The “Pastors’ Initiative” (Pfarrer-Initiative) in Austria numbers 313 priests and deacons. Pray Tell has mentioned them before.
On Trinity Sunday the Pastor’s Initiative issued an “Appeal to Disobedience.” The Roman refusal to take up long needed reforms, they say, and the inaction of the bishops, not only permit but demand that they follow their conscience and take action themselves. Their plans:
- In every liturgy they will include a petition for church reform.
- They will not deny Communion to faithful of good will, especially remarried people, members of other Christian churches, and in some cases those who have officially left the Catholic Church.
- As much as possible they will avoid celebrating multiple times on Sundays and feastdays, and avoid scheduling circuit rider priests unknown to the community. A locally-planned Liturgy of the Word is preferable.
- They will use the term “Priestless Eucharistic Celebration” for a Liturgy of the Word with distribution of Communion. This is how the Sunday Mass obligation is fulfilled when priests are in short supply.
- They will ignore the prohibition of preaching by competently trained laity, including female religion teachers. In difficult times, the Word of God must be proclaimed.
- They will advocate that every parish has a presiding leader – man or woman, married or unmarried, full-time or part time. Rather than consolidating parishes, they call for a new image of the priest.
- They will take every opportunity to speak up publicly for the admission of women and married people to the priesthood. These would be welcome colleagues in ministry.
They express solidarity with colleagues no longer permitted to exercise their ministry because they have married, and also with those in ministry who are in a permanent relationship.
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Bishop Kapellari of Graz, vice president of the bishops’ conference,strongly rejects the “Appeal to Disobedience.” He stated yesterday that it endangers the unity of the Catholic Church. The Pope and bishops are aware of the pastoral needs of the Church; discussions have taken place and will continue. But there is no state of emergency justifying a special path for Austria apart from the universal Church. “The bond with the universal Church and the Pope is part of our irrevocable identity,” Kapellari stressed.
The Bishop sees “selective reading of the current situation of the Church in Austria as a whole.” Their demands may well seem plausible to many people, but they “endanger very seriously the identity and unity of the Catholic Church,” he emphasized. “It is legitimate to express the cares and concerns of parish communities openly. But it is something entirely different to call for disobedience, to endanger the commonly held character of the universal Church, and to renounce commonly held obligations one-sidedly.”
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The Pastors’ Initiative is holding a generally assembly this November 6th in Linz.
My comment: Those priests and deacons risk leading some people to lose their souls by confirming them in their sinful lifestyles.
I never cease to be amazed by the number of people who will attempt to justify their immoral lifestyle by calling in support the views of aberrant priests or nuns while ignoring the teaching of Popes who are the divinely appointed guardians of the flock.
Not just in Austria, but such sentiments are abroad in the UK, but not yet fully organised and the hierarchies are either sympathetic to the trend, or, feel powerless to act because of collegiality.
ReplyDeleteI have heard one bishop, now retired, express just such sentiments as are abroad in Austria, He had been the rector of a seminary and presumably infected the future clergy with his views, and, so the parishioners.
God help us!!!
ReplyDeleteThey will advocate that every parish has a presiding leader – man or woman, married or unmarried, full-time or part time. Rather than consolidating parishes, they call for a new image of the priest.
ReplyDeleteThis is spiritual vivisection. Why would you want to take a parish out of the hands of a man who has grave responsibility for it before God, and put it into the hands of someone who does not?
There is a parish in my town where this was actually done, with the bishop's approval. The experiment continued for a number of years. The architectural distortion of the inside of the church was really a physical manifestation of the spiritual distortion and sickness. Thank God this folly was not (to my knowledge) tried elsewhere.
And now it is over. After years of prayer and parishioner's requests, the parish is once again in the hands of a priest. He has his work cut out for him and needs prayers.