Pope Tells Dissident Priests Exactly What They Can Do with Their Anti-celibacy Ideas

Perth Now
April 5, 2012

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/pope-tells-dissident-priests-exactly-what-they-can-do-with-their-anti-celibacy-ideas/story-e6frg12u-1226320113447

POPE Benedict XVI has issued a rare and explicit denunciation of priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy and ordaining women.

Saying they were being selfish in disobeying his authority, the Pope made the criticism from the altar of St Peter's Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday, when priests recall the promises they made when ordained.

In 2006, a group of Austrian priests launched the Pfaffer Initiative, a call to disobedience aimed at abolishing priestly celibacy and opening up the clergy to women to relieve the shortages of priests.

Last June, the group essentially threatened a schism, saying the Vatican's refusal to hear their complaints left them no choice but to "follow our conscience and act independently".

They issued a revised call to disobedience in which they said parishes would celebrate Eucharistic services without priests, that they would let women preach, and they pledged to speak out publicly and frequently for a female and a married priesthood.

The group now reportedly numbers more than 300 Austrian priests and deacons as well as supporters in other countries, and its influence has grown to such an extent that top Austrian bishops met with Vatican officials in January to discuss how to handle them.

In his homily, Benedict said the dissidents claim to be motivated by concern for the church.

But he suggested that in reality they were just making "a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with (their) own preferences and ideas".

"We would like to believe that the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the church, that they are convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the church up to date," he said.

"But is disobedience really a way to do this?"

Jesus always followed true obedience to God's will, he said, not "human caprice".

Holy Thursday homilies are often unusual, in that the Pope uses them to issue direct messages to priests.

In 2006, Benedict read a letter written by a cleric who had been killed as he prayed in Turkey.

And on Holy Thursday in 2002, Pope John Paul II broke his silence over the explosion of the US sex abuse scandal, denouncing the sins of priestly abusers and the "grave scandal" that was casting a "dark shadow of suspicion" over all priests.