love, you see God in action."

He urged his listeners to base their knowledge of God on what they find inside themselves, rather than on tradition or outside authority.

"I feel that the greatest theology today will come from your experience of yourself . . . not from above or from someone imposing stuff on us," he said.

Asked why he started an independent church, rather than joining an existing denomination that ordains women, Hausen said he didn't trust them.

"I've had so many bad experiences with autocracy and despotism in our church that, at this point, I'm just afraid to venture into another kind of discipline where I don't know what I'm getting myself into," he said. Linda and Bob Swinkola, members of St. James in Sewickley, said they came from curiosity and because they liked and respected Hausen, but were not sure whether they would return. Bob Swinkola said he had needs that were not being met in the Catholic Church.

"Will they be met here? I don't know," he said.

Robert Johnston, a childhood friend of Hausen, flew in from Chicago. He recalled Hausen as a seminarian, distributing food to families in need.

"He's honest, he's enthusiastic and he's always helping someone," Johnston said.

Julianne Scimio of Hopewell said she had left the Catholic Church 25 years ago but never felt at home in other churches.

"I want to come home, but I don't want to come back to the same church I walked away from," she said. "This feels like home. I just hope it turns out to be a home church."

The doors remain open for Hausen and anyone who may have left with him to return, Lengwin said.

"This saddens us because the unity of the church has been broken. But, just as we didn't give up two years ago, we are not giving up now, either. The church always lives with the hope of reconciliation, believing that nothing is impossible with God."