Boston Cardinal Forbids Talk at St. Susanna Parish

By Sara Feijo
Wicked Local Dedham
July 5, 2013

http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x1651959463/Boston-Cardinal-forbids-talk-at-St-Susanna-Parish#axzz2YAZ72wou

Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese Cardinal Sean O’Malley banned an Austrian priest from speaking at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, even though the lecture would address ways to lessen shortage of priests.

Rev. Helmut Schuller, who is the founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative (Pfarrer-Initiative), was scheduled to speak at the parish on July 17.

St. Susanna’s Deacon Larry Bloom said that the Archbishop office did not allow Schuller’s lecture because he advocates positions contrary to the Catholic Church’s doctrine.

“I understand that the Archbishop has to do what he has to do,” Bloom said Thursday morning, June 27. “He has a bigger scope of individual responsibilities than a parish has, so I wasn’t upset.”

Schuller’s initiative, founded in 2006, advocates for admission of women and married people to priesthood as a way to address a global shortage of priests. He launched “Appeal to Disobedience” to tackle the church’s “refusal to take up long needed reforms,” according to the campaign’s website.

Schuller will still speak in Dedham, as part of his 15-city tour of the U.S. His lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 17, at neighboring First Church and Parish in Dedham, a Universalist church on High Street.