Monday, November 07, 2011

Austria: Dissident Catholics in open revolt

VIENNA (Reuters) - Dissident Austrian Catholics announced lay people will start celebrating Mass when a priest is unavailable, a clear call to disobedience just as the country's bishops hold their autumn conference.

A manifesto adopted by dozens of activists at the weekend said lay people will preach, consecrate and distribute communion in priestless parishes, said Hans Peter Hurka, head of the group We Are Church.

"Church law bans this. The question is, can Church law overrule the Bible? We are of the opinion, based on findings from the Second Vatican Council, that this (ban) is not possible," he said Monday.

The Catholic Church only allows ordained priests to preside at Mass.
Read the rest here.

I know what should be done.  But the odds of it happening are lower than mine of hitting the trifecta at the Kentucky Derby. (Which are rather low since I don't play the horses.)  Austria used to be a pretty solidly Catholic country.  Today it is Protestant in all but name.

2 comments:

gabriel said...

Any such persons will be under canonical interdict as an operation of canon law.

Anonymous said...

This has got to be the most egregious thing yet to be blamed on Vatican II. While I was a Roman Catholic, I studied the documents of Vatican II forwards and backwards; nothing in any of them in any way, shape, or form, calls into question the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church with regards to the celebration of the Mass.