The days that shook the Austrian Church
The case of the 'Katrina pastor' has opened up old wounds in a deeply divided Church, says Anna Arco
3 April 2009

Bishop Egon Kapellari and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, centre, attend an emergency meeting of the bishops' conference on February 16 (CNS photo)

'Pope promotes bishop who said Hurricane Katrina was 'divine retribution'," read the headline in the Daily Telegraph two days after Dr Gerhard Maria Wagner was named the new auxiliary bishop for the Upper Austrian Diocese of Linz.

Suddenly the business of Obscuresville, Austria, had become a matter of international importance. The media storm that followed as the events of the next two weeks unfolded was wholly unexpected - the candidate's subsequent public resignation and the Austrian bishops' reaction were unprecedented. In a winter plagued with public relations disasters for the Vatican, the case of the "Katrina pastor" may perhaps have been the most telling of all about the state of the Church in central Europe and the struggles it faces in the future.

In Linz beginnts says an old proverb: "Things start in Linz." The deceptively sleepy Upper Austrian capital, the country's third-largest city, boasts the historically Catholic country's oldest church. Its city centre is so thick with basilicas, churches, chapels and convents that one barely leaves one Rococo extravaganza before encountering the next frothy Baroque jewel.

Despite having all the external trappings of tradition and history, Linz is also a stonghold of the controversial ultra-liberal grassroots movement We Are Church. The Diocese of Linz even had a dispensation which allowed for lay preaching. If Austria is a laboratory for a certain brand of post-Conciliar reforms, then Linz is the room where the most volatile and explosive substances are kept.

Linz is Austria's largest diocese in numerical terms, accounting for a fifth of the country's paid-up Church members. But like the rest of the country it suffers from a shortage of priests and a decline not just in regular church attendance but also a veritable exodus of members. Approximately one per cent of the Catholic faithful (40,000 people) leave the Austrian Church every year. Church attendance among signed-up members is at about 10 per cent and the average age of priests in Linz diocese is around 65.

Causa Wagner - as the episode was dubbed first by the mainstream media, then later by the Church's own press officers - threw Austria's hierarchy into crisis, reopening some of the old wounds from high-level sexual abuse scandals that came to the fore in the Nineties and again in 2004. It also threatened the uneasy peace between the conflicting groups within the Church.

The announcement of Dr Wagner's appointment on January 31, hot on the heels of the Bishop Williamson saga, created an instant sensation. Dr Wagner was notorious in the diocese and throughout Austria for his suggestion that natural disasters were not just the results of physical pollution but also of spiritual pollution, most notably Hurricane Katrina in 2006 and the Tsunami in Asia in 2005. Dr Wagner was also guilty of a latter-day heresy, which was a real sticking point for many Austrians: he had said the Harry Potter books were satanic.

This was further compounded by Dr Wagner's dislike of extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and his moratorium on female altar servers in his parish, as well as his close association with the Linzer Priesterkreis (Linz priests' circle). Founded by another Upper Austrian priest, Dr Franz Breid, under the wing of "ultra-conservative" Bishop Kurt Krenn of St Pölten, the Linzer Priesterkreis gained an international reputation for its annual theological summer school which is attended by prominent clergy from abroad and even hosted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before his elevation to the papacy.

A pile of letters and email print-outs about half a foot high stacked on the diocesan press officer's desk bears witness to the controversy. Three weeks after Dr Wagner's resignation Ferdinand Kaineder and his colleague, Gabriele Eder-Cackl, say they were surprised not only by the media interest over the episode but also by what they describe as the "positive reaction of the bishops" to a difficult situation.

"I think in a way this Causa Wagner was important not just for the Diocese of Linz but for the whole of the Austrian Church," Mr Kaineder says.

Dr Ludwig Schwarz, the diocesan bishop, held a press conference on February 2 to deal with the negative reaction to Dr Wagner's appointment. It was a massacre in front of the television cameras (parts of it can be seen on YouTube). In the nasal lilt of a lower Austrian, Bishop Schwarz - Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's former right-hand man - tried to clarify the role of an auxiliary, explaining the history behind the titular sees and the contemporary functions that Dr Wagner's new position entailed. His voice sounded dull and bored and his facial expressions suggested he couldn't wait to get out of the room, but he called on the press to show Dr Wagner some Christian respect and welcomed him with warm words.

"I have not been happy about the negative reporting of these first days," Bishop Schwartz said. "After all, the new bishop has not applied for the post, but rather he has taken it on humbly with all obedience to the Pope."

During this nine-minute speech Dr Wagner - looking a bit like a balding lion cub with a swagger of assurance that betokened nervousness - tapped his feet and hands impatiently, made faces at the reporters and fidgeted.

'It was a massacre': Bishop Ludwig Schwarz of Linz and Dr Gerhard Wagner are pictured at the fateful press conference on February 2

Dr Wagner then introduced himself as a Linz man born and bred who had always wanted to be a priest, who was sent to Rome after two years of seminary, a pastor whose main task was the cure of souls.

Then the barrage of questions followed. What were Dr Wagner's thoughts on mandatory celibacy for priests? On a punishing God? What about the divisions in the diocese?

As was to be expected, Dr Wagner defended his positions which, according to Mr Kaineder, "everybody knew already". The bishop-elect praised the merits of celibacy, explained the notion that a parent might punish wayward children out of love and said the diocese was indeed polarised. What bothered people, Mr Kaineder said, was the tone in which he replied. It was aggressive and antagonising.

Dr Wagner was also asked to comment on what he thought of the fact that he was causing people to leave the Church. In Austria leaving the Church is a formal act which involves discontinuing payments of Church tax which is levied on every adult baptised Catholic. Introduced by the Nazis after the Anschluss in order to de-stabilise the Church, the tax seems to be the one thing the different factions in the Church can agree on. For the average punter it is a simple fee that maintains the patrimony of the Church and the services it provides, empowering the customer.

Even if it is annoying for much of the clergy and the Church bureaucracy, the tax maintains a necessary way of life without which the Church would cease to function on its present scale. According to the Upper Austrian newspaper Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, the reminders for the faithful to pay their contribution went out to 3.7 million Austrians just before the announcement of the Wagner appointment.

We Are Church, which favours abolishing mandatory celibacy, revising Catholic teaching on sexuality, ordaining women priests and turning the Church into a democracy, urged people to leave the Church to show their displeasure over the Wagner appointment. At every turn the group uses tax as leverage against the institutional Church in implementing its agenda.

Dr Wagner replied to the question about the exodus of Catholics by saying that the Church must not change its age-old teaching in order to accommodate a few.

The diocesan press officer uses a simile based on the Alps to explain what he believes became Dr Wagner's undoing. "It's like the Alps, you see?" he tells me. "There isn't just one big mountain, it's one and then another and then there are a whole series of mountains to overcome."

What did Mr Kaineder think of the fact that the Diocese of Linz is often described as "liberal"?

"Let me quote our old Bishop Maximilian Aichern," he replied, "who used to say: 'We are not liberal, we are social.' In the diocese we put great value on the social aspects of the church, helping one's neighbour, offering pastoral care, schools, hospitals and so on. You know, bread first and then the Gospel. You can't feed a starving man the Gospel."

A week after the appointment Dr Wagner still had Cardinal Schönborn's public support in the shape of the cardinal's weekly column in an Austrian freesheet. But his luck soon turned and support waned quickly.

Mr Kaineder believes the turning point came when Dr Wagner replied to a question in an interview with Profil magazine on February 7 in which he said homosexuality was curable. It was at this juncture, Mr Kaineder says, that the tide turned decisively against Dr Wagner.

"The public outcry could no longer be ignored. It was no longer just the disaffected Catholics who were complaining but the ones who were at the heart of the Church, who were working in the parishes with parishioners who were carrying the life of the Church suddenly felt that they couldn't carry on any more. The deans in the deaneries were feeling the pressure. It was palpable and visible and they and their colleagues no longer had confidence in the processes any more." By February 10 the movement against Dr Wagner had really gained pace. Archbishop Alois Kothgasser of Salzburg spoke out, ostensibly about the Pope's lifting of the excommunications from the four Lefebvrist bishops, but against the backdrop of the Wagner controversy.

He said: "Should the Catholic Church be shrunk so that it is the size of a sect, where there are only a few members who toe the party line, or should the Catholic Church remain the Church of Jesus Christ, with space for variety, that is open and which marks society from the inside? It is necessary for the Church to turn towards people, which is necessary for society to hold its values. When trust in the local Church is missing then trust in the central authority diminishes."

The 33 deans of the Diocese of Linz met informally to discuss the appointment and announced a vote of no confidence. Their publicised conclusion read: "As deans in our diocese, we realise that many Christians support the appointment of Dr Gerhard Wagner to auxiliary bishop, but also that many are angry, disappointed and hurt by it.

"In the intensive discussions of the deans it became evident that there was a missing acceptance of Dr Gerhard Wagner in the role of bishop. Therefore out of a concern for the credibility of the Church and the unity of our diocese we cannot give our consent to the consecration of Dr Gerhard Wagner."

The burning question in the Austrian media during the whole saga was: who put forward Dr Wagner? That question remains unanswered, though the Austrian bishops' conference laid the blame at the Vatican's door. Dr Schwarz had asked Rome for an auxiliary bishop - that much is known. What remains unclear is whether Dr Wagner was his choice.

Abbot Gregor von Henckel-Donnersmarck, who leads a highly successful "Reform of the Reform" Cistercian monastery near Vienna, gave a controversial interview with the Viennese newspaper Der Standard in which he was quoted as saying that a diocesan bishop normally specifies the name of the auxiliary bishop he would like to have. Bishop Schwarz countered this, saying the abbot didn't know the details.

According to Mr Kaineder, the announcement came as a surprise at the diocesan level. "We really weren't expecting it," he said. "Dr Wagner's activities were known in the diocese, first as a parish priest but also because of his active and vocal involvement with the Linzer Priesterkreis, and parallel to that he had stopped attending diocesan meetings, training sessions and what have you, even if these were mandatory."

Speculation that the Pope or possibly his secretary, Mgr Georg Gänswein, had intervened and put Dr Wagner on the terna in order to give Bishop Schwarz the necessary backbone to deal with a recalcitrant diocese has made its way across Austria, though the truth remains unknown. Dr Schwarz has refused to answer the question, citing the secrecy surrounding the process as grounds for his silence. But this has not been uncontroversial, as the Apostolic Nuncio was reported to have said the choice for an auxiliary bishop was normally left to diocesan bishops.

On February 11 Bishop Elmar Fischer of Feldkirch went on radio and appeared to support Dr Wagner's statements on homosexuality, comparing it to alcoholism or a gambling addiction. By the next day he had backed down.

Support for Dr Wagner was fast evaporating. In the deaneries of Upper Austria the deans were collecting signatures on a petition calling for Dr Wagner's resignation and threatening to boycott Dr Wagner's consecration which had been scheduled for March 22. Cardinal Schönborn travelled to Rome to discuss the situation with Pope Benedict. He was followed by Bishop Egon Kapellari of Graz-Seckau, the vice-president of the bishops' conference, who visited the Vatican with a handful of other Austrian bishops. Dr Wagner also went. Austrian television filmed him in Rome buying clothes for the new job.

After an audience with the Pope and meetings with members of the Roman Curia, Bishop Kapellari let it be known that highly placed people in Rome had asked Dr Wagner to tone down his approach and gain the trust of his diocese. But in his comments afterwards he also criticised the behaviour of the Upper Austrian deans.

Concerned by the negative press coverage and the growing numbers of Austrians leaving the Church, Cardinal Schönborn called an emergency meeting of the Austrian bishops' conference. The meeting on February 16 included only Austria's diocesan bishops, not its auxiliaries. Originally the bishops had planned to discuss Causa Wagner, as well as the Society of St Pius X and Bishop Williamson's Holocaust denial, at their traditional spring meeting at the beginning of March, but the crisis was deemed too pressing.

"Catholics," Cardinal Schönborn said, "have a right to us doing our best to overcome the current crisis."

Then, on Sunday February 15, came the surprise announcement from the Diocese of Linz: Dr Wagner had asked the Pope to accept his resignation.

"In the face of the hefty criticism I have come to the conclusion through prayer and conversations with the diocesan bishop to ask the Holy Father in Rome to rescind my appointment as auxiliary bishop of Linz," read the statement issued by the diocesan press office on behalf of Dr Wagner.

A Viennese friend sent an email reflecting the mood: "What a blow for democracy in the Church! Finally something good is happening in the Church and there is progress. Being in Austria is really exciting at the moment."

The news was greeted with cautious approval by We Are Church, elation by a number of the faithful, and groaning disapproval from Dr Wagner's parishioners, who, according to the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, called the whole interlude a Sauerei - a piggish mess.

The next day the bishops broke another unwritten rule. Cardinal Schönborn, who for years has been seen as a protégé (and possible successor) of Pope Benedict, had been among the first to criticise the way in which the Vatican had handled lifting the excommunications. Now it seemed that he and the other bishops were openly laying the blame at Rome's door in the pastoral letter they published after the meeting.

The letter said: "The first words are addressed to the faithful, who, together with the bishops, were pushed into the distress of a crisis, but who remained full of trust nevertheless. The faithful have had to take a great deal of criticism, ridicule and rejection, in part as the result of mistakes of the Church."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as though the crisis had been weathered. Bishop Schwarz said he would probably not ask for another new auxiliary. Dr Wagner gave an interview saying how relieved he was to be able to return home after the media onslaught. But this was followed by reports that he had not resigned of his own free will but rather had felt pressured to do so.

Bishop Schwarz's troubles also were not over. On March 9 it was reported that one of the deans who had voted against Dr Wagner had confessed to having a long-term girlfriend. Fr Josef Friedl, who had a high media profile as a result of a controversial case with illegal immigrants, spoke out after being pressured to admit to having a mistress.

"I am 65 now. Why should I lie?" Fr Friedl said. He added that everyone in his parish knew about his girlfriend anyway.

According to Fr Peter Paul Kaspar, a vocal member of various liberal Catholic groups, a large number of priests in the diocese have girlfriends, and the bishop is aware of the fact. The Oberösterreichische Nachrichten estimates that approximately 700 Austrian priests are opposed to mandatory celibacy.

Fr Kaspar said: "Bishop Schwarz is a friendly conservative who tries to avoid too many conflicts. He knows that many of the priests have girlfriends, but there isn't much he can do when he is so short on priests. Also Upper Austrians are fiercely independent and not easily subdued."

Bishop Aichern, Bishop Schwarz's predecessor, a gentle and modest soul who used to visit all his parishes in a battered old green Golf, was far more interested in the social aspects of the Church than in the sacramental ones. Under his watch, the laity became more involved in the parishes, preaching and even, according to some reports, attempting to conduct their own Masses. He resigned early, but was a popular figure with his priests.

According to both Fr Kaspar and Mr Kaineder, Bishop Aichern spent much of his time trying to accommodate the needs of his parishes. Fr Kaspar said he often heard Bishop Aichern say women should be able to be priests one day and that he sympathised with the plight of priests who wanted to marry.

Dr Wagner has returned to look after his parish in Windischgarsten, though, according to Kath.net, a conservative website condemned by the Linz diocese's newsletter, some of his parishioners are threatening to leave the Church in protest over recent events. Fr Friedl has met Bishop Schwarz. Although he has been allowed to remain in orders despite his girlfriend he has had to resign as a dean of the diocese. A recent poll showed that 90 per cent of Austrians are against mandatory celibacy for priests and think they should be allowed to marry.

A paragraph at the heart of the bishops' pastoral letter sums up Austria's key problem. "Upper Austria has a very lively Church," the bishops wrote, "a tightly woven net of active parish communities and pastoral centres, a well-defined sense of the social dimensions of being a Christian, an impressive helpfulness in the world Church's solidarity with the poor and the marginalised. Important monasteries and religious communities mark the land. The lay Catholic initiatives are also particularly active here.

"But we bishops have also been disturbed by the tension that has been palpable in the diocese for years which became acute with the most recent appointment. The issue here is not only different perceptions regarding the structure and the methods, but ultimately it is a question of the sacramental identity of the Church."

The Austrian experiment continues. Optimists believe it will end with the creation of a fully democratic local Church, others with a Church that can no longer be considered truly Catholic.