AN OPEN CLERGY REBELLION IN AUSTRIA’S CATHOLIC CHURCH
Hundreds of Austrian priests are challenging the standing leadership of Pope Benedict XVI and the local bishops, demanding modern-day answers to issues like communion for divorced people, women in the church hierarchy, and the taboo of priests who have a partner and children.
The 300-plus supporters of the “Priests’ Initiative” have had enough of what they call the Church’s “delaying” tactics, and they are advocating pushing ahead with policies that openly defy current practices. These include letting non-ordained people lead religious services and deliver sermons; making communion available to divorced people who have remarried; allowing women to become priests and to take on important positions in the hierarchy; and letting priests carry out pastoral functions even if, in defiance of Church rules, they have a wife and family.
Kenya: 40 Catholic Priests Quit Over Church Celibacy Rule
25 August 2011
MORE than 40 priests have in the last two years defected from the Catholic Church in Kenya seeking freedom from celibacy. The priests have joined the Ecumenical Catholic Church headed by Bishop Geoffrey Shiundu who also quit the Catholic church after he married against rules of priesthood.
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