Rome preparing to appoint new auxilliary in Linz?
The Pope has injured his wrist after a fall on Friday during his holiday in Italy.
After a brief treatment in the hospital, he is carrying on with his holiday after an unusually intense and difficult half year, said a press release from "Kathpress," the Catholic news agency.
But the Diocese of Linz currently has caught nothing of the holiday mood. The "dismissal" of Ferdinand Kaineder as head of the Communications Office of the Diocese of Linz, again ensures that the grass roots of the church are again agitated. Bishop Ludwig Schwarz is accused of bowing to the wishes of arch-conservative groups in the Diocese of Linz.
Not only Kaineder himself, but also the campaign group “We are Church” and Catholic Action Upper Austria see the dismissed press chief as a victim of ultra-conservative circles.
Kaineder was blamed, as he himself reported, for the diocesan Youth CD from 2006 which contained open statements about sexuality.
Also, that he is a representative of the "Linz Path" and that as spokesman of the Bishop, he did not entirely conform with the programme, outlook and statements of the Bishop gave rise to anger among the conservatives.
Bishop Ludwig Schwarz justified the dismissal saying that Kaineder as a committed colleague always drew attention to himself for controversial positions.
This brought him in tension with his tasks as spokesperson of the Bishop. Schwarz has offered his ex-press chief however, other specific employment opportunities in the Diocese.
Immediately after his firing Kaineder said that from specific parties a defamation campaign had been run against him for a number of years
Defamation campaign
After Rundschau am Sonntag showed him an emailed linked from the campaign, Kaineder’s suspicions were confirmed.
From outside, the impression was always woken that there could be a connection between kath.net and the initiative, Kirchentreu
It was always known to me that they worked together. It appeared to me that the information channels between Rome and kath.net functioned well.
“I believe also that these channels are responsible for my sacking”, said Kaineder.
Explosive email
In the cited email of 4th February, Franz Gangl, head of the movement, Kirchentreu and producer for KTV invited his colleague Klaus Fruhstorfer to a meeting with Roland Noe, the chief editor of the internet platform, kath.net.
Gangl wrote about a press conference at which Bishop Schwarz and parish priest, Gerhard Maria Wagner were present.
He joked about Kaineder and told Fruhstorfer that his concern about the Nudist Doorkeeper (Cathcon??!!) (meaning Kaineder) was completely unfounded. At that time, the consecration of Gerhard Maria Wagner was still to be taking place.
Gangl wrote that he had whispered to Wagner at the end of the press conference that the church tax boycott could now end and that the money that had been paid into escrow accounts could be handed over to the new Bishop as a welcome gift.
That Rome has spoken influential words in the Diocese was made clear to Rundschau am Sonntag by a church insider.
"Supposedly the Kaineder documentation has been on the desk of the pope. Furthermore in Rome, the appointment of a new auxiliary bishop shall be prepared."
Update 2022
"Defamation campaign against me".
In his farewell letter, Ferdinand Kaineder, the deposed head of the communion office of the Diocese of Linz, settles accounts with his opponents.
As the "Rundschau am Sonntag" reports online, Ferdinand Kaineder, who was deposed today, has been facing a years-long defamation campaign against him as head of the communications office and parish council chairman of his home parish Kirchschlag.
In a farewell letter to his colleagues, obtained by the Rundschau am Sonntag, he writes among other things: "I was always amazed and today I am really disappointed that in the last few years "at the top" the denunciators were believed and listened to more than one's own staff. It is now well known that these internationally active internet networks have good, even the best contacts to and in Rome. I see and experience this kind of "merciless reporting" as a real danger for an open, dialogical Church that is unconditionally turned towards people in faith in God." Diocesan Bishop Ludwig Schwarz could not be reached for comment on Tuesday due to illness. However, he would explain his decision in more detail as soon as possible.
Furthermore, Kaineder writes that the differences in plans, views and statements between him and the bishop, his advocacy of the "Linz Path" and the publication of a controversial youth CD are reasons for his departure. The Bishop had also said to him in the talks: "He understands that in the course of my life I have been shaped in this way in this diocese."
The new head of the communications office, Gabriele Eder-Cakl, takes the bishop's decision to remove Kaineder "with great disappointment". She confirms Kaineder's statement that his dismissal was made as a result of denunciation. Ferdinand Kaineder was relieved of his function as head of the communications office of the Diocese of Linz on Monday 13 July. However, he remains an employee of the diocese. At present, Kaineder is at home in Kirchschlag and from 20 July he will go on pilgrimage to Assisi on foot.
"Three weeks ago, when the Bishop returned from Rome, he told me that he wanted to make a change in the management of the Communications Office. Last Friday we sat together again," says Kaineder in an interview with the Rundschau am Sonntag. The farewell letter can be read in full at www.rundschau.co.at (link broken referred to above.
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