"Austria's Moment of Truth"/The Tablet Editorial/Time for Women Priests and End to Mandatory Celibacy

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/161660
Editorial
Austria’s moment of truth 3 September 2011
..." It is fortunate that the man with the responsibility to defuse it, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, is one of the Church’s most able leaders who is inevitably being looked at as a possible successor to Pope Benedict. The reason the protest movement – called the “Austrian Priests’ Initiative” – is so potent is precisely because of the truth of so much of what it is saying. The priests are drawing attention to the wide and growing disconnection between the norms of official church teaching, and everyday Catholic life as lived by many of the clergy and laity. ..What is lacking at the moment is evidence that the Church is able to move on, amid too many signs that it would prefer to go backwards.Bishop Egon Kapellari of Graz urged the priests to be patient, as the issues being raised were “tasks which lie before us and which we have to master in the long term”. As it happens, no one is better placed than Cardinal Schönborn to find ways of overcoming the present impasse, which has become a threat to the Church’s unity. The pastoral pragmatism and Nelsonian blindness that held things together may have worked for a while, but the next generation want something better, something more honest. It is not fair to leave them with no other choices than to leave the Church in indifference or despair, or to opt for a quirky and fastidious traditionalism. That is not what the young people in Madrid were looking for."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Kudos to the Austrian church for taking on the issues that must be addressed by the Catholic believers everywhere! It is time for genuine reform and open dialogue. It is time for an end to mandatory celibacy and it is time for women priests- no matter what the pope says! It is a joy to know that now priests and bishops are coming on board our movement for justice and equality for women in the church!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org