Confessional affair
The reporting mainly in the print media of the Habsburg Monarchy , which from the end of 1871 to the summer of 1872 discussed the practice of ear confession in the Carmelite monastery in Linz, is referred to as the confessional affair .
It was triggered by the claim, published in the Linzer Tages-Post on December 28, 1871 , that sexual assault had occurred in the confessional of the Carmelite Church in Linz , but without going into detail "for reasons of propriety". The climax was a jury trial in which the accused Carmelite Father Gabriel Gady sued the newspaper's editorial staff for defamation . The case played a major role in the public disputes between “ultramontane” Catholics and anti-clerical liberals in connection with the Austrian May Laws of 1868 .
Linzer Tages-Post dated December 28, 1871
On December 28, 1871, the Linzer Tages-Post published the title “ Voices from the audience. Crimes in the confessional. ”A contribution signed“ Linz, December 25, 1871. Maria D. ”. In it was described “as a warning to others” how the 23-year-old daughter of the undersigned, Anna D., was “completely insane” after several general confessions to Father Gabriel of the Carmelite Order there. According to the doctors, there is no more rescue for the daughter.
The post started:
“Until this autumn my 23 year old daughter Anna D. was a modest, cheerful girl with extremely voluptuous body, a skilful and sought-after clothes maker, who provided herself and her old mother with a decent nourishment through plenty of work. In the autumn she was tempted by some prayer sisters to go to confession to Father Gabriel of the local Carmelite Order. After this had happened a few times, she told me that Father Gabiel [sic] had instructed her to go to him in a separate room at 6 o'clock in the evening for a general confession, which I forbade her by saying that at 6 o'clock in the evening In the evening there was no time to meet with Father. […] For reasons of propriety, I cannot share what the Father has done on my daughter there, and the rude speeches which the Reverend himself allows himself. After these so-called general confessions, a noticeable change immediately occurred in my daughter. [...] Day and night she cries and moans and is caught up in the fixed idea that she has no soul. "
The editors commented on this description with the claim that they receive "a myriad of such cases annually for possible publication". In a “terrifying way” the priests indulged in confession by women “with a strange greed and lust of the long and wide” about violations of the Sixth Commandment , especially in the (Linz) Carmelite monastery. Under these circumstances the question should be asked whether it is not the “most sacred duty of conscience” not to send young girls and women “under any circumstances to an ear confession”.
Reactions
The press pounced on the case. The German Volks-Zeitung , published in Prague, commented that the attacks on girls and women by members of the Carmelite order were notorious. At confessional, a 14-year-old girl was asked whether menstruation had already occurred and whether there had been contact with men. On January 6, 1872, it was also alleged (untruthfully) that Gady had been transferred to Transylvania immediately . Catholic newspapers such as the Linzer Volksblatt rejected the representations of the liberal press and tried to obtain declarations of honor in favor of the accused. The authorities started a preliminary investigation against Gady, but this was soon closed.
Because of the considerable media coverage, Gady filed a lawsuit against the editorial team of the Tages-Post. On July 29, 1872, the process , known at the time as the press trial, began in Linz for an “offense against the security of honor” and the “violation or neglect of dutiful care and attention” under press law. In addition to the main participants, several medical experts were also questioned. Although Maria and Anna D [Unzinger] no longer made any direct accusations against the father, and the authenticity of their letter was also doubted, the jury, which was dominated by liberals, acquitted the newspaper of the allegation of libel and condemned it only for “neglecting due care and attention “To a small fine. Other media such as the Deutsche Zeitung and the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna had first published the allegations made against Gady, which were only quoted in the Linzer Tages-Post. The publisher of the Linzer Post, however, violated his journalistic duty of care when he portrayed Gady as a young, lustful clergyman. In fact, Gady was 46 years old and ordained a priest as early as 1851.
reception
The affair continued to occupy the press afterwards. A play with the title "Anna Dunzinger - a moral picture", which was supposed to be performed in Marburg , is said to have been "foiled". On the other hand, a mocking song with the opening line “Was once a Carmelite, Father Gabriel” has been handed down, which was printed in many songbooks well into the 21st century.
According to the historian Max Herbert Voegler, who examined the case as part of his dissertation, the affair played an essential role in mobilizing the Catholic counter-public and thus a turning point in the cultural struggle in Austria in the years before and after the First Vatican Council .
literature
- Julius Pederzani: The victims of the confessional: Maria Mörl, Elise Sachs, Anna Dunzinger . Waldheim-Verlag, 1872 ( digitized in the digitized holdings of the state library "Dr. Friedrich Teßmann" ).
- Max Herbert Voegler: Religion, Liberalism and the Social Question in the Habsburg Hinterland: The Catholic Church in Upper Austria, 1850-1914 . Dissertation at Columbia University , 2008, pp. 162–172 (English, online ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Supplement to the Kladderadatsch from January 21, 1872
- ↑ Tages-Post December 28, 1871, p. 4. Digitized version of the Austrian National Library, accessed on March 6, 2019
- ↑ Max Herbert Voegler: Religion, Liberalism and the Social Question in the Habsburg Hinterland: The Catholic Church in Upper Austria, 1850-1914 . Dissertation, Columbia University 2008, p. 165.
- ↑ Max Herbert Voegler: Religion, Liberalism and the Social Question in the Habsburg Hinterland: The Catholic Church in Upper Austria, 1850-1914 . Dissertation, Columbia University 2008, p. 167 f.
- ↑ Daily Mail Graz, February 1, 1874
- ↑ Der Karmeliter liederseiten.de, accessed on February 25, 2019
- ↑ The fairy tale of the Carmelite text by Jürgen Thelen alias Thelonius Dilldap
- ↑ Was once a Carmelite version of the plucked violin hansel
- ↑ Max Herbert Voegler: Religion, Liberalism and the Social Question in the Habsburg Hinterland: The Catholic Church in Upper Austria, from 1850 to 1914 . Dissertation, Columbia University 2008, p. 179 f.