Austria: The Bishops Refuse to Let Laymen Celebrate Mass
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienne.
The Austrian bishops have rejected the appeal from the movement “We are the Church” asking for laymen to be able to celebrate Mass for lack of a priest. At the end of their plenary assembly from November 7 to 10, 2011, they claimed to be worried about the problems the Church is facing, all the while eliminating the dissenters' proposition: “The call to disobedience has not only gone to many Catholics' heads, but also has caused worry and sorrow,” they pointed out to the American press agency CNS on November 11. And they added: “Whosoever openly and willfully takes upon himself the responsibility of celebrating Mass wounds the community as well as himself, and manifests a dangerous attitude.”
On November 5, the movement “We are the Church” had invited laymen to distribute communion, and to preach at and preside over the Mass, because of an insufficient number of priests. Begun in 1995 after Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer's demission amidst sexual abuse scandals, this dissenting movement is connected with other similar groups in different countries, such as Germany, Ireland and the United States. (sources: apic/cns – DICI#245 Nov 25, 2011)
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