Is the throne of the Bishop of Linz wobbling?

Arch-conservative circles are putting Bishop Schwarz of Linz in a serious situation. Schwarz himself has just completed a particularly gruelling week of meetings.

Is the throne of Bishop Ludwig Schwarz of Linz wobbling? Will he be called to Rome? To the Curia? Or back to a leading position in his Salesian Order? Will the Vatican send him a "helper" in the form of a coadjutor who would then have the right of succession? One thing is certain: influential arch-conservative circles are currently trying everything - so far unnoticed by the public - to get the bishop out of Linz.

Problems with Friedl and Wagner

The situation for Schwarz is serious. So serious that even Cardinal Christoph Schönborn is getting involved. He wants to keep his former auxiliary bishop (2001-2005). Only recently, the chairman of the Bishops' Conference himself rushed to Schwarz's side with a remarkable appearance. Schönborn travelled personally to a meeting of the Bishops' Consistory in Linz. In his presence (Schönborn is also Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province to which Upper Austria belongs), the body of the 20 highest office bearers of the Linz diocese discussed the situation following the "voluntary" resignation of the Windischgarsten priest Gerhard Maria Wagner. Since this resignation before taking office, the conservative wing of Upper Austria has been hit hard. It is powerful - and is now striking back.

Schwarz himself has just completed a particularly gruelling week of meetings. On Monday with Father Josef Friedl, who confessed to living with a woman in the rectory. On Thursday with the deans who no longer believe in maintaining celibacy. Only yesterday, Friday, with the priests' council, which has little to no understanding for the events surrounding almost-suffragan bishop Wagner.

"Servite domino in laetitia", "Serve the Lord in joy" is Schwarz's episcopal motto. Joy? At present, the 68-year-old shepherd is suffering. In silence and alone. Because Schwarz neglected to take people of trust with him when he moved from Vienna to Linz; the existing staff was taken over unchanged from predecessor Maximilian Aichern. Outwardly, Schwarz remains polite and friendly, almost gentle, when journalists await him coming from his private rooms on the first floor of the Bischofshof, for example. "I am pleased," one often hears from him when he shakes hands. He is described by a former staff member as a "kind-hearted person". That may also be his main problem. He wants to please everyone.

Taking the example of the Ungenach priest Friedl: Schwarz relieves the celibate refuser of his function as dean, which does not really bother him, but leaves him in the priesthood. Which is interpreted as a sign of weakness. From both sides, progressives and conservatives, in the Catholic Church.

Yet the mandate of Rome for Schwarz had actually been to unite the diocese, to lead extremes into the common centre. For years, Upper Austria's Catholics have been engaged in sometimes heated, sometimes gentler disputes about the (strong) role of pastoral assistants, baptisms by lay people and actual or supposed undesirable developments in the liturgy.

Influential friends

In this context, Schwarz could take criticism from both sides very calmly. From 1984 to 1999, as a university professor in Rome, he was able to establish valuable contacts and rope relationships. Among others, to a friar named Tarcisio Bertone. In the meantime, he has climbed the Catholic career ladder - higher than Schwarz. Today, Bertone is Cardinal Secretary of State and number two behind Pope Benedict XVI. Does the Bishop of Linz find it comforting or frightening that his friend is currently suffering a similar fate?

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