Friday, April 06, 2012

Ratzinger advocates dialogue not sanctions for “rebel” Austrian priests

At first it might seem like an extreme attempt to keep a stiff upper lip: the leader of the “rebel” Austrian priests, Mgr. Helmut Schüller, stated he was satisfied with the homily pronounced Thursday by Pope Benedict XVI who responded directly to the Pfarrer InitiativeTM News, Schüller said that the Pope’s homily was one which he supports. 

Indeed, the Pope did not make any harsh remark about the group or its initiative and, unusually, engaged in a “dialogue” with the priests who supported the initiative, in an attempt to put himself in their shoes and even raised potential objections to his own reasoning. 

Benedict XVI focused on the subject of “disobedience”, frequently asking himself and the priests present whether this really was the path to a “true renewal” of the Church, “or just a desperate push to do something, to transform the Church according to our wishes and ideas?”

The Pope’s attitude was similar to the one adopted by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph  Schönborn, who, right from the early days of the Pfarrer Initiative - which was kick-started in 2006 but “exploded” as a national and then international phenomenon in 2011 with the “Appeal to Disobedience” cited today by the Pope – discussed, responded and criticised the priests who were involved in it and their ideas, but never punished them with outright excommunication as other Church “princes” would have liked.

Schönborn is known for his closeness to Pope Benedict XVI, being a former pupil of his, his determination in addressing the paedophilia scandal in his Country and the sometimes controversial stances he has adopted in recent years – from his explicit devotion to the Medjugorje apparitions, still sub judice  by the Vatican, to his criticisms of Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s management of the issue of abuse in the  Catholic Church, to his very recent choice to confirm a man in a homosexual relationship as the leader of a parish council.

Of course, Benedict XVI  reiterated that the Catholic Magisterium has taken a clear decision on the question of women’s ordination, which the Pfarrer Initiative has requested: Pope John Paul II firmly stated that the Church” was not given the power, from God, to ordain women to the priesthood. 

The Pope also avoided giving direct responses to the long list of grievances presented by the Austrian parish priests.

The list of requests includes amongst other things, the abolition of compulsory celibacy for priests, communion for remarried divorcees, the possibility for practicing Catholics - both women and men - who have not taken vows to be able to preach and run parishes, and a revision of the system for the selection of bishops.

The “Appeal to Disobedience” was born in 2011, out of an awareness of how the work of priests was changing as a result of a drop in vocations: priests say they often find themselves acting as mere “executors of sacraments” who are forced by parishes that have no fixed parish priest, to go round and round like a spinning top, making it impossible for them to put down roots and establish real contact with their “flock”.

Rome’s refusal to implement a much needed reform in the Church, along with the ultra-conservatism of bishops, allows us and in fact obliges us to follow our conscience and act autonomously,” wrote Schüller - Schönborn’s former vicar general in the Archdiocese of Vienna and former president of Caritas Austria – in the appeal launched last 19 June. 

Since then, over 450 priests and deacons – that is more than a tenth of the Austrian clergy – have signed it. 

Meanwhile, a recent survey by Gfk-Umfrage revealed that 72% of Austrian priests are “sympathetic” to the appeal.

In recent months, the movement has extended to other Countries as well and Schüller has travelled round Europe to compare ideas with those who are of the same mind. 

In Ireland, still devastated by the paedophilia scandal, the Association of Catholic Priests has grown exponentially although the news that its leader is to be investigated by the Vatican only came out on Thursday. 

In France, a group which supports “genuine obedience to the Gospel” is gathering consensus. Other similar initiatives have sprung up in Germany, Belgium, Slovakia, the United States and other Countries.

According to the leader of the “rebel” priests, the Pope “is aware that here in Austria these issues are being debated and that our ideas are shared by many faithful. 

Therefore, the question cannot be resolved by imposing sanctions.”

Pope Benedict XVI too admitted that there are genuine concerns surrounding the Austrian movement. 

“The Pope recognises that we are motivated by our concern for the Church and by our wish to safeguard its future. The tone used by the Pope was not harsh,” Schüller said from the village of Probstdorf where he is now parish priest.

One of the members of the Pfarrer Initiative’s executive board, Hans Bensdorp, goes further. Speaking to Vatican Insider, he stressed that when the Pope states that Christ “corrected human customs which threatened to suffocate the word and will of God,”  he chooses “words” which are not that much different  to the ones used by his own movement to express its “concerns”. What is more, he added, “he does not condemn our group. He asks a great deal of questions – questions we should take seriously.”

Commenting on the Pope’s homily, the director of Vatican daily broadsheet, L’Osservatore Romano, Gian Maria Vian, wrote that Pope Benedict XVI “placing himself, as he always does, in the shoes of the person whom he is questioning, asked himself whether obedience does not in fact foster ultra-conservatism and make tradition more rigid.” 

He added that “Disobedience is not the way forward and neither is inflexibility.”

From Vienna, Cardinal Schönborn welcomed the Pope’s words as an “encouragement to the Austrian Church” which shows how “important” he considers “the debate regarding the future of the Austrian Catholic Church.” 

A debate which may have only just begun.