Courageous Austrian Priests Attract Worldwide Support as More Male Priests Promote Women's Ordination/A Catholic Rebellion?

The Austrian Priests Initiative..." now numbers 400 priests – roughly one in 10 – and 12,000 active supporters. In his many media interviews within the last three weeks, Mgr Schüller has confirmed that he has received support from all over the world, in particular from Brazil, the US, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Mexico. The international reactions showed that the Vatican was “obviously” faced with problems worldwide and that “our concerns are certainly not Mickey Mouse issues”, Mgr Schüller said on 25 August. He admitted that the Initiative had also come in for some very sharp criticism. “Some want to throw us out of the Catholic Church altogether and even go so far as to curse us. They call us schismatics and rebels who are destroying the Church,” he told the weekly News magazine."
"Cardinal Schönborn returned to Vienna on 29 August and sources close to him say he is extremely worried. It is rumoured that he has little alternative but to suspend the leading rebels, but there are fears that this may lead to a schism as the latest poll (by the Oekonsult Institute commissioned by the Austrian Press Agency) shows that 76.5 per cent of Austrians back the Initiative. Bishop Egon Kapellari of Graz, the number two in the Austrian bishops’ conference, told Profil in Cardinal Schönborn’s absence that questions like mandatory priestly celibacy or women’s ordination which the Priests’ Initiative wanted to see discussed were “tasks which lie before us and which we have to master in the long term but which cannot be adequately answered in the short term”.
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/161660

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Bishop Christine Mayr- Lumetzberger of Austria is one of the first women ordained as a bishop by a male bishop in apostolic succession. Bishop Christine, RCWP, has presided at liturgies with male priests in Austria. So perhaps, we are witnessing the emergence of a grassroots solidarity and partnership in Austria that will be an inspiration for supportive priests elsewhere.
Let's hope we are reaching tipping point? It is a joy to see our brother priests around the world standing up for justice and equality for women in our church, and in support of women's ordination!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/