Austrian Bishops in open revolt

from Rorate Caeli

There was no true "crisis", but open revolt against the Pope, inflamed and supported by the shameless Bishops of Austria, first among them the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna. If the Pope does not intervene urgently in this case, if a PUBLIC response is not given - since the Bishops of Austria chose to make the matter public - the perception of the authority of the Pope in Europe is finished. The anti-Roman rebellion of the Austrian Bishops is intolerable.

A view with which Cathcon heartedly concurs.  Cathcon believes that a document will be forthcoming first on Bishops' Conferences- the Pope has long been critical of their quasi-doctrinal formulation and believes that they have no juridical status and then on the role of the individual bishop.

They had better take heed because the future prosperity of the Catholic Church depends on it.   The crisis if nothing if not episcopal.

This pseudo-ecclesiastical spirit which is abroad, emanating from Linz, cannot and should not be appeased any more than that other product of Linz, Adolf Hitler.   But not even he, thoroughly evil as he was, tried to interfere with the appointment of Bishops in the way that the bully boys of the Diocese of Linz and their pseudo-clerical lay accomplices have succeeded in doing.   How can the Bishops say that there are opposed to local appointment when they have allowed this ecclesiastical crime to be perpetrated under their very noses in direct contravention of the will of the Vicar of Christ.   They mouth fidelity to the Pope but readers can judge also their actions. 

You start by trying to pick your bishop and then you end by trying to decide which "truth" to pick.  One dreads to think of what heresies a "Church of Upper Austria" with its very, very  own presiding bishop would fall into! 

The press are proclaiming "The Hour of the Cardinal" - which may well be true, but certainly not the hour of the Catholic Faith.

The criticism by the Austrian bishops of the Vatican was top news tonight on German TV.

Cathcon spends months each year in Linz.  High time for another visit.