Showing posts with label Archbishop Franz Lackner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archbishop Franz Lackner. Show all posts

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Archbishop of Salzburg: "The Priesthood Should Remain Linked to Celibacy"

Salzburg's Archbishop Lackner comments on kath.net after discussing statements in the "local papers"

Salzburg (kath.net) The Archdiocese of Salzburg has discussions about the statements of Archbishop Franz Lackner according to statements in the "local papers". They quote the archbishop as follows: "If Jesus came into the world today, I would say to him, "Take the women to the priesthood." But there is also an injustice on the other side: celibacy. So a priest must live without woman." kath.net asked Archbishop Lackner what these statements meant.

Lackner explains to kath.net: "As part of a conversation on the sidelines of the presentation of the 'Reputation Study', I was once again addressed about the question of women's ordination and I made those statements in order to emphasize the basic Catholic theological conception as I said in this interview, that the Church is an organic whole, like a tree that has been growing for a long time, and that the tree can not be changed in its basic structure, the main roots, the trunk, and the main branches This is also the case in theology: there is a basic structure, such as the sacraments and the dogmas of the church, which is not - and certainly not arbitrarily - changeable." 

The Salzburg Archbishop then recalls that in the context of the priesthood, the Church looks back on Jesus Christ and a "long time of growth" under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Lackner then goes on to explain: "The sacramental priesthood is part of the Catholic identity." In ecclesiastical doctrine one knows the wise distinction of the potentia Dei absoluta and the potentia Dei ordinata, that is, the absolute salvific will of God and the actual salvific will of God. God does not exclude a priori that God originally chose another way of healing, and in this context, I have made a conditional statement, "If Jesus came into the world today, I would say to him, 'Take the women to the priesthood.'" In the sense of an absolute salvific will of God, this statement is not heretical, it is highly speculative and I admit that it is striking, but in this connection one thing is always clear: God can do it, we can not, but our task is in the sense of the potentia Dei ordinata to listen to how God spoke and how to speak through the history of salvation - which I firmly believe is spiritually guided - understood and also established as the teaching of the Church." 

The topic of celibacy is also very important to the Salzburg Archbishop: "I understand that a world based on equality (every distinction is a discrimination) makes it hard to understand why women can not reach the priesthood. I want to seize on this understanding, that's why I mean, but not just because the priesthood should be linked to celibacy, the priesthood must be "deficient" as it were "to compensate." The priest has to be lacking because of his path of sanctification. I have repeatedly defended the priesthood, as the Catholic Church has determined, both out of personal conviction and fidelity to the teachings of the Church, but I also seek to argue in a differentiated way in today's world." 

Photo: (c) Archdiocese of Salzburg


Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG