Joseph Seidnitzer

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Joseph Seidnitzer (* 1920 in Stainz , Styria ; † 1993 in Innsbruck , Tyrol ) was a Catholic priest and missionary and the founder and spiritual director of the Work of the Holy Spirit community , who was dismissed for abuse offenses , which dissolved as such in 1990.

Life

Joseph Seidnitzer attended the seminary in S. Maurice and was ordained a priest on June 23, 1946 in Sion , Switzerland , by Bishop Viktor Bieler . He served as a missionary in various countries. In addition to Austria , Germany and Italy, he worked from 1961 to 1969 as a chaplain for foreigners in Toulouse ( Gabriel-Marie Cardinal Garrone ), then from 1969 to 1972 as a hospital chaplain in Metz ( Bishop Paul Joseph Schmitt ).

According to the Swiss daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger , files in the ordinariate of Seidnitzer's home diocese Graz-Seckau show that he repeatedly assaulted young boys aged 18 and over. The priest invited the young people into his apartment, made them docile with alcohol and forced them to engage in sexual acts.

Seidnitzer had relapsed again and again, but the church had understood how to cover up the attacks and transferred him to other places. However, he was convicted several times, initially in Styria in 1954 (eight months in prison). In 1958 the Innsbruck Regional Court sentenced him to one year of heavy dungeon for fornication, "aggravated by a hard camp". As a pastor transferred to Interlaken , he seduced two young people there in 1960, fled, was arrested in Innsbruck and sentenced again to 14 months by the regional court.

After his imprisonment and other pastoral activities, he founded the work of the Holy Spirit together with Gebhard Paul Maria Sigl in 1972 ; the community settled in 1974 in the Salvatorian Villa Jordan in Castel Gandolfo near Rome . In 1977, the 21-year-old theology student and later Bishop Marian Eleganti also joined the small group, but soon left. Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone , Curia Cardinal responsible for seminaries and universities, initially had benevolent discussions with the community, but this soon changed. Due to the pressure within the church, in 1978 he wrote to Joseph Seidnitzer calling on him to “withdraw for a time of reflection and prayer, away from Rome, if possible outside Italy”. Joseph Seidnitzer then went to Innsbruck with his community in 1979 and ran a student hostel there, in which up to 30 students from different countries lived and studied at the theological faculty in Innsbruck. Due to the conscientious decision of Joseph Seidnitzer not to dissolve the community, he was in the same year for disobedience by the diocesan bishop of Graz-Seckau, Dr. Johann Weber , suspended from priestly service .

The Innsbruck Bishop Reinhold Stecher spoke out against the community several times and on October 15, 1985 published a "Declaration regarding an alleged seminary in Innsbruck", in which he wrote: "It was never possible for us from P. Seidnitzer himself ... exact To get information about the nature and purpose, organization and sources of money of his community. This could therefore never receive our legitimation and does not have it now ”.

But since the community still existed, Bishop Reinhold Stecher had a pulpit word read out in 1988, in which it was said that the study house was “not an institution of the Catholic Church”. In the next two years some members left the community and Joseph Seidnitzer withdrew completely and forever from the community in 1990.

The remaining 21 students of the former Community of Work of the Holy Spirit placed themselves under the leadership of the Slovak Bishop Pavel Mária Hnilica SJ , the then rector of the priestly community in the Engelwerk , and went to Rome to complete their studies there at the Lateran University . Among them was Gebhard Paul Maria Sigl , who also placed himself entirely under the direction of the bishop.

They joined the lay movement "Pro fratribus" founded by Bishop Hnilica in 1968, which had set itself the goal of supporting the persecuted church in Eastern Europe spiritually and materially. Since the young men and women who gradually joined them wanted to live consecrated to God, the movement was reoriented and a new one was founded. This was recognized on August 14, 1992 by the Bishop of Rožňava , Msgr. Eduard Kojnok († 2011), under the new name “ Pro Deo et fratribus - Family of Mary ” ( PDF-FM , mostly just called Family of Mary ) at the diocesan level , and on March 25, 1995, elevated to an association under papal law by the Pontifical Council for the Laity , with the definitive recognition of the statutes on March 25, 2004. The first 5 members of the community were ordained priests in 1992 in Fátima , Portugal .

Since Joseph Seidnitzer had separated from the community, his suspension was lifted in 1991 at his request by the professor in Graz-Seckau, Bishop Johann Weber , after consultation with the Innsbruck Bishop Reinhold Stecher . Seidnitzer died in Innsbruck in 1993 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthias Herren, Christine Steffen: You always have to reckon with sin, people are weak. , Interview in the NZZ on March 7, 2010 (accessed on September 19, 2019)
  2. ^ Sacra Congregatio Pro Institutione Catholica, letter from Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone, February 8, 1978, Prot. N. 1524/75/96
  3. ^ Suspension by the Bishop of Graz-Seckau, Dr. Johann Weber, November 19, 1979
  4. ^ Bulletin for the clergy from October 15, 1985, Bishop Reinhold Stecher
  5. ↑ The pulpit words had to be read on October 9, 1988 or on the following Sunday in all churches of the Innsbruck diocese at all services.
  6. ↑ recognition decree of Msgr. Eudard Kojnok, Bishop of the Diocese of Roznava, August 14, 1992, Prot. N. 843/92
  7. ^ Pontificium Consilium Pro Laicis, Decree of Recognition “ad experimentum”, by Eduardo Francisco Cardinal Pironio, March 25, 1995, Prot. N. 318/95 / S-61 / B-68
  8. ^ Pontificium Consilium Pro Laicis, Decree of Recognition of March 25, 2004, by Cardinal Stanisław Marian Ryłko, Prot. N. 606/04 / S-61 / B-68
  9. ^ Pro Deo et fratribus - Family of Mary. In: Dicasterio per il laici, la famiglia e la vita. March 24, 2004, accessed February 24, 2020 .
  10. ^ Letter from Joseph Seidnitzer to the Bishop of Graz-Seckau, Dr. Johann Weber, November 14, 1990
  11. ^ Letter from the Episcopal Ordinariate of Graz-Seckau from Bishop Johann Weber, April 29, 1991; Prot. N. 7 Se 1-91
  12. ↑ Michael Meier: Auxiliary Bishop Elegantis mentor was a fornication priest. , Basler Zeitung of July 18, 2010
  13. ^ Bishop Eleganti was there. Tagblatt der Stadt St. Gallen from April 28, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Seidnitzer, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian diocesan priest
DATE OF BIRTH 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Stainz , Styria
DATE OF DEATH 1993
Place of death Innsbruck , Tyrol