DISSENTING CLERGY HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES

PRESS RELEASE FROM CONFRATERNITY OF CATHOLIC CLERGY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN DIEGO, CA (September 7, 2012) - Father John Trigilio, Jr., President of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (a national association of more than 500 priests and deacons), publicly repudiates the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, “Call to Disobedience.” Recently, Msgr. Helmut Schüller gave an interview to CNS (Catholic News Service) where he reiterated his group’s dissident agenda: making clerical celibacy optional, allowing Protestants and divorced and remarried (without annulment) Catholics to receive Holy Communion, accepting same-sex unions, and ordaining women to Holy Orders. The CCC, on the other hand, “unequivocally and completely renews the sacred promise of obedience taken by every cleric. Orthodoxy (assenting to all Magisterial teachings) and orthopraxy (obeying the lawful disciplines of church authority) are indispensable and inseparable to ordained ministry.”

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in the U.S.A. (www.catholic-clergy.org) has fellow associations in Australia (ACCC) and the UK (British CCC) with more than 300 and 100 members, respectively. All three branches espouse fidelity to the Roman Pontiff and to the full deposit of faith as taught by the Pope and Bishops in union with him. “It is incomprehensible how the Austrian Priests’ Initiative can blame Rome for their dissent. Such an act of rebellion against church doctrine is nothing less than heretical and rebellion against church discipline is just plain schismatic.”

Thomas McKenna, Executive Director of the Confraternity said, “The Catholic faithful need to know that these miscreants are not by any means representative of the majority of clergy. Most priests and deacons are faithful sons of the Church but they do not get the same publicity and attention the secular media lavishes upon the vocal minority of dissidents.” Father Trigilio is asking all members of the CCC to renew the Oath of Fidelity every Thursday (in honor of the Last Supper when Holy Orders was instituted by Christ) during the upcoming YEAR OF FAITH (Oct. 11, 2012-Nov. 24, 2013) to show solidarity with the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church