Church in the World

Bishop wants ban on birth control lifted

Austria

A popular bishop has called for an end to the Church's ban on married priests and the use of birth control, arguing that a backlog of necessary reforms is draining the Church of its strength and preventing it from asserting its presence in today's world.

In his new book, A Church with a Future: 12 essays on seemingly insoluble church problems, Bishop Helmut Krätzl, an auxiliary in Vienna, accuses the Church of having shied away from sensitive issues such as mandatory celibacy, because it considers such problems insoluble and was waiting for "God to intervene".

He cites surveys that show celibacy to be a key reason for the drastic fall in vocations to the priesthood and says he is convinced that the policy is out of step with reality, would weaken the Church, and prevent its urgently needed message from reaching the world. The bishop advocates the model of the Greek Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome and yet permits married men to become priests, but not bishops.

The bishop says that the issue of birth control has to be discussed openly and calls for "responsible parenthood" based on the informed conscience of the individual, which the Second Vatican Council confirmed as the final instance for moral decisions. He says the fact that the Church forbids birth control but that so many Catholics practise it has lost the Church much credibility.

Bishop Krätzl also says it is imperative to go back to the declarations of the Second Vatican Council and study not only what they said but how they came about, because they pointed the way forward on church reform. The question of centralism versus collegiality must be brought back on to the discussion table, he argues.

Bishop Krätzl also tackles the subject of remarried divorcees in Austria, where many have either left the Church or feel neglected by it, because they may not receive the sacraments or be godparents or confirmation sponsors, and are often barred from parish councils. Acknowledging that divorce is on the increase, Krätzl notes a solution practised in the Orthodox Church, where a second church marriage is possible and divorcees are not barred from the sacraments, and says something similar should be considered.

Here, as elsewhere in the book, he quotes Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who as Archbishop of Munich in 1980 wrote to all his priests and deacons advocating "greater compassion" for remarried divorcees in line with the Orthodox Churches. The bishop also called for steps to be taken towards intercommunion with the other Churches.