Austria… poor Austria: scrub priests rebel

From CWN.  My emphases and comments.

Over 300 Austrian priests join ‘Call to Disobedience’

Catholic World News
July 13, 2011

Over 300 of Austria’s 4,200 priests have pledged to take part in Aufruf zum Ungehorsam (Call to Disobedience), an initiative launched in June.

The Call to Disobedience document cites “the Roman refusal of a long-overdue Church reform and the inaction of bishops.” Priests who support the document pledge

•to pray for Church reform at every liturgy, since “in the presence of God there is freedom of speech” [liturgy = freedom of speech?]
•not to deny the Holy Eucharist to “believers of good will,” including non-Catholic Christians and those who have remarried outside the Church [So, effectively, no criteria at all for the meaning of “Communion”.]
•to avoid offering Mass more than once on Sundays and holy days and to avoid making use of visiting priests–instead holding a “self-designed” Liturgy of the Word [Because they are at heart really Protestants.]
•to describe such a Liturgy of the Word with the distribution of Holy Communion as a “priestless Eucharistic celebration”; “thus we fulfill the Sunday obligation in a time of priest shortage” [Every man his own priest, after all… though that’s sexist, isn’t it…]
•to “ignore” canonical norms that restrict the preaching of the homily to clergy [Freedom of speech… remember?]
•to oppose parish mergers, insisting instead that each parish have its own individual leader, “whether man or woman” [To hell with the Christ-founded hierarchy.]
•to “use every opportunity to speak out openly in favor of the admission of the married and of women to the priesthood” [Heretics.]

“The open call to disobedience shocked me,” Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna said in a July 7 letter, [REALLY, Your Eminence? Really?] noting that many professionals would have “long since lost their jobs” if they had called for disobedience. [So… Your Eminence… do something about it.] Reminding priests that they had freely promised obedience to their bishop at ordination, he asked, “Can I rely on you?”

“Christian obedience is a school of freedom,” the cardinal added. “It is about the concrete translation into life of what we pray in every Our Father, when we ask the Father that His will be done in heaven and on earth … This willingness is made concrete in religious obedience to the Pope and bishops.”

Those who truly in conscience believe that they must disobey the hierarchy, and that “‘Rome’ is on the wrong track [and] gravely contradicts the will of God,” ought in consequence to “travel the way no more with the Roman Catholic Church. I believe and hope, however, that this extreme case does not occur here.” [Otherwise….. what?]

“The one who gives up the principle of obedience dissolves unity,” the cardinal continued, as he pledged to meet with the initiative’s leaders and point out its “inconsistencies,” such as “priestless Eucharist.”

The new initiative’s web site is registered in the name of Father Hans Bensdorp, until 2010 the parish priest of the Church of the Rosary in Hetzendorf in the Archdiocese of Vienna. [Isn’t Card. Schoenborn the Archbishop of Vienna?] A YouTube video, [See below.] uploaded in 2009, shows an excerpt from the Mass commemorating the 35th anniversary of Father Bensdorp’s priestly ordination, according to the video’s description.

Tensions between the papacy and segments of the Church in Austria are not novel, as witnessed by the advent of Josephinism in the 18th centry, the fin-de-siècle Los von Rom (Free from Rome) movement, and disagreements between the Vatican and Vienna Cardinal Theodor Innitzer in the face of the Nazi Anschluss.

Scrubs.

Two words for them:

GET. OUT.

FWIW: Fr. Bensdorp’s celebration.

[wp_youtube]NPVpqoM2vLw[/wp_youtube]

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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60 Comments

  1. KAS says:

    Excommunicate the signers, make it public that they have chosen to leave the church, laicise them, do whatever it takes to make sure the average Catholic knows these people are NOT being good Catholics and that to follow them is to abandon Christ.

    Heretics, or people pushing heretical beliefs, and gay masses get the free pass– and I live where our Bishop allowed home school parents to be insulted and did nothing to correct the letter that came from HIS office.

    So I guess parents seeking to raise orthodox Catholic kids are bad and heretics are good– as far as our Bishops are concerned– at least that is how they are ACTING.

    And Rome is mostly silent. Gotta be nice to the fellow Bishops, no matter how many souls they are leading to hell with the things they permit and even promote.

    You know, I think I may be having a bad day– but it would be nice to have a bunch of Bishops like St. Athanasius.

  2. “priestless Eucharistic celebration” ….. [Every man his own priest, after all… though that’s sexist, isn’t it…]

    Well, lest they be quilty of sexism, surely they’ll be willing to hold priestessless Eucharistic celebrations also.

  3. I agree with KAS. They already signed a document that contained their heresies. And what does dialogue accomplish?

    A piece of advice to the cardinal and other Austrian bishops: USE YOUR CROZIER!

  4. TNCath says:

    That video was really, really weird. Sounds like Austria needs some hands-on governance from the Vatican.

  5. If I went to one of their Masses, I’d be praying for church reform too. (Of them and theirs, of course.) But yeah, that whole “free speech = say what I like at Mass” is an awfully slippery slope. What is to prevent everybody at Mass (not just your favored few readers of “reflections”) from chipping in, at the top of their voices or with electronic amplification? Even if I were the most progressive priest ever, I wouldn’t open that can of worms. Noooooo, ’cause I’d know what my little progressive friends were like.

  6. Oh, and the “only one Mass” sounds like they resent having to get out of their comfy chairs to go to church a few hours a week, as opposed to most priests who are busier than monkeys on free banana day at the grocery store. So I guess they really do need to find a real job, and see how the 9 to 5 crowd lives.

  7. Subdeacon Joseph says:

    Very painful to watch.

  8. Phil_NL says:

    the Roman refusal of a long-overdue Church reform and the inaction of bishops.”

    Strangely enough, I actually agree with these words. I might have a radically different view of the contents of said reform and action, but boy, taken litteraly and out of context, it’s spot on.

    (As for reform: how about putting the entire Austrian Church under a papal legate with full powers and the mood of a Torquemada, as for inaction of the bishops: Austrian law surely as an equivalent to a pink slip. Trust me, they’ll like that color).

  9. Joseph-Mary says:

    Did not watch the video.

    Very sad situation indeed. But heretics should not be allowed to continue as if the Church approves of them and sit by while they lead their flocks astray. There is a place for such disobedient and proud men and it is with the innumerable protestant ‘ecclesial communities’. There they can be their own pope and live their secular lives.

  10. AnAmericanMother says:

    These people either are so stupid they don’t understand what “free speech” means, or they are being deliberately disingenuous.

    “Free Speech” refers only to freedom from government control of your speech. It does not guarantee a hearing, assent, or no consequences. It does not mean that you can say anything you like to/about your boss, whether that boss is a grocery store owner, an executive, or Our Lord and Saviour — and remain in that job.

  11. phd12699 says:

    And His Eminence is shocked!?! — the one who has not exactly been the epitome of the obedient servant (his trip to Medjugorje and then hosting the seers in his cathedral is just one example). It is a bit diffucult to call his priests to be obedient to him, when he himself is not obedient to Rome; one might almost be tempted to say hypocritical. While these priests are wrong and should “get out” I find I have more sympathy for them (not their ideas, mind) than for the good Archbishop.

  12. DavidJ says:

    Dear Bishops:

    Please bish, that is, please do your job. Do it well, do it fearlessly, do it with charity, do it decisively. Be bold. You have our prayers.

    Sincerely,

    The laity

  13. Yes, “get out”. The sooner, the better. An urgent action is overdue.

  14. LouiseA says:

    Officially, all these 300 priests are in “full-communion” with Rome, so there’s no problem.

  15. Elizabeth D says:

    Sure he should first dialogue with his presbyterate, but why is Cardinal Schonborn not protecting his flock by removing obstinately heretical priests from ministry? Part of this dissent seems to be related to high workload for priests who are often assigned several parishes. They may feel that they are in a position of power because he cannot remove 300 of them. How could it be enforced it they refused to leave their parishes? What he implies that they are already materially in schism, if he meets with them and they persist in disobedience, wouldn’t the appropriate medicine be removal of faculties or ecxommunication?

    This makes it all the more bizarre to me that Schonborn has been defiantly supportive of the Medjugorje phenomenon which in addition to having serious inconsistencies and doctrinal problems, is also exacerbating and promoting schism and disobedience to the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno. See the Medjugorje Documents website by Diane of Te-Deum blog. It definitely makes me suspect Schonborn has not been taking the schismatic tendencies in his own diocese seriously enough either.

  16. Mike Morrow says:

    “…all these 300 priests are in “full-communion” with Rome…”

    Chronic and ironic, isn’t it? After the Church purposefully transmogrified itself in the mid-1960s into the newchurch horror that is seen in Austria (only in small degree worse than any place else), the only fraternity and community that maintained and remained faithful to Church tradition is viewed by many of the newchurch as schismatic or otherwise irregular.

    However, I did enjoy greatly the glorious music of the LED Bensdorp Schola shown in the video excerpt. So much so that I’ve just finished editing my digital Gregorian Chant library, replacing every instance of my old and obsolete and outmoded favorites, “Resurrexi – Domine, probasti me” and “Ecce Virgo”, with this new beauty. Latin and liturgy and music be damned!

  17. Faith says:

    Cardinal Schonborn certainly has his hands full.

  18. anilwang says:

    It sounds to me as if the Priests are true worshipers of God, in the sense of Genesis 3:5 and are honestly trying to do what is right, in the sense of Judges 17:6 . (i.e. they think they’re God and choose to define right and wrong on their own terms, and Lord their “creative whims” over the helpless parishioners who just want to attend a Catholic Mass instead of an Ego Mass)

    It seems pretty clear-cut. There is a lot of room for discussion, but it is of the sort, “Thank you for expressing your opinions openly rather than stealth-fully undermining the Church. I wish more priests were like you. Now let’s discuss you future plans, since it’s clear you no longer wish to be Catholic priests or even a Catholic lay person and would prefer to be Anglican minister”.

  19. Athelstan says:

    …to avoid offering Mass more than once on Sundays and holy days

    I’m curious exactly what the theological justification is for this particular position.

    Even many Protestant churches have more than one worship service on Sundays.

  20. andrewnhan says:

    300 of 4200 priests, 7% of priests in the Archdiocese are clearly against some part of the Church’s teachings. Not good. If Card. Schoenborn is really a leader of an Archdiocese and an advisor to the Pope he needs to step it up.

  21. Brad says:

    “This is straight from hell!”

    –the frank, non-p.c. comment of a priest, seemingly from Latin America based on his luxuriously hyphenated, endless name, whom I imagined at the time, and still do, to resemble St. Pio, regarding a post about similar shenanigans on a similar blog. I loved his comment because it peeled away all the layers of crap and lies and revealed the demons at the heart, their whips caught in mid-air above the backs of deluded souls.

  22. Gregg the Obscure says:

    It’s all-too-common that people overreact to previous bad experiences. The horrors that began with a few dissident clergymen in the early 16th century have made bishops (who, as a wag once noticed, often resemble people) terrified of schism. The bishops’ fear isn’t irrational, but it can overly inhibit their response to heretics in their midst. Seems to me this particular block of heresy has too little vestigal truth to have much vigor, but I could well be wrong.

  23. anilwang says:

    Athelstan,

    I think the proper answer is laziness. The priests don’t want to actually do anything other than their pet interests.

    If you wanted a “justification” for laziness, I’m sure you can twist the 3rd commandment (to rest on the Sabbath and keep it holy) to mean we don’t have to keep the other days holy and Priests should do the least they can get away with on the Sabbath such as organizing only one Mass that day, and even having “Priestless masses” so the Priests can have more time to rest and “meditate on greater things” such as how to “fix” (in the sense of neuter) the Catholic Church.

  24. Jason says:

    This is simply an indication that His Eminence’s leadership has been a complete failure.
    Handling these heretics is just the immediate problem. Can you imagine the state of the seminaries that produced them?

    The Church in Austria is a complete train wreck and Cardinal Schonborn is only 66 years old.

  25. Elly says:

    I just don’t understand why someone who thinks this way would want to be a priest. Why would he want to do something with his life that he thinks is so unimportant?

  26. Augustin57 says:

    As the late Archbishop Sheen used to say (in Latin, but I can’t spell it, so I’ll put it in roughly translated English): “The attack must always begin from within the sanctuary.” (I don’t know how to spell it, but it sounded something like “In cheepitae ensactuario mayo.”

  27. Ef-lover says:

    Can the Cardinal say ” E-X-C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E”

  28. MyBrokenFiat says:

    Anilwang’s quote: “Now let’s discuss you future plans, since it’s clear you no longer wish to be Catholic priests or even a Catholic lay person and would prefer to be Anglican minister.”

    Exactly. *Shakes head sadly*

    Wow. :(

  29. DisturbedMary says:

    In the Technorati Tags you could add:
    guitars, banners, no altar rail, goofy grin on priest’s face

  30. Stephen D says:

    Perhaps these rebels could be persuaded not to say any further Masses at all and leave. I hope that the faithful Austrian Catholics will redirect their funding away from the relevant parishes.
    Cardinal Schonborn’s interest in Medjugorje arises, he says, because men who claim that their vocations were discovered in that place make up a large proportion of young priests and seminarians in Austria. Whatever you may think of that fact and of them, you can be certain that those particular priests and seminarians will not be taking part in this act of rebellion.
    (If we are going to see a good, old fashioned ‘showdown’, could it be at the ‘Western Mass’?)

  31. SimonDodd says:

    Fr. Corapi was instantly placed on administrative leave after his superiors received a single anonymous complaint about him. Three hundred Austrian priests have placed themselves in public schism; what shall be done by their superiors?

  32. Paul says:

    First, may God deliver us from wolves dressed like shepherds. Second, what is that thing in front of the altar? Please, please, tell me that they haven’t sold advertising in the sanctuary.

  33. asperges says:

    I believe Paul VI came close to putting Holland under an interdict in the 60s. Pity he didn’t. Looks as though Austria could become a prime candidate for the same. They don’t seem too lucky with their Archbishops. The whole thing has a very “deja vu” feel about it. It’s just 16th century Protestantism again, with the same old themes, but slightly updated.
    No doubt the Holy Father has something in mind. A culling of the present hierarchy might be an option. These movements do not suddenly spring up spontaneously : they fester if not addressed early – which clearly they haven’t been – and erupt after time. Undoing the damage is then much more difficult.
    I can’t help feeling that, when one sees this sort of thing, it makes the SSPX troubles pale into insignificance. If only that could be sorted, what a force for good it could be worldwide.

  34. SimonDodd says:

    We are told in this that one Helmut Schüller is the ringleader. Wikipedia says that he’s a priest within Cardinal Schönborn’s diocese, so it’s time to translate that shock into action, your eminence. Administrative suspensions for the foot soldiers pending public apology; excommunication for the generals.

  35. Dirichlet says:

    No doubt the Holy Father has something in mind. A culling of the present hierarchy might be an option.

    Ah, if only…

    We’ll pray for the Austrian Church.

  36. Jason says:

    @asperges “I can’t help feeling that, when one sees this sort of thing, it makes the SSPX troubles pale into insignificance. If only that could be sorted, what a force for good it could be worldwide.”

    Indeed. I know some folks get tired of the point being made every time something like this comes up. But the SSPX clergy and religious are on the outside looking in, while these heretics are free to dissent and scandalize from within.
    We’ll see how His Eminence handles this situation. I hope he handles it well.

  37. Texana says:

    This video is sickening! Unfortunately, the people in the pews have no idea how far away from the Holy Sacrifice they have been led! Please see the new video of St. Padre Pio on Taylor Marchall’s blog Canterbury Tales—now that is what a real Catholic priest is.

  38. Dr. Eric says:

    So, this is only 7% of the priests causing a problem? In our diocese 60% of the priests protested against the installation of our bishop.

  39. anilwang says:

    @Jason,
    While it is true that “the SSPX clergy and religious are on the outside looking in, while these heretics are free to dissent and scandalize from within”, there is a key difference.

    If the SSPX had not left the Church, chances are they wouldn’t have been kicked out even if they were heretical (to disavow an Ecumenical Council makes one a heretic, even if one accepts all previous Ecumenical Councils more faithfully than many who accept the latter Ecumenical Council), precisely for the reason you state. But since they have left, they won’t be allowed back in until they accept Vatican II. Just as Liberal Catholics would be required to accept catechism before returning. I wish Bishops had the backbone of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 5:1-13), but at least they have this much backbone.

  40. capsela says:

    @ Dr. Eric

    Mine too. And as far as I know none were removed and the liturgical abuses are horrific.

  41. Hidden One says:

    I am going to try – a first, for me – to not criticize His Eminence et alii (even in my head) for their respective responses to this crisis until I am willing to pack my stuff up tomorrow, move later that day to Austria, and spend the rest of my life working every day to clean up the mess.

  42. Rob Cartusciello says:

    I can assure you that men such as these have been running vocation & religious formation programs for years.

    Is it any wonder we have seen such a decrease in vocations?

  43. sejoga says:

    Think what you will of monarchies, but I suspect Austria wouldn’t be in this state if the republic had never been formed and a Hapsburg were on the throne.

    Blessed Charles of Austria, pray for the Church!

  44. chcrix says:

    Die Ungehoriger sind Ungeheuer.

  45. Tom says:

    The Western Church is done for. The Gay Marriage thing is the final nail in the coffin. It’s going to spread like wildfire now and all these gutless bishops and priests are going to continue to do what the New York bishops did (i.e. nothing and then do their best Capt. Louis Renault impersonation – they’re SHOCKED!) What are these Bozos going to do when the government starts telling them they have to perform same sex Catholic weddings? If we can’t get bishops and priests to call contraception a sin, what makes anyone think they will stand up when it comes to refusing same sex weddings. An American Mother is correct. What we have here is a failure to excommunicate. I’m seriously considering joining an SSPX parish where at least I know that I’ll be with others willing to die for the faith. I’ve just about had it.

  46. ContraMundum says:

    “But the SSPX clergy and religious are on the outside looking in, while these heretics are free to dissent and scandalize from within.”

    They made their decision. No one booted them out; they left of their own free will.

    Frankly, the Church in Austria has enough arrogant priests who think that they know better than Magisterium. That’s the problem. Adding new arrogant priests, who also think they know better than Magisterium, but who speak Latin rather than German and face East rather than the people won’t fix bupkis.

  47. amenamen says:

    I was intrigued by the strange video with the awful, off key guitarists.

    It looked like three candles wrapped in celophane resting on the altar. What was that?
    The ugly banners over the altar were ugly. Really ugly. They would fail a Rorschach test!
    The guitarists could not walk and strum at the same time.
    The melody sounded a little bit like “Hot Rod Lincoln” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9QpDvhshOQ
    I could not make out the words, but they seemed to be singing about the priest.
    The guitar group was named after the priest.
    The two girls (in cassocks and surplices) walking around the sanctuary with the big sign reminded me of the “ring girls” in an old boxing match, announcing “Round 3.”
    The priest was pastor of that parish “until 2010.” Where is he now?
    Why was there a “Flight Coupon” antependium? Was he going somewhere?
    The priest’s name is also the name of a Dutch chocolate company

  48. Will Elliott says:

    @ amenamen,
    I think that “musical tribute” is actually based on the greatest German-language rap song of all time: “Rock Me Amadeus” by Austria’s own Flaco.

  49. Fr Deacon Daniel says:

    One wonders whether much of this is the sad fruit of the quasi-episcopal status the priesthood has attained in the life of most Catholic parishes. Until there is a restored understanding of the local Church as the Bishop gathered together with his Presbyters and Deacons serving the eucharistic assembly of the faithful in the liturgy of the Mass, both Bishops and Deacons will sadly function as mere shadows of their former offices. A Bishop – not a Priest – is the principal pastor of every parish in his diocese. The Priest and Deacon are his delegates and they serve as co-laborers of their Bishop, who can withdraw or modify his authorization for their service. In addition to insuring the selection of suitable and orthodox candidates for the office of Bishop, universally each local Church needs to recover the episcopo-centric nature of all ecclesiology: the Bishop of every diocese/eparchy is the icon of God the Father, and all priestly and diaconal ministry is not the possession of any individual minister but a vicarious participation in his spiritual fatherhood over the local Church. Insofar as they understand the paternal role of the Bishop in the local Church, the Orthodox Churches generally have it right, with certain exceptions of course. And, I would assert, such rogue Priests would never be tolerated in an Orthodox setting for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the understanding of and respect for the proper authority and power of the episcopate, which is balanced and strengthened fraternally by the principle of synodality in the context of every Patriarchal Church.

  50. benedetta says:

    I always heard the word “excommunication” mainly as a declaration and announcement, and I certainly appreciate that it carries a significance which protects the faithful, however where there is open defiance of the Church and teaching others to do the same it does often seem that in this age of media saturation there seems an engineering of press for the “cause” and the press inevitably responds with sympathy, regardless of the issue(s) involved, not even taking the time or actually showing understanding of Church teaching and the situations in the first place, the press immediately leaps to the side defying the Pope, is how it plays out. And it is hard to see much good in that process.

    However I recently read something (the book was not on this topic) written in modern era that fleshes out the process of excommunication as an act of charity and love, and that with the correction is also a hope and desire that the person return to communion, and continued openness and encouragement extended through the ministry of the Church. So I see more clearly that it is a part of the fabric of the Church for good reasons and when or if it comes it is corrective and a healing measure, not primarily or just an “announcement” as if the only thing in life with meaning is a press release or news story.

  51. sharon says:

    I can’t add anything to what’s already been said regarding the tragic state of affairs in Austria with regard to these 300 errant priests, so I’ll stick to commenting on the video. I’m fairly sure the strolling musicians took the song “Rock Me, Amadeus” (by Austrian artist Falco back in the 80’s) and rewrote it to “honor” the priest, replacing the words in the refrain with him name. In his defense, this was probably inserted into the celebration by a liturgical director without his knowledge, but obviously he is leading the way in teaching his flock errant forms of liturgy anyway.

  52. Mariana says:

    I didn’t watch the video, I can’t stand even one more ghastly video from Austria.

    But, regarding
    “GET. OUT.”
    – that’s not what any of them want, not these Austrians, not the strange Sisters you seem to have in America – they want to stay and do things their way! As they’re not leaving, whips need to be cracked.

  53. Causus Omnium Danorum says:

    Cardinal Schoenborn also bears some responsibility here, especially in regards to his actions over the past 6 years or so–not just with Medjugorje, but also in such situations as the Fr. Wagner debacle in Linz a couple years back. He has allowed and even abetted plenty of this type of posturing and heterodoxy before from his clergy–it seems a tad disingenuous to say now that this alone crosses a line…At one time I thought he was a good and orthodox shepherd–now I do not know what to think.

  54. benedetta says:

    It’s a strange video for sure. Everyone wants to be Bob Dylan. Everyone wants to be a rock n roll star and everyone else has to indulge them regardless of, just about everything I guess that could be said. Rock me Amadeus…

  55. Iowa Mike says:

    Right now it seems to me that on a world-wide basis it is impossible to be excommunicated. Public (Catholic) officials defy Church teachings and support all manner of vile things including abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research…..well you know the drill. Yet our bishops sit on their mitres and do nothing, nada, zilch; WHY? These priests took a vow of obedience. I think they should be given the opportunity to recant thier disobedience, make public amends and return to their priestly assignments. Otherwise their faculties should be suspended and they should be excommunicated. I’m tired of the lack of action by the bishops and the subsequent damage done to the faithful.

  56. Cecilianus says:

    I agree with Father Deacon. These sorts of abuses would be unthinkable in the Eastern Church. Schonborn needs to man up and realize he’s a bishop, not a middle management bureaucrat – and if he’s not going to man up and act like an adult, the Pope needs to give him a figurative spanking and tell him how to pastor a flock. The Church is better off without these priests anyway, and what Western Europe is craving is strong leadership that will either whip them back into shape or take action and actually implement the heretical “reforms” that are being called for – the lackadaisical wimpiness that the Latins embraced at Vatican II in the name of “aggiornamento” is what is perpetuating the problem the worst.

    The heretic priests were correct, however, on two issues. Traditionally (in the discipline practiced by traditional Roman Catholics like the FSSP, and universally in the East except in some heavily Latinized Ukrainian churches – with apologies to Father Deacon Daniel, the Ukrainians are the only ones I’ve seen violate this) only one Liturgy can be said per altar per day. As these priests are not looking to restore the Tridentine Mass I suspect their motivations are different. Laziness in this case is probably a stronger motivation than theological correctness.

    Also, Fr. Z., your phrasing implied that their desire to admit married men to the priesthood is heretical. It’s not, and I hate it how this issue is tied up with the ordination of women to the priesthood and contraception and other sexual dissidence – a fact for which we have to blame the heretics who want women priests and gay priests and abortion and things like that. It is not only Orthodox but traditional and inviolable for married men to be ordained to the priesthood in the East, and in the current state of the United States there are more legitimate and licit married Western priests than Eastern ones. I do not particularly which to see the Latin Church change its discipline – Latin parishes tend to be bigger, and they are still atoning for the sins of fallen clergy and for the debauchery of the pagan Rome in which the Latin Church was born – but I would like to see the issue separated from sexual dissidence and heresy so that the Latin Church will really recognize the legitimacy of the Eastern tradition, and stop the anticanonical persecution of the Byzantine Church such as when the Italian synod expelled the Romanian Catholic Church from Italy a few months ago, or the persecutions suffered by St. Alexis Toth at the hands of the Latins in America a hundred years ago.

    Events like the Austrian rebellion show that the Western Church is in serious emergency and cannot function on its own – it needs the moral and spiritual support of the East. In order to do that, traditional Roman Catholic defenders of the Faith need to stop letting the heretics define the context of the issues, and start defending the legitimate meaning and purpose of the married priesthood – taking their thunder away from the heretics, instead of simply rejecting their point as being on the same level as the moral teaching of the Church. So long as you let the issue of clerical celibacy remain couched in the context that heretical priests have put it in, you will not have the badly-needed moral unity with the East, and you will continue to suffocate with only one lung.

    Tell the heretic priests that if they want to ordain married men to the priesthood, champion and restore the place of monasticism in the Church, and when they have given us monastic orders as hardcore as the Orthodox monks of Mount Athos or the medieval Roman Catholic Carthusians and Cistercians, then they will have enough standing for us to give them the time of day to listen. But, oh wait, they’re cutting and abbreviating the monastic Liturgy of the Hours to three fifteen-minute segments (if that) and doing away with habits, the strict observance of the rule, and the contemplative life. Ergo, no grounds to complain about celibacy in the diocesan priesthood.

  57. irishgirl says:

    This is horrible-and I didn’t even watch the video!
    The Austrian Bishops need to get some spine (most of all Cardinal Schonborn-and I kind of liked the guy when I first heard about him), or else the Holy Father needs to clear out the whole lot and get some new ones to replace them. Austria needs an Athanasius or two!
    Blessed Charles of Austria, pray for your beloved country!

  58. MichaelJ says:

    At the risk of beating a dead horse, the Holy Father disagrees with anyone here who asserts that “the SSPX clergy and religious are on the outside looking in”. Ultimately, it is his authority alone that can determine who is “in” and who is “out”, is it not?

    I wonder what anyone who continues to assert something contrary to what the Holy Father and Magisterium have rather explicitly stated should be called. “Disobedient”, perhaps?

  59. Nancy D. says:

    It is time to stop sleeping in Gethsemane. The tangled web they weave has infected the YOUCAT:
    “The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins.” (YOUCAT margin page 224)

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