Rebel priests’ reform call rattles Austrian church

A call to disobedience by a group of Austrian priests, hungry for
reform, is shaking the Roman Catholic Church in the alpine state,
already unsettled by a sex abuse scandal last year.



In the two and a half months since it was launched, the initiative has
already netted significant support from the population and clerics
alike.



According to a survey this week by the Oekonsult polling institute, 71.7
per cent of Austrians backed the priests’ insurgence against the rules
of the Vatican and the Pope’s authority.



“At every mass, we will intercede in favour of a Church reform,” reads
the first line of the priests’ “Call for Insubordination” launched in
mid-June.



Among their demands: an end to the celibacy rule and the ordination of
women and married individuals as priests, two major Church taboos.



Divorcees who have remarried and members of other Christian faiths
should also be allowed communion, while laymen should have the right to
preach and lead parishes to make up for the lack of ordained priests.



So far, about 330 clergymen out of the country’s 4,000 have openly
backed the manifesto launched by the ‘Priests’ Initiative’ website.



But according to Helmut Schueller, the leader of the “rebels,” as many
as half of all priests approve of the demands, and the campaign has also
received messages of support from colleagues in France, Portugal, Italy
or Brazil.



In traditional Tyrol province, the widely respected abbot Anselm Zeller voiced some cautious support.



“In Europe, priests should have the right to marry,” he told the local
daily Tiroler Tageszeitung, although the same would not apply in Asia
where there is no shortage of priests.



In the survey by Oekonsult, over 86 per cent of respondents said celibacy created more problems than it had advantages.



Since the wave of sex abuse cases in religious institutions came to
light last year, the Austrian Catholic Church has been in crisis.



Over 87,390 people left the Church in 2010, 64 per cent more than in the previous year and the highest number since 1945.



But even if support for the Church in this majority Catholic country has dwindled, not everyone is keen on insubordination.



“There is also very harsh criticism,” admitted Schueller, who was vicar
general for Vienna and Archbishop Christoph Schoenborn’s right-hand man
in the 1990s, before heading the Caritas organisation in Austria.  

 

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