http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/29/1023864671182.html

Women ordained as Catholic priests in Austria
June 30 2002
AFP



A dozen women from Austria, Germany and the United States were ordained as
Catholic priests on a pleasure boat on the Danube yesterday despite the
threat of excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church.
The ordination on the German-Austrian border, which was fiercely opposed by
bishops from both countries, was witnessed by 300 guests.
"Women make up half of all Christians. If this ordination does not
effectively conform to the laws of the Church, it goes against tradition and
not against faith," said Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, a former nun who is
now a teacher and spokeswoman for the group.
The ordination was carried out by 68-year-old Ferdinand Regelsberger, who
was himself ordained bishop in a ceremony contested by the Vatican and
Austrian church authorities.
The former Benedictine monk was ordained by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine
bishop who styles himself a "warrior of the soul" and a specialist in "karma
, a dogma which really belongs to Hinduism.

Austria's bishops are fiercely opposed to the ordination of women, which
they say goes against Catholic law.
"It is a sectarian deception which has created a schism with the Catholic
Church," Maximilian Aichern, bishop of Linz in northern Austria, told
Catholic news agency Kathpress.
In a message which was read out in all the churches in his diocese last week
Aichern warned the candidate "priestesses" against "a simulated ordination
which would create a fundamental split with the Church".
"If they go ahead with their plans they could be excommunicated," the bishop
of St Poelten in eastern Austria had warned. The bishop of Feldkirch,
western Austria, had told the weekly Profil it was a "serious violation of
the rules of the Church which threatens to draw in other believers".
"If a woman celebrates a mass she will be automatically excommunicated,"
predicted Bruno Primetshofer, an expert on Church law.
The progressive wing of the Austrian Church, which is in favour of women
priests, has also distanced itself from the group.
The controversy comes amid a crisis in the Austrian priesthood. Last year,
only 23 priests were ordained in a country which officially counts six
million Catholics in a population of eight million.
In the 1970s, 75 priests on average were ordained each year, according to church
statistics.

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