AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)
22 May 2014 by Abigail Frymann, Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
The head of pro-reform movement We Are Church in Austria has been excommunicated by Pope Francis for “celebrating” Mass, the Austrian press has reported.
According to the Austrian daily Tiroler Tageszeitung Martha Heizer and her husband Gert were excommunicated for regularly “simulating the Mass”, which the Church considers a delictum gravius, or “grave delict”. The couple are now barred from the sacraments.
The couple has reportedly been celebrating Mass privately at their house together with a small group of friends for several years in what they term “celebrations of the Eucharist without a priest”.
Bishop Manfred Scheuer of Innsbruck received the decree of excommunication last night. He took the excommunication decree to their house last night and read it out to them but they refused to accept it.
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