There is open rebellion among the clergy of
Austria’s Catholic Church.
One highly placed man of the cloth has even
warned about the risk of a coming schism, as significant numbers of
priests are refusing obedience to the Pope and bishops for the first
time in memory.
The 300-plus supporters of the “Priests’ Initiative” have had enough
of what they call the Church’s “delaying” tactics, and they are
advocating pushing ahead with policies that openly defy current
practices.
These include letting non-ordained people lead religious
services and deliver sermons; making communion available to divorced
people who have remarried; allowing women to become priests and to take
on important positions in the hierarchy; and letting priests carry out
pastoral functions even if, in defiance of Church rules, they have a
wife and family.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Vienna’s Archbishop and head of the
Austrian Bishops’ Conference, has threatened the rebels with
excommunication.
Those involved in the initiative are not, incidentally,
only low-profile members of the clergy.
Indeed, it is being led by
Helmut Schüller -- who was for many years Vicar General of the
Archdiocese of Vienna and director of Caritas -- and the cathedral
pastor in the Carinthian diocese of Gurk.
The issues that supporters of the initiative want addressed may be
revolutionary, but they are by no means new: they constitute basic
questions that have been around for a long time but have never been
addressed by Church officials.
Initiative supporters are demanding that parishes openly expose all
things forbidden by the Church hierarchy, thus putting a stop to
hypocrisy and allowing authenticity of belief and community life to
emerge.
The appeal for “more honesty“ made to the world’s youth by Pope
Benedict XVI in Madrid last week left a sour taste in many mouths in
Austria, where some say that honesty is a quality the Church hierarchy
has more of a tendency to punish than reward.
Open pressure and disobedience
Particularly affected are some 700 members of an association called "Priester ohne Amt" – loosely, priests without a job
– who have a wife and children that they stand by, but wish in vain to
practice their ministry.
Priests who break ties with loved ones, on the
other hand, are allowed to continue working.
According to initiative founder Schüller, only openly disobedient
priests and joint pressure from priests and laity alike can force the
hierarchy to budge.
Although the problems have been out there for
decades, he says, the Church keeps putting off doing anything about
them. Cardinal Schönborn stated that the critics would have to “give
some thought to their path in the Church” or face unavoidable
consequences.
On the other hand, Anton Zulehner, a priest who is one of
the most respected pastoral theologians in Austria, believes that this
time the Church is not going to get away with diversionary tactics.
Twenty years ago, Austria, nominally at least, was 85% Catholic.
Today, in the city of Vienna, Catholics account for less than half the
population, and rural parishes are melting away.
Various scandals have
rocked the Church in Austria, among them child abuse charges against
former Vienna Archbishop Hans-Hermann Groer, and the nomination of a
series of reactionary priests to the rank of bishop.