Francis’ First Excommunication

Vatican Insider
May 22, 2014

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/austria-austria-austria-34267/

The Bishop Of Innsbruk, Manfred Scheuer (From The Diocese Website)

The Pope has punished Martha Heizer (67) the president of the Austrian Catholic movement “We are Church” and her husband Ehemann Gert, with the highest ecclesiastical sanction: excommunication. The Pope’s decision come after the two regularly simulated Eucharistic celebrations, which is a serious offense ("delictum gravius"). The couple will now no longer be able to receive the sacraments of the Catholic Church. In a statement, they said they were “disconcerted by Rome’s decision.”

The couple celebrated masses in the absence of a priest, in their home in Absam, a small municipality near the Tyrolese capital. According to the Tiroler Tageszeitung, the case had sparked a scandal back in 2011, when the woman – who teaches religion in Innsbruck – decided to defy the Vatican, announcing her intention to celebrate mass even att he cost of risking excommunication.

The diocesan bishop of Innsbruck, Manfred Scheuer, wrote that “excommunication does not represent a victory for the Church, but rather a defeat. I am deeply saddened to see that the parties in question have not reconsidered their actions.”