NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter
Jamie Manson | Jul. 17, 2013
Fr. Helmut Schüller should be on summer vacation right now.
Instead, the Austrian priest, who gained international attention in 2011 for his “Call to Disobedience,” has chosen to spend his time off from parish ministry offering a presentation titled “The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations” in 15 U.S. cities.
The tour kicked off Tuesday night at Manhattan’s Judson Memorial Church, a historic community in Greenwich Village with affiliations to the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Church.
Tuesday night, however, the space was filled with 230 reform-minded Catholics who braved dangerously high heat and humidity to hear Schüller’s vision for church reform and a renewed priesthood.
Schüller is quick to note he is only one priest among a large community of clergy and lay supporters who are calling on the institutional church for desperately needed reforms. …
Schüller, who previously served as president of Caritas Austria, was appointed vicar general in 1995 by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn but served simultaneously as a church pastor.
Both roles, he said, have given him insight into the current state of the institutional church. As vicar general, he learned that the structure of the church “does not allow too much space for reform or questions,” while as pastor of a parish, he realized that, once he retires, “I will leave my community to an uncertain future.”
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