While the American mainstream media report that at least 60% of Catholics think priests should marry, women should be priests, and that the Church is out of touch, the Pope holds firm to Catholic tradition.
For background, read The Pope, and Obama's War on Christianity and also read Pope: Gay Agenda & Abortion Dooms Society
-- From "Pope criticizes priests who question celibacy rule, says priest shortage no reason to disobey teachings" by Nicole Winfield, Associated Press 4/6/12
In 2006, a group of Austrian priests launched the Pfarrer Initiative, or pastor initiative, a call to disobedience aimed at abolishing priestly celibacy and opening the clergy to women to relieve the shortages of priests.
Last June, the group's members essentially threatened a schism, saying the Vatican's refusal to hear their complaints left them no choice but to "follow our conscience and act independently."
In his homily, Benedict, who turns 85 this month, said the dissidents claim to be motivated by concern for the church. But he suggested that in reality they were just making "a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with (their) own preferences."
He said Jesus always followed true obedience to God's will, not "human caprice."
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From "Pope assails 'disobedience' among priests" by Rachel Donadio, New York Times 4/5/12
Striking the tone that once earned him the nickname "God's Rottweiler," Pope Benedict XVI in a stern Holy Thursday homily denounced "disobedience" in the Roman Catholic Church, chastising priests who sought the ordination of women and the abolition of priestly celibacy.
In his homily, Benedict made clear that reforms could go against church doctrine. He singled out "a group of priests from a European country" who had recently "issued a summons to disobedience."
[The Austrian priests] did this to the point of disregarding church teaching and encouraging "women's ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated irrevocably that the church has received no authority from the Lord," Benedict said
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From "Vatican letter demands action on Austrian dissident priests’ group the day after Papal blast" by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent, LifeSiteNews.com 4/7/12
According to inside sources, the head of the Austrian Catholic Church and cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn, was not informed ahead of time of Pope Benedict XVI’s intention to criticise a group of dissident priests in his sermon at St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday night. Today it was revealed that Schönborn received a letter from the Vatican demanding action, after ten months of “discussion” between the cardinal and the group calling itself the “Austrian Priests’ Initiative.”
In 2010, Cardinal Schönborn criticised the Church for what he characterised as its refusal to accept homosexual relations. Schönborn told the far-left UK Tablet magazine that the Church should also consider allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion since “many people don’t even marry at all any longer.”
“We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships. A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous,” Schönborn said.
Pope Benedict devoted the bulk of his sermon on Thursday night to the situation, saying, “Do we sense here anything of that configuration to Christ which is the precondition for true renewal, or do we merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas?”
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Also read Pope Welcomes Christians Leaving Anglicanism over Liberalism
