Pastors Initiative Austria

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The pastor's initiative is a registered association , which is represented in the media by chairman Helmut Schüller . Its aim is "an open discussion about the questions and problems of the Roman Catholic Church". About 400 priests and deacons of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria belong to the initiative .

issue

Five times no

The initiative is against

  • that pastors have become pastors only briefly due to the lack of priests and the associated amalgamation of parishes , that they only arrive in one place shortly before the celebration and then continue straight away,
  • that parishes will be dissolved if there is no pastor,
  • that pastors are burdened with too much administrative work,
  • that their service will continue well into retirement age and
  • that the strict condemnations of canon law apply to divorced people, priests and same-sex lovers who enter into a relationship.

The call to disobedience

The members say they shaped the present by

  • ask for church reform in intercessory prayer in worship .
  • do not refuse the Eucharist in worship .
  • Avoid “liturgical tours” on Sundays and public holidays and instead promote liturgical services .
  • Designate word services with communion as "priestly Eucharistic celebration".
  • disregard the ban on preaching for competently trained laypeople and religion teachers.
  • aiming for a separate leader for each parish in the spirit of the priesthood of all believers .
  • advocate the admission of women and married couples to the priesthood.

history

The initiative was announced in April 2006 with nine priests in the management team, including as chairman and spokesman Helmut Schüller , Udo Fischer , pastor of the Paudorf-Göttweig parish and Hans Bensdorp , then pastor of the Hetzendorf parish , in Café Landtmann in Vienna . As of 2013, the initiative had 429 members and 77 supporters as priests and deacons , and another 3135 supporters are lay people.

The seat of the association is still at the address of the founding member, former pastor of Hetzendorf and now rector of the Rectorate Church of St. John the Baptist , Hans Bensdorp, who also acts as webmaster of the association's website.

Recognitions

A survey by the ORF in 2011 showed that the content of the initiative was supported by two thirds of the priests.

Awards:

Criticism for the dispute

The Austrian Bishops 'Conference was critical of the pastors' initiative in the autumn plenary meeting 2011 and said: “Disobedience is a battle word that cannot stand still.” Active bishops have not joined the initiative, former Bishop Reinhold Stecher - when asked about it - said that it The duty of celibacy should be lifted. Diocesan Bishop Manfred Scheuer , asked in an interview about the pastors' initiative, said: “I don't think that an undivided approval is possible, but a blanket rejection would also be fatal. It is important to perceive the passion for pastoral care. And to ask the question of how much pastors are valued. ”Regarding the duty of care of the bishops, he remarked:“ Today priests have to struggle with the feeling that they are doing a lot and yet not enough - and getting less response. We also have increasing bureaucratisation in the Church. ”Pope Benedict XVI. responded on Maundy Thursday 2012 to the pastor's initiative and described the ordination of women as a reform goal as not possible.

It was surprising that the Pope responded explicitly to the pastor's initiative. Helmut Schüller said that the Pope had asked questions that the initiative wanted to answer directly and that he hoped to be invited to Rome. However, the Vatican declined direct contact.

The Jesuit Herwig Büchele asked in 2012 whether the “call for reforms” of a “group of priests”, which was addressed in particular to the Austrian bishops, was addressed to the right address and said “most, if not all, of this group of demands Priests can only be answered by a council. Therefore the real addressee of these demands is the worldwide college of bishops ”. For the admission of women to the priesthood, Büchele quotes the instruction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the vocation of theologians of May 29, 1990, which states: If tensions between the theologian and the magisterium do not arise from an attitude of enmity and contradiction, they can be considered a dynamic element and as a stimulus that determine the teaching office and theologians to carry out their respective tasks in mutual dialogue. ”and concludes from this:“ The question of priestly ordination for women is to be seen in this spirit. It goes without saying that this question, which is so virulent in the Church, can only be answered by a council. "

The theologian and General Superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Vöcklabruck Kunigunde Fürst said in 2012 that she could not really identify with the title “Call to Disobedience”. "Disobedience is an irritant word that has brought the matter into disrepute." On the admission of women to the priesthood, Prince said: "It is the hierarchy 's fear that women will come too close to the priesthood, possibly also to the episcopate." : “Things are changing. Religious sisters, for example, have always been seen as servants of the clergy. But we no longer see ourselves as servants of the clergy and say that too. "

The Austrian Bishop Erwin Kräutler in the Territorial Prelature Xingu in Brazil announced in an interview with the Salzburger Nachrichten , published on June 5, 2012, that the concerns of the pastors' initiative are “a question of the entire world church”. In order to overcome the deadlock in the dispute over the admission regulations for the priesthood, “Rome should question all bishops worldwide”.

In an interview on June 28, 2012 with the men's magazine Wiener , Helmut Schüller called for the democratic election of bishops by the church people: “That would also promote contact with the people, because the future bishop would have to make a pilgrimage from congregation to congregation. He would have to introduce himself and make it verifiable. He would have to face the discussion. Something that would in no way endanger the church. This tradition has always existed. Especially at the very beginning. And in the religious orders in the monasteries all the time. "

Incidents

In June 2012, Peter Meidinger, dean at the Piesting dean's office in southern Lower Austria and a member of the pastors' initiative, was given the choice by Cardinal Schönborn before re-election, whether to give up his office or his disobedience. Meidinger then gave up his position as dean.

See also

literature

  • Paul Michael Zulehner : Call to Disobedience. Actions, not words, reform the church. Schwabenverlag, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7966-1574-0 .
  • Jan-Heiner Tück (Ed.): Cracks in the foundation? The pastors' initiative and the dispute over church reform. With Medard Kehl , Elmar Mitterstieler, Józef Niewiadomski , Johann Pock , Head of Pastoral Office Veronika Prüller-Jagenteufel, Eberhard Schockenhoff , Cardinal Christoph Schönborn , Helmut Schüller , Roman Siebenrock , Christian Stoll, Jan-Heiner Tück, Paul Michael Zulehner; Verlag Herder, 2012, ISBN 978-3-451-30579-5 .
  • Rotraud A. Perner , Herbert Kohlmaier (Ed.): Un obedient . Festschrift for Helmut Schüller on his 60th birthday. Anthology, Aaptos-Verlag, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-901499-20-3 . This includes:
    • Franz Küberl : Helmut Schüller on reaching the age of 60.
    • Paul M. Zulehner : Obedience or "Obedient"? To the obedience trap around the appeal of the pastors' initiative.
    • Peter Trummer : From the obedience trap - biblical.
    • Konrad Paul Liessmann : Reason as much as you want, but obey!
    • Peter Huemer : Disobedience in God's name. Disobedience? For God's sake!
    • Walter Kirchschläger : I resisted him in the face (Gal 2:11). On the virtue of walking upright in church.
    • Wilhelm Pratscher : Disobedience to the State in the New Testament.
    • Anton Kolb : Obedience, truth, morality and the Holy Spirit as a means of power. Disobedience as a legitimate response to this abuse.
    • Erhard Busek : Obedience and disobedience - also in the church?
    • Irene Brickner : Doing something right. Civil disobedience to human rights violations in the age of "normality" using the example of deportation and aliens law.
    • Irmtraut Karlsson : Disobedience - your name is woman. A very personal finding.
    • Robert Kauer: Protestant disobedience.
    • Josef Dirnbeck : Disobedience has many faces. A little foray into the world of saints.
    • Hubert Christian Ehalt : Responsibility instead of obedience.
    • Rotraud A. Perner: About straightening up.
    • Peter Pawlowsky : Command or Discourse. About the incompatibility of two communication styles.
    • Herbert Kohlmaier: Disobedience - “weapon” of the reform movement. Considerations of a politician.
    • Wolfgang Mazal : Disobedience. Sketch of a 'worldly' view of a 'church' phenomenon.
    • Heribert Franz Köck: Disobedience as legitimate resistance.
    • Irene Dyk-Ploss: Sociological considerations on the innovation potential of “disobedience” as a motor of social change in social institutions.
    • Gabriele Sorgo: flee the bishop? Disobedience as a source of renewal.
    • Christian Felber : Don't stay good, just be obedient!
    • Judith Holzhöfer: On the "extinct" disobedience.
    • Irene Suchy: Disobedience - The sound of breaking rules.
    • Josef Garcia-Cascales: Availability for love.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association. ( Memento from May 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) pfarrer-initiative.at
  2. ↑ Membership Statistics ( Memento from November 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). pfarrer-initiative.at.
  3. ^ Press conference on April 25, 2006 in Café Landtmann. ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Pastors' initiative, April 25, 2006 (PDF; 152 kB)
  4. ^ The Pastor's Initiative: Members - Statistics ( Memento of May 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ "criss-cross" survey: pastors mostly behind Schüller. ORF Religion, November 7, 2011
  6. ^ Herbert Haag Prize 2012. ORF, November 11, 2011
  7. ^ Wording of the press releases from the autumn plenary assembly of the Austrian Bishops' Conference from November 7th to 10th, 2011 in Salzburg ( Memento from January 15th, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), on bischofskonferenz.at.
  8. ↑ Reinhold Stecher on the pastor's initiative . Pastor Initiative Diocese Innsbruck, November 10, 2011.
  9. ↑ Dietmar Neuwirth, Köksal Baltaci: Bishop Scheuer: "People like" . In: Die Presse , April 7, 2012.
  10. ↑ Sermon of the Pope at the Chrism Mass. May 4, 2012, on press.catholica.va
  11. ^ Papal criticism encourages Vorarlberg pastor ORF Vorarlberg, April 6, 2012
  12. ^ Church dispute: Schüller wants to talk to the Pope . In: Die Presse , April 8, 2012.
  13. ↑ Vatican rejects direct dialogue with pastors' initiative . derStandard.at, April 17, 2012.
  14. ↑ Herwig Büchele: Plea for a III. Vatican Council. Reform demands like those of the pastor's initiative cannot be answered in a local church, but only on a global church level. In: Die Furche , June 28, 2012.
  15. ↑ Kunigunde Fürst: We nuns no longer see ourselves as servants of the clergy . In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten , June 2, 2012.
  16. ↑ Josef Bruckmoser: The blue light priest - it can't be . Interview platform “We are Church”, SN, June 5, 2012, June 6, 2012.
  17. ^ Pastor initiative: Schüller for election of the bishop by the church people . In: Die Presse , June 28, 2012
  18. ^ Pastors' initiative: First consequence against "disobedient" pastors . ORF Religion, June 26, 2012.
  19. ↑ Deans are responsible for the unity of the church . ( Memento from June 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Archdiocese of Vienna, June 26, 2012.
  20. ↑ The most important results of the "criss-cross" survey in detail. ORF Religion, November 7, 2011.
  21. ↑ https://www.herder.de/theologie-pastoral-shop/risse-im-fundament-ebook-(epub)/c-37/p-2732/