The domestic bishops have reacted to an ORF contribution that could be understood in such a way that there are certain “trends” in the Catholic Church, especially in Austria, which require the death penalty for heresia. In a ZIB2 contribution of June 17 for the upcoming Apostolic Visitation in the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, the Linz theologian Sigrid Rettenbacher was cited with a corresponding statement. The bishops vehemently reject this statement or the image of the church drawn with it in a letter on Friday to ORF. The letter that Kathpress is present is drawn by Archbishop Franz Lackner, the chairman of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, his deputy Bishop Manfred Scheuer, and media bishop Wilhelm Krautwaschl.
In accordance with the teaching position, the bishops note that the death penalty from the perspective of the church is “inadmissible because it violates the inviolability and dignity of the person.” This is how Pope Francis in 2018 had it recorded in Catechism. This position had been de facto binding since Pope John Paul II. The 2018 amendment to the World Catechism was, among other things, after a corresponding input, the bishops are stated by the Austrian Bishops’ Conference.
Rettenbacher’s statement that there are entire “currents” that demand such a “barbaric step back” would give the impression that it was actually widespread Catholic positions. “However, this representation does not correspond to church reality – especially in Austria,” the three bishops state. So it is not “currents in the church”, but at most about “extreme individual positions”, according to Lackner, Scheuer and Krautwaschl. And at the same time they emphasize: “In the Austrian church, anti -democratic and anti -liberal positions are not tolerated by the church leadership.”
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