Cathcon sees no need to be repentant

as Archdiocese of Vienna issues press releases.

Some people have taken serious offense in the Holy Mass for young people which was celebrated by the Viennese Cardinal Christoph Schönborn on the 16th of November in Wolfsthal, a village close to the Austrian-Slovakian border.

In contrast to the presumption, due to the in many ways amateurish und unrealistic recorded broadcasting by Gloria TV, it must be clearly stated that in this celebration in no way any kind of liturgical specifications have been violated.

The Eucharistic bread was unleavened and its shape strictly followed the shape which has been used in the Middle East since the 1st century. The “flat cake” is similar to that form used in Mossul in these days – this is the metropolis located at river Tigris where Christians still testify the truth of Jesus with their own blood.

Werner Pirkner, the spiritual councilor for the Holy Mass in Wolfsthal, and Stephan Bazalka, coordinator of the Catholic Youth, paid highest attention to the fact that when breaking the bread no tiny little piece of bread ever touched the floor.

Those who have dared, tempted by a fragmentary news coverage, to bring forward accusations against the archbishop of Vienna, may contemplate, repent and ask God for his forgiveness. Let us pray all together for the Holy Church!

As it happens, a group of Iraqi Christians are going to be coming around to our flat in the next few days, so I should be able to give the Archdiocese of Vienna a reality check when we get their responses to the video!

I suspect that they will feel insulted by the attempt to use their plight to defend the liturgically indefensible.

The reference to the use of leavened bread by Iraqi Christians derives from the interest of the Cardinal in reunion with the Orthodox Churches generally, who use leavened bread for their Eucharists. However, showing this video to the erstwhile Orthodox ecumenical partners of the Cardinal could set back ecumenism for years.

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev on Orthodox Worship as a School of Theology

To quote

"One can add that after the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, services in some Catholic churches have become little different from Protestant ones. They often share the same lack of wholeness and the same alternation of incoherent, unrelated prayers and hymns.

The liturgical texts used in many non-Orthodox churches, except for the Eucharistic prayers and certain ancient hymns still in use, are often characterized by a low level of theological content: as a rule they contain much “piety” that often borders on the sentimental, and very little theology."

The Bishop lives in Vienna, so he has every chance to see the "show" live. Somehow, I don't think he would be seen dead there.

But in the words of the Russ Conway song

There's a man who sells balloons
Pretty coloured toy balloons
He'll be coming round your way
So watch for him today

There's a fairy tale he tells
With each toy balloon he sells
Of a pretty magic world
For every boy and girl

He has red ones, and white ones, and blue ones and green
He's got the prettiest balloons you've ever seen
He's got big ones and small ones and some in between
To suit every little child's dream

It's a wondrous sight to see
For the children laugh with glee
When he lets them all go free
He's pretty toy balloons
Balloons, balloons, balloons

La-la-la-la Lah-la-lah, La-la-la-la Lah-la-lah
La-la-la-la Lah-la-lah, La-la-la La-la Lah

La-la-la-la Lah-la-lah, La-la-la-la Lah-la-lah
La-la-la-la Lah-la-lah, La-la-la La-la Lah
Balloons, balloons, balloons
Flying up so high
Go way up in the sky (fade)

Selling balloons, light shows, rock and pop, not the fullness of the Catholic Faith.

I hope a sociologist is studying the youth work of the Archdiocese of Vienna, so that the world will be able to see the reality of this work- it will lead inevitably to lapsation. Why go to Church for a light show when so many other people do it so much better?

See a Dutch report, "Cardinal in Action"