Like Luther, Austrians demand church reform

National Catholic Reporter, June 16, 1995 by Ingrid Shafer

It is not Oct. 31, 1517, but the spirit among a group of Catholics -- lay, priests and religious from Innsbruck, Austria -- is perhaps similar to the spirit that animated Martin Luther when he tacked his demands for renewal and reform onto the church door at Wittenberg.

Under the leadership of Professor Thomas Plankensteiner, who teaches Catholicism at the Innsbruck gymnasium (in Germany, an academic high school that prepares students for the university), a committee of 15 concerned women and men -- primarily educators and other professionals -- have organized a petition drive that is being administered throughout Austria in churches, rectories and information booths in the three weeks between June 3, the day before Pentecost, and Sunday, June 25.

Their platform says, "We are the church" and their goal, they say, is to move the church from a position of authoritarian and legalistic intransigence to a position of compassionate love and accountability to the people. The petition drive is called Kirchenvolks-Begehren, which has no clear equivalent in English but is a play on the German term Volksbegehren, which means, in the political arena, "demand for a plebiscite" and links the term for people, Volk, with the term for church, Kirche, for "people of the church."

The following points are included in the petition:

1. Building of a church of sisterly love: bridging of the chasm between clergy and laity; the right of the people of the diocese to be involved in the process of bishops' appointments.

2. Full equal rights for women, including a voice in church decision-making, permanent diaconate and ordination.

3. Free choice of celibate or non-celibate way of life.

4. An appreciation of the goodness of sexuality as an essential element of human beings who are created and accepted by God. Separation of the issues of birth control and abortion.

5. Frohbotschaft statt Drohbotschaft (good tidings of joy rather than a message of condemnation and intimidation).

Austrian bishops have not officially endorsed the petition drive, and some are strongly opposed. Nevertheless, a fair number support the effort, and most of them, as a matter of policy, are leaving it up to individual pastors to decide whether they will permit the petition to be passed around in churches and rectories. This in itself is an unprecedented step in moving the Austrian church toward democracy.

While Austrian Catholics don't agree on the best method to transform and renew the church, increasing numbers clearly want changes, and many of them are tired of waiting. They have started to vote with their feet and wallets by resigning from church membership. (Austrian citizens are presumed to be church members -- and pay a church tax -- unless they formally leave. Priests, bishops, religion teachers and theologians are all government employees.)

According to records kept by the Kirchen-beitragsstelle, the Church Contribution Office, the number of Catholics leaving the church in many areas in Austria has doubled since March 1995. For instance, in Vienna, 3,834 Catholics left, compared to 1,867 the year before. The numbers increased since March, when Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, archbishop of Vienna, resigned as head of the Austrian bishops' conference after former students charged him with sexual molestation and harassment. The incidents reportedly occurred while he was principal of a boy's school during the 1970s.

In a telephone interview, Planken-steiner said he and his associates are "deeply committed Catholics who are tired of the utter unresponsiveness of Rome to the people" and are concerned that there won't be a church for their children if nothing is done. The Groer case, and especially the cardinal's silence and the church's cover-up response, was important, but it was simply the final straw in a long series of grievances. He and his associates hope to gather 100,000 signatures in Austria, and are looking for signs of solidarity from all over the world.

The bishops' reactions range from advocacy to opposition. The bishop of Graz, Austria, Johann Weber, who took over for Groer as chairman of the Austrian bishops' conference, supports most of the demands, such as the call for a local voice in bishops' appointments, the right of husbands and wives to decide whether they will or will not have children, and admission of certain divorced and remarried Catholics to the Eucharist. He suspects that making priestly celibacy optional might lead to the disappearance of celibacy.

As for the ordination of women, Weber points to the pope's insistence that the church needs to make up for past insensitivity and stop patronizing women. Finally, he calls the entire petition drive "not the right method, but a new opportunity for more intensive cooperation."

On the other hand, Bishop Kurt Krenn of the St. Polten diocese, known for his absolute loyalty to Rome, categorically rejects all the demands. He opposes the call for a local voice in bishops' appointments, noting that "no bishop will be trusted by everyone; popularity certainly won't lead to the right candidate."