Austria: An International Meeting for the Priests’ Initiative
About thirty representatives of progressivist movements affiliated to the “Priests’ Initiative” and the “Parish Initiative” – from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Ireland and Australia – met in Bregenz, Austria, from October 10 to 12, 2013. These influential protesting groups consider communion for remarried divorcees and inter-communion with Protestants as “obviously acceptable” practices.
According to one of the organizers, Fr. Georg Schmucki, “in performing prophetic acts, and announcing his program through his discourses and interviews, Pope Francis has given the Church a new accent and changed the climate.” When questioned by the Swiss press agency Apic on the eve of the meetings, this member of the “Parish Initiative” in Switzerland also declared that “the new Pope is much closer to people, and is open, for example, to remarried divorcees and to homosexuals. He speaks on themes suggested by the Priests’ Initiative in several countries. Pope Francis is opening the Church’s views especially on the poor, the outcasts, and the misfits. He has simply launched a new way of speaking in the Church.”
The last meeting of the groups affiliated to the Priests’ Initiative was held in late January 2013, in Munich, under Benedict XVI’s pontificate. (see DICI#270, Feb. 15, 2013).
(source: apic – DICI#284, Nov. 8, 2013)
You can also read :
Switzerland: The Dialogue Continues with the Signatories of the “Parish Initiative”
Switzerland: Bishop Huonder Declares That the “Parish Initiative” Is in Opposition to the Catholic Faith
Switzerland: “Priestly Initiative” in the land of Saint Nicolas of Flue ?
Europe: The Progressivist Schism Grows Less and Less Latent
Belgium: A manifesto for “the reform of the Catholic Church”
Austria: The Bishops Refuse to Let Laymen Celebrate Mass
Austria: Catholics Denounce Dissenting “Priests' Initiative”
Germany, Austria and Switzerland: More than 200 progressivist theologians demand a series of reforms in the Church
