Austria: Archbishop of Salzburg defends virgin consecration
Salzburg Archbishop Franz Lackner defends Bernadette Lang’s consecration to the Virgin planned for August 15 in Salzburg Cathedral. “Vocations, consecrations and vows are part of the DNA of the Church and are by no means relics from a ‘mothball of the Middle Ages,'” Lackner wrote in a statement published on the Archdiocese of Salzburg’s website.
The Archbishop was reacting to the huge media echo that the announced consecration found, but also to an editorial in the “Salzburger Nachrichten” of August 8th, in which the consecration was presented as a relic “as if taken from a mothball of the Middle Ages”. .
To this day, there are always young women “who want to follow the path of total devotion to Christ in imitation of Jesus’ celibate lifestyle,” explains Lackner. The archbishop also sharply rejected the thesis expressed in the leading article by Hedwig Kainberger that the archdiocese, with the consecration, “makes public a traditional image of women in the church “as a sacrosanct role model” and at the same time refuses women “for reasons of sex any office”: “Looking at the chancellor and the office and project managers of our diocese, the president of Catholic Action, the abbesses, the countless women working in the church, one can only clearly contradict here.”
Consecration, but no sacrament: Council revitalized tradition
Last week, the Archdiocese of Salzburg announced that on August 15, Bernadette Lang (31), who was born in Upper Austria, will receive the Eternal Virgin Consecration in the Salzburg Cathedral. The Salzburg Auxiliary Bishop Hansjörg Hofer will consecrate. Worship service begins at 2:30 p.m. The ordination followed the priestly ordination, although it is not a sacrament. The candidate will lie stretched out on the floor in her wedding dress, and the bishop will then lay his hands on her. She is given a veil, a ring and a book of hours.
The way of life of the “consecrated virgin” is relatively new in the Catholic Church and at the same time ancient: According to the New Testament, the early Church not only had bishops, priests and deacons, but also widows and “consecrated virgins”. These unmarried women follow God in their lives in a special way, while continuing to function in their ordinary lives. A monastic life for women only came about later and subsequently replaced the way of life of single women.
Discovery thanks to Vatican II
During the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the Catholic Church rediscovered this way of life. Then Pope Paul VI issued on May 31, 1970, an instruction reintroducing the rite of consecration to virgins. According to one estimate, there are currently around 5,000 consecrated virgins worldwide. Two years ago, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the reintroduction of the ordination of virgins, Pope Francis recognized this way of life. They are part of the “diverse wealth” of the church.
As religious women vow to their superiors, consecrated virgins pledge poverty, chastity and obedience to their bishop. However, the way in which they live their charism – more contemplative or active – is up to them. Some of them work in science and teaching, others as hermits or in social services. In addition, they can live all alone, with their family of origin or in a community with like-minded people.
Bernadette Lang was born in Haag am Hausruck in 1990. She has been living in Salzburg for over ten years and is a member of the Loretto community there as well as head of the home academy in the Mission Base in the district of Mülln. She removed theology at the Salzburg Paris Lodron University.
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