TRANSCRIPT
Clerics in Austria are calling out their own Catholic bishops for siding with tyrants.
Church Militant’s Martina Moyski explains how these faithful churchmen are standing up for the rights of Catholics.
Catholics have been stepping up in Austria against COVID jab mandates. Now, 120 priests and deacons — in a new public letter — are demanding the Church support people oppressed by government mandates: “We, the undersigned priests and deacons, know a number of people who feel abandoned by their Church in the ongoing crisis.”
The statement continues, “Thousands of livelihoods have already been destroyed by the disproportionate measures taken by the government. People are facing existential ruin. The Church cannot remain silent in the face of this. It must be unequivocally on the side of the oppressed and the needy.”
But Catholic bishops have not been silent; they have consistently sided with the oppressor. Vienna’s Cdl. Christoph Schönborn fired a deacon in January for participating in a protest and writing a letter to Austria’s interior minister. Last year, the cardinal used Austria’s iconic cathedral St. Stephen’s as a vaccine clinic.
The clerics close their statement with a reference to the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes, which says that “conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There, he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.”
Austrian Catholics continue weekly Rosary rallies asking the bishops and Heaven for relief from tyranny.
On Jan. 20, Parliament passed a law forcing residents 18 and older to pay fines of nearly $4,000 if they refuse the jab. After backlash, that rule has been suspended until June.