AUSTRIA
National Catholic Reporter
by John L. Allen Jr. | Oct. 25, 2012
Rome —
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, is among the most interesting figures in the global church — an intellectual and theological protégé of Pope Benedict XVI, but also known for his willingness to make surprising pastoral judgments, whether it’s allowing an openly gay man to serve on a parish council, approving a sweeping plan to cluster or close almost two-thirds of his parishes, or pursuing dialogue with a priests’ insurrection in Austria. Schönborn, 67, has been among the most-cited figures at the Synod of Bishops on New Evangelization, and on Oct. 23 he spoke to NCR on the margins of the synod.
The following is a transcript of the interview.
Interview with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn
Oct. 23, 2012
I’ve spoken to several people in the synod who were impressed with what you said about these gatherings being a chance for bishops to talk to each other about their pastoral challenges.
At the very beginning of the synod, I suggested that we share, not so much challenges, but our experiences. As successors of the apostles, we are called to be the first evangelizers. We all have experiences of all kinds of joys, fears, successes, failures, and so on, in evangelizing. We all asked ourselves, ‘Do I really evangelize?’ I preach a lot, I’m in the parishes, I write pastoral letters, and so on, but what’s meant by the ‘New Evangelization’ is not only the daily pastoral work, which obviously we have to do and we do it with joy, but what Pope Benedict repeatedly says to us, encourages us to do, is to reach out to those who no longer have, or never have had, any direct contact with the gospel. This is the real challenge of the New Evangelization. I was very moved by some examples in the synod of real shared experiences of our work of evangelization. Of course, we also have to talk about all the questions of secular society, of globalization, of the social dimension, and all these subjects, and I think we’ve had a very rich menu about what’s going on throughout the world. The situations are all different, but nonetheless also more and more similar. Some of us, however, also gave really personal testimonies, and that was very moving.
In that spirit, let me ask about a couple of your recent pastoral experiences in Austria. One is the priests’ movement, what some call the ‘priests’ rebellion.’ Where do things stand now in terms of your relationship with that group?
I think all the Austrian bishops have normal and regular contact with the priests who are in that movement. In my diocese, some of the leading priests of that movement are in the diocesan priests’ council. Just at the beginning of this month, we talked very intensely about the questions and the challenges of this group. We all share many of these. The problems and questions they raise are real questions from the field. The issue is how to respond, how to take up these challenges, and I dare to say that the majority of the priests, as well as we bishops, as we have shown in our recent pastoral letter, think that some of the proposed solutions [from this movement] fall short. We have to dig deeper, to see these questions in a vaster context. We have to see it as a common challenge for all the faithful, priests, bishops, and laity, to deal with a situation in which in many respects we have become a minority, even if by numbers we may still be the majority. We have to learn to deal with this situation in a creative way.
Your view is that tinkering with church structures won’t cut it?
Exactly. We need to take up this challenge [of church structures], because it’s one part of the reality. Like many other European dioceses have done in the last two decades, for example, we’re on our way to restructure our pastoral work.
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