AUSTRIA
The Local
An Austrian priest gave his congregation a surprise during a church service on Easter Monday in Donawitz, Styria, when he announced that he was giving up the priesthood to marry a woman he’d
Maximilian Tödtling (45) told his parishioners that he would quit in September and asked them to understand why he had chosen to leave.
Tödtling has been in charge of the parish of Leoben-West for eight years, and according to a report in the Kronen Zeitung newspaper is very popular.
By the end of August he will have given up all his church duties and will apply to the Pope for laicization – whereby his status as a member of the clergy will be removed.
Tödtling said that he was in a relationship with a woman called Nora who works for a Catholic charity that takes care of the poor and homeless.
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