Pastor's Initiative (german: Pfarrer-Initiative) is a

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

group founded in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in 2006 by Helmut Schüller as its leader,The Catholic Tipping Point
old page version at archive.org initiated by an "Appeal to Disobedience", or "Call to Disobedience" (german: Aufruf zum Ungehorsam). Composed of priests with

lay Lay may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada *Lay, Loire, a French commune *Lay (river), France *Lay, Iran, a village *Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community People * Lay (surname) * ...

support, the group advocates

ordination of women The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

, married and non-celibate priesthood, allowing

Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...

to remarried

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

es and non-Catholics.

Beliefs

Call to Disobedience favors

, married and non-celibate priesthood, allowing

to remarried

es and non-Catholics and disagrees with some teachings of the Catholic Magisterium. Schüller believes the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

is among the laity, that qualified lay people can preach and give communion Helmut Schüller’s Call to Disobedience
Vienna Review, December 1, 2011 in parishes without a priest. The group believes the way the Church is governed needs reform. Schüller has stated:

Lecture tour

Schüller undertook a lecture tour in the United States in summer 2013. The tour included Boston; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Detroit; Cincinnati; Denver; San Diego; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle. The tour was sponsored by

Call to Action Call to Action (CTA) is an American organization that advocates a variety of changes in the Catholic Church. Call To Action's goals are to change church teachings in such areas as mandatory celibacy for priests, the male-only priesthood, the selec ...

, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good,

CORPUS Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

, DignityUSA, FutureChurch,

National Coalition of American Nuns The National Coalition of American Nuns (NCAN) was founded in 1969 by Margaret Traxler and Audrey Kopp. The organization is known for its advocacy for women's rights, support for the Equal Rights Amendment, opposition to the Catholic Church hiera ...

New Ways Ministry New Ways Ministry is a ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Catholics. The national organization is primarily based in the state of Maryland. It was one of the earliest groups attempting to broaden the way ...

Voice of the Faithful Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) is a movement of practicing Catholics, founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2002 in the wake of allegations regarding child abuse by Catholic clergy, perceived mishandling of cases of known or suspected abuse, and past ...

, Quixote Center, and

Women's Ordination Conference The Women's Ordination Conference is an organization in the United States that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Catholic Church. Founded in 1975, the conference was seeded from an idea the year before, when Mary B. Ly ...

. During the tour Schüller expressed concern because he feels the Church hierarchy ignores the views of the faithful.

Support

The movement claims the support of the majority of Austrian Catholic priests and enjoy further support elsewhere. The group claims growing membership in other countries as well.

Conflict

The group is not recognised by any official representatives of the Catholic Church. The group's teaching has been criticised for its deviation from

Catholic doctrine Catholic doctrine may refer to: * Catholic theology ** Catholic moral theology ** Catholic Mariology *Heresy in the Catholic Church * Catholic social teaching * Catholic liturgy *Catholic Church and homosexuality The Catholic Church broadly ...

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

criticised the movement several times in his weekly Wednesday audience, describing them as

heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

and schismatics. By contrast, its founder, the Rev. Helmut Schüller, blames “absolutist monarchy” and resistance to change by the Vatican for a possible schism."Over 300 Austrian priests join ‘Call to Disobedience’"
catholiccultur.org, 13 July 2011.

References

{{Religion in Austria Catholic dissident organizations LGBT and Catholicism Ordination of women and the Catholic Church Criticism of the Catholic Church

Beliefs

Lecture tour

Support

Conflict

See also

References