Raymond Alphonse Lucker

Raymond Alphonse Lucker (February 24, 1927 – September 19, 2001) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of New Ulm in Minnesota from 1976 to 2000. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota from 1971 to 1976.

Biography

Early life Raymond Lucker was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the third of six children of Alphonse J. and Josephine Theresa (née Schiltgen) Lucker. His father, a railroad worker, died in 1940 at age 42, the day before Raymond began the eighth grade. His mother, who was the daughter of a farmer, later married Joseph Stephen Mayer in 1948. He spent many of his childhood summers working on his grandparents' farm east of the Twin Cities. He then studied at St. Paul Seminary, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy (1948) and a Master of Arts degree in Church history (1952). His first assignment was as assistant director of the archdiocese's Office of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. He was a pioneer in the national movement to reform Catholic education, helping the nationwide development of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and the National Conference of Diocesan Directors.

Lucker also served as episcopal moderator of Pax Christi; as a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America; and as a member of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Administrative Committee and the committees on Latin America, Evangelization, Diaconate, Laity, Catechetical Directory, and Charismatic Renewal. On the particular issue of women's ordination, he once remarked, "Basically, the Church's argument against the ordination of women—which has been taught for at least 800 years—is that women are inferior. But we don't believe that women are inferior anymore. There is a lack of argumentation for the teaching. And the argumentation is weak."

Clerical celibacy Lucker also opposed clerical celibacy, supporting the ordination of married men to help alleviate the worldwide shortage of priests.