300 Austrian Priests Issue 'Call to Disobedience' Against Catholic Church
What the press does not understand is that orthodoxy (right doctrine) and orthopraxy (right practice) are NOT a throwback to the past but pave the path to the future
Being in the full communion of the Catholic Church is a treasure and our brothers have lost their way. Pray for Christopher Cardinal Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, and the other Bishops charged with helping them find it again - and guarding the flock against the errors being promoted.
Christopher Cardinal Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, and Pope Benedict XVI
PrintVIENNA, Austria (Catholic Online) - While many Anglicans are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church - precisely because of the orthodoxy of doctrine and practice, a group of 250 priests in Austria have launched an outright rebellion against the Church into which they were ordained. They are openly rejecting the doctrine, discipline and practice which are at the heart of the Catholic Christian faith. In effect, they are becoming protest-ants, and they are seeking to lead others to join them in their errors.
This group of openly dissident priests has gone public with their rebellion launching a website listing their points of dissent in a document entitled "A Call to Disobedience" (In German). They issued this "Call" on Trinity Sunday. Catholic Culture in their report offered a helpful translation of the seven pledges made by the members of the dissenting group:
- to pray for Church reform at every liturgy, since "in the presence of God there is 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
- 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
- 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"
- to "ignore" canonical norms that restrict the preaching of the homily to clergy
- to oppose parish mergers, insisting instead that each parish have its own individual leader, "whether man or woman"
- to "use every opportunity to speak out openly in favor of the admission of the married and of women to the priesthood"
Sadly, many of the news services reporting this story are using tired labels, stolen from the political arena. They refer to the dissenters as "liberal" or "progressive" and those who actually want to be Catholic and love the structure, tradition and teaching office of the Church as "conservative" or even "traditionalist". The dissenters refer to their rejection of the teaching of the Catholic Church and the authority of the Church as "reform" and an eager press accepts their sophistry and loaded language, repeating it in news reports.
What the press does not understand is that orthodoxy (right doctrine) and orthopraxy (right practice) are not some throwback to the past but signal instead a work of the Holy Spirit within the Church and for the world. The future of true progress passes through a dynamically revived Catholic faith, life and worship - in Europe and around the rest of the world. Pope Benedict XVI visited Austria in 2007 to record crowds of pilgrims as a pilgrim himself. He told the crowds who gathered that Christianity was not just the legacy of Europe's past but "the way to the future."
We ask our readers to pray for these priests, that they might repent and rediscover the joy of their holy vocation. Being in the full communion of the Catholic Church is a treasure and our brothers have lost their way. Pray as well for Christopher Cardinal Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, and the other Bishops charged with helping them find it again - and guarding the flock against the errors being promoted in this "Call to Dissent".
- - -
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: Austria, dissent, rebellion, call to dissent, Christopher Cardinal Schönborn, orthodoxy, orthopraxy, Deacon Keith Fournier
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Would that we might all be able to return to see the Church in 50 years, and discover who in fact was the voice of the future now.
If only those 300 priests would buck up to their responsibilities and model Chirst's life giving love for his bride the Churche, more men would listen and answer the call to serve. Women already do so much in the church. It's time for men to do their part and again not push this responsibilitiy onto the backs of women!
Am not afraid of these dessidents because the Church has passed through more difficult protesters and yet God proved her victorious,. This time, God's promises over His Church will also defend her against these heretics. Only pray for their conversion.
Oh God Lead us not into temptation, For these Brothers: God lead them out of temptation and give everyone grace to avoid evil and not to be evil in ourselves.
These Brothers are only in serious temptation and gradually going into evil. God Show your mercy, your Divine Mercy. Amen
The Diabolic 300 are open and honest about their evil endeavors. We American Catholics have many like them here who are flying under the radar.
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." -Galatians 5:1-6
Pray to the Blessed Mother to change their hearts.
Those men where or are not catholic in the first instenc the question is how was their education did they go true the right process who was their vd vocation director the last who ordine them i cant imagin even my self a lay faithfull doing or saying these but then come to think of it we have to many bad eggs in the church that has to go in my opinion thy should go to hell
These priests do not care for Jesus. They have their own agenda. The agenda is relativism and opportunism. Refusal to obey the authority( unless matter of truth and morality is involved) is very serious. If they do not have faith in the leadership of the Catholic Church, we cant force them, Let them depart and be happy with their conscience.
How long has this perversion been growing within this country? Satan must be having a field day over this. This part of the Church must have been planning this for some time. Who do they think they are fooling? So many people coming back to the Catholic Church because they recognize it's truths come from our Lord Jesus Christ...and yet a group like this, appearing to lack 'all' common spiritual sense, throws this in the face of all Catholics who worship our Lord Jesus through the Eucharist. Why do they mock us...why do they mock God? Are they aware...even a little bit, of the evil state they have placed their souls? This smacks of exactly how many of the protestant churches started...through a huge blinding smoke of nationalism. Their nationalistic pride being put in front of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray, and hope the Pope will act swiftly with these spiritual traitors...and we must pray for them. They are losing their minds and their souls to satan. Yet another poison the Catholic Church must suffer through and expel from its veins.