Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Austria: Over 300 priests join 'call to disobedience'

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”
  • 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”

Read the rest here.
HT: Fr. Z.

14 comments:

mjl said...

Could we have not titled this, "300 Priests Want To Be Unitarians."

Anonymous said...

Mad people were once locked up. They now fight for the right to be mad.


Savvy

The Archer of the Forest said...

They are also going to be joining a "Call to the Unemployment Office" if they aren't careful.

John (Ad Orientem) said...

Archer,
I doubt it. Sadly the situation in Austria is so bad that most of the bishops are almost certainly in sympathy with these heretics.

Anonymous said...

John,

your commentary might as well be coming straight out of an SSPX apologist

Anonymous said...

Anon@5:05,

Do you have no reasoned response to John's statement?


Savvy

Bob Glassmeyer said...

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is yet another example, among many, and more to come, I'm sure, of the spiritual anemia, spiritual bankruptcy, and spiritual malnourishment running rampant through the Catholic Church. It's fine to say that one should ignore these clerical idiots. They are doing spiritual damage to the Catholic Church by their actions. It's mighty hard to ignore the effects of this damage.

Anonymous said...

Bob,

There is spiritual corruption running through all churches. I don't think the Orthodox is exempt from this. There are always people who lack common sense. I have Lutheran friends who want joint communion with Catholics, because it would boost Christian unity.

The Lutherans who know that the reformation rejected the priesthood, and the Mass, are not asking for this.

It's once again the Libs who are crazy and want to fight for something that does not exist.


Savvy

Bob Glassmeyer said...

Dear Savvy,

Thank you for what you said; it really helps me today.

Sometimes it's so easy, and I've fallen into this many times, to think there is a perfect, quick fix to a complex situation. How many times have I thought, "If only I were a traditional Catholic," or "If I became Orthodox I wouldn't see these problems." Is is very easy to think this way.

Still, there is so much confusion, so much heterodoxy in the Roman Church, and it's given free reign. Honestly, most of the time, I don't know what to do.

Visibilium said...

They are doing spiritual damage to the Catholic Church by their actions.

Sing me a sad song.

Bob Glassmeyer said...

Yes, Visibilium, it is a very sad song.

Anonymous said...

Bob,

I feel the same way too. There are times when I just want to jump ship to the Orthodox church, but the thing is that the Catholic church is still the only outspoken one on all these issues and I would say more organized, in terms of a magisterium that can make things clear.

The good news is that the liberals are dying out. The bad news is that they have infected so many people with their way of thinking, that they have taken them away from the church.


Savvy

Dale said...

I would also caution in attacking blindly the Catholic Church for what really amounts to the opinions a very small minority of mostly lower clergy; remember that before the Russian Revolution there were also many Fr. Gapons amongst the Russian clergy, and do remember that Stalin was himself an Orthodox seminarian.

One might also mention that the Ecumenical Patriarch has made such dubious statements as the following regarding abortion, saying that the Orthodox Church:

"respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples...We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples...We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.”

Dale said...

I would also caution in attacking blindly the Catholic Church for what really amounts to the opinions a very small minority of mostly lower clergy; remember that before the Russian Revolution there were also many Fr. Gapons amongst the Russian clergy, and do remember that Stalin was himself an Orthodox seminarian.

One might also mention that the Ecumenical Patriarch has made such dubious statements as the following regarding abortion, saying that the Orthodox Church:

"respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples...We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples...We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.”