Anti-clerical modernists seeking the destruction of the Catholic Priesthood

 Church Reform: Where's the New Wine?

Anyone with even the slightest interest in the church worries about its future. How can it survive when the number of people leaving the church is so incredibly high? When fewer and fewer believers attend Sunday services?

In his latest book, "Zeitenwende. Aufgaben und Chancen kirchlicher Strukturreformen" (Turning Point: Tasks and Opportunities of Church Structural Reforms), the 86-year-old Viennese pastoral theologian Paul M. Zulehner gives a – partial! – all-clear. He speaks of a transition of the church, not a decline.

His solution: The priest-centered church, which is dying out, must be replaced by a "baptismal vocation church," in which believers are aware of their dignity and responsibility as baptized and confirmed believers and play a decisive role in church life. However, this transition does not happen automatically. The traditional form of church could end before the new one takes hold.

For decades, Zulehner has tirelessly accompanied these transitions with numerous books and countless lectures. He is aware of the danger that reforms remain superficial. He uses an image from the Gospel: People have merely mended the old wineskins, but have not taken care of new wine. They could repeat the lament of the mother of Jesus at the wedding in Cana: "They have no more wine." Therefore, in all efforts toward external reforms, the experiences of faith with God must not be neglected.

Another concern of Paul M. Zulehner: Church structural reforms must not be so central that a central concern of the church, service to the world and humanity, is neglected. What is required is a decisive "political" commitment to justice, peace, and the preservation of creation. Even if a vocal minority of believers demonizes this as "left-wing"...

"TheChurch no longer has a future," a good friend who is quite involved in the church recently told me. The well-known Viennese pastoral theologian Paul M. Zulehner (86) takes a more nuanced view in his latest book: "The traditional social structure of the church can no longer be maintained."

Zulehner distinguishes between two manifestations of the church: the (traditional) "priestly church," in which everything revolves around the ordained ministers; and the "baptismally vocation church," which sees itself as the people of God: the baptized who take their baptismal vocation seriously and participate in church life.

Reforms in this direction are already underway in many places. Exactly one year ago, Zulehner conducted a large-scale online survey on this topic. The book documents the results and thus offers suggestions for how the path of urgently needed renewal of the church can continue.

Source

Paul Zulehner, pupil of Karl Rahner has synodal anti-clerical form as long as your arm.  Many of these synodalists are ex-seminarians.  Paul Zulehner is a priest saying the priesthood has no future.