Vatican Denounces Dissident Priests on Celibacy

Vatican Denounces Dissident Priests on Celibacy

Pope Benedict XVI has denounced priests who have questioned church teaching regarding celibacy and ordaining women, saying they were defying his authority to try to impose their own ideas on the church.

Benedict made the rare and explicit criticism from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday, when priests recall the promises they made when ordained.

In 2006, a group of Austrian priests launched the Pfarrer Initiative, or pastor initiative, a call to disobedience aimed at abolishing priestly celibacy and opening the clergy to women to answer the problem on the shortages of priests.

In June, the group's members essentially threatened a schism, saying the Vatican's refusal to hear their complaints left them no choice but to "follow their conscience and act independently."

They issued a renewed call to disobedience in which they said parishes would celebrate Eucharistic services without priests, that they would let women preach, and strongly promised to speak out publicly and frequently for female and married priests.

The group now claims to have more than 300 Austrian priests and deacons members as well as supporters in other countries.  Its influence has strengthened to such an extent that in January, top Austrian bishops met with Vatican officials to discuss how to handle them, Italian news reports said.

So far, neither the Vatican nor Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, have imposed any canonical penalties on these rebellious priests.

Posted by James Fried on Friday April 06 2012, 8:56 AM EDT. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0