Austria: What Happens When a Bishop Wants to Retire
By Giacomo Galeazzi
Kothgasser is 75 and in a hurry to retire. He has asked permission to pope Benedict XVI who has already met with him about a potential successor. Mgr. Manfred Scheuer's allure as a candidate for this See grows. He is 57 years old and bishop of Innsbruck, he is also negotiating with the Austrian rebel priests to avoid a schism. Mgr. Manfred Scheuer is playing a pivotal match for the Austrian Catholic Church and has shown a certain amount of openness towards some of the requests of the "disobedient" clergy. In his opinion the seven points of the 'Appeal to Disobedience', promoted by the priests who support the "Pfarrer-initiative", should be viewed individually and not as a package: for example, since there is "real need" for change on the matter of divorcees who have remarried, perhaps they could be allowed to receive the holy communion under certain conditions. "I hope the Church will carry on dealing with this matter in the years to come" said Mgr. Manfred Scheuer . He also suggested taking into consideration whether it might be "necessary from a pastoral point of view" to let "lay people deliver sermons during the Holy Communion" The main candidate to this prestigious See in Salzburg is on the frontline, facing an explosive situation. In Austria (like in Ireland, Belgium and Germany) after the scandal of paedophilia in the clergy exploded in 2010, groups of priests kept and still keep pressuring Rome asking for reforms on matters like the abolition of the vow of celibacy, the ordination of women as priests and allowing divorcees who have remarried to take the Holy Communion. There is the risk that something may happen in central and northern Europe. Some people in the clergy fear this 'something' to be another schism like the Lefebvrian one, but of opposite character. At the centre of all the protests is Austria, where a priests' movement begun in 2006 (the «Pfarrer Initiative», the priests' initiative) keeps growing. The movement published an "Appeal to Disobedience" demanding, as mentioned earlier, the ordination of female priests, the possibility of giving the Holy Communion to people who have divorced and remarried, the abolition of the vow of celibacy and the awarding of a more prominent role in the Church' rites to lay people. The Pfarrer Initiative has greatly tested the diplomatic abilities of cardinal Christoph Schoenborn , archbishop of Vienna, who commented on the matter with the following statement: "If in our diocese here I would step out of line with the community of the Catholic Church then I would lead our diocese into a schism". The pope's first ever address to the Austrian clergy during the Maundy Thursday Mass in St. Peter basilica was a clear sign of the climate of anxiety felt in the Apostolic Palace because of the protest. Benedict XVI said: "Recently a group of priests from a European country issued a summons to disobedience, and at the same time gave concrete examples of the forms this disobedience might take, even to the point of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church's Magisterium, such as the question of women's ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated irrevocably that the Church has received no authority from the Lord." The pope wondered further, "Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church?", his answer to that question was a "no". In those same days, the Vatican asked the Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery, leader of the Association of Catholic Priests (Irish association linked to the Austrian one) to put his work on the Redemptorist Reality monthly magazine on hold. The Association then published a statement of dissent and made public a poll showing that the large majority of Irish Catholics are in favour of married priests and the ordination of women. Meanwhile, "For the purpose of avoiding confusion among the Christian people," various national bishops' conferences (beginning with Spain's) have specified that 'the "We are Church" trend, despite its name, is not an ecclesial group nor has it received any approval or canonical recognition." It is "a civil association which, since 1995, has brought together some groups of Christian origins who share an attitude against the Magisterium and discipline of the Church." In addition, the "We are Church" movement makes affirmations and claims that "are clearly separate from the teachings of the Catholic Church, and wound and harm ecclesial communion." Therefore, it is necessary for "all Catholics to live within their communities in communion with the whole Church (pastors and faithful), being aware that the positions of the "We are Church" trend not only do not help, but seriously hinder the path of authentic ecclesial renewal postulated by the Second Vatican Council". This ultra-progressive movement "We are Church" that it intends to promote in the country liturgical ceremonies in which laypeople act as priests, praying and simulating the celebration of Mass. "Ecclesiastical law forbids it," Hans Peter Hurka, the leader of "We are Church" and promoter of the reformist manifesto "Call to Disobedience", admits. Therefore it can be said that the revolt within the Austrian clergy now openly violates the rule of clerical celibacy and admits to communion remarried divorcees. If to this, one now adds the "Lay Mass", it seems evident that the rupture with Rome places the dissident priests outside the Church.
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