Bishop of Linz Offers Cathedral For Traditional Ordination on July 4th

(Linz), On July 4, 2015   a  deacon of the traditional  Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) will be ordained a priest  in the Cathedral of Linz. The event is noteworthy as the consecration year of Peter Society  has traditionally used a suitable dedicated church around Wigratzbad. Above all, however, it is because it's the first time  a priestly ordination has been held in the traditional rite in the cathedral church of the home diocese by the bishop. It's a  unique novelty in the German-speaking countries since the foundation of the Fraternity of St. Peter in the year 1988.

Deacon Philip Faschinger from Vorderweißenbach in Upper Austria, is to be ordained a priest.  The consecration in Linz will take place at the request of the diocesan bishop Ludwig Schwarz SDB Maria [!], who has just completed his 75th year since the diocese of Linz in 2015 does not have a priestly candidate. The bishop does not want to finish his tenure  without a vocation, as it is goes in the bishops' world.

The General Council of the Fraternity of St. Peter has finally agreed to the exception  in this year as one has been granted to a French candidate. The French-Canadian candidates of consecration of the vintage of 2015 are to be consecrated the first time in Canada.

Peter Society in Linz has the Same Amount of Seminarians as the Whole Diocese

The New Cathedral of Linz

The Diocese of Linz has in the last several years, no priestly ordinations for the diocese. The vocations in the diocese are at a low ebb. The situation is different at the Peter Society of Linz, which is said to have currently as many seminarians as the entire diocese of Linz.

Young men who feel called,  search, in the Diocese of Linz it's  either a community of tradition or the community of an old monastery. In the past academic year two diocesan seminarians left for monasteries. The diocese fills the thinned ranks of seminarians with some African candidates who prefer to stay in Europe.

The ordinations speak for themselves: In the Diocese of Linz, a candidate of the Fraternity of St. Peter  was consecrated in   the traditional rite and two order priests were consecrated in the new rite in 2015. On August 16, Bishop Schwarz ordained  the Cistercian monk Otto Rothammer in the Collegiate Church Wilhering, and on 13 September, the Norbertine Canon Matthew Stuphann in the Collegiate Church  of Schlägl.

Choose vocations tradition or ancient monasteries

On July 4 ordination, on July 5 Primiz

Originally, the ordination of deacon Faschinger was to take place on June 29, at the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul, in a traditional consecration day in the diocese. By contrast, there was some resistance in the diocese and since priestly anniversaries are also traditionally celebrated on this day. Not all, it was said, found  the "old rite reasonable". As a compromise, the ordination  was elected for the 4th of July.

On June 29, a Vietnamese Cistercian is now but unexpectedly to be ordained in the Cathedral of Linz in the new rite. The monk Gregor Nguyen from the Abbey An Phuoc studied in Heiligenkreuz. His studies were made possible through his support of the Upper Austrian Cistercian Abbey of Schlierbach. After his ordination he will return to his abbey in Vietnam. The consecration in Linz was apparently organized on such short notice that even the Schlierbach Monastery is still not aware of it. The sudden "balance" of a consecration in the old and the new consecration rite must have given "some relief" to the diocesan hierarchy.

The ordination of Philipp Faschinger FSSP will start in Mariendom (New Cathedral) on Saturday, on the 4th of July at 10 O'clock. On Sunday, July 5, the new priests will celebrate his first Mass in the Church of the Fraternity of St. Peter in Linz. The solemn High Mass in the Minorite Church in  Linz (country church) starts at 8:30 clock.

Consecrated Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Linz

The Cathedral of Linz is a St. Mary's Church. It is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and is still called the "New Cathedral" by the residents of Linz even after its inauguration a   century ago. Its construction dates back to the Bishop of Linz, the Servant of God, Franz Joseph Rudigier (1811-1884). Bishop Rudigier is an outstanding figure among the diocesan bishops of the diocese established in 1785, and therefore according to ecclesiastical understanding, a fledgling diocese. The proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX. in 1854 encouraged Bishop Rudigier to advance the construction of a new diocesan church, which was dedicated to the Marian dogma. Until then  the former Jesuit church, popularly known today "Old Cathedral", served as cathedral.

The actual construction work on the neo-Gothic St. Mary's Cathedral began when the groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1862. In 1924 after a war-related interruption,  the consecration of the church too place, which was only completed in 1935.The twin-towered Linz Cathedral is on dimensions and capacity, the largest church in Austria. The Immaculata bell of more than eight tons is the second largest bell in Upper Austria.

In the Minorite Church the bridge for the rite of all time took place

The Minoritenkirche of Linz, which is where the first Mass will be held on July 5th, already dates from the early 13th century. This is the first branch of the Friars Minor in Upper Austria documented in 1235, but is likely to already have been formed immediately after the death of St. Francis of Assisi. The Franciscans played from then on a central role in the pastoral care of the city. In the wake of the Protestant "Reformation" vocations declined so much that the monastery had to be abandoned. The authorities  tore the convent buildings down in1562 and erected a villa in its place.  The church was supervised for several decades by the Jesuits. In 1679 the Franciscans came back in the branch of the Friars Minor in Linz and took over the pastoral care again in their church. In addition to church and villa they built a new monastery and built from 1751 the Gothic church in the late Baroque style with Rococo approaches. The choir stalls in the rear nave date back to the Gothic church. In 1785 the Linz Minorite Cloister was shut by the  Klostersturm of Emperor Joseph II.   The second monastery was integrated as part of the villa. The church has since been assigned to the province of Upper Austria, which is why it is also called "Villa Church".

In the Diocese of Linz,   the Minorite church figured peculiarly in the liturgical reform of 1969/1970. The diocesan priest Josef Kronsteiner, from 1943-1981 Domkapellmeister in Linz, was a lecturer at the diocesan seminary and professor at the Bruckner Conservatory (now Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama and Dance), rejected the liturgical reform and celebrated still in the Immemorial Rite of All Ages. Because of his reputation in the diocese the Landhausstraße church was finally made ​​available. Thus it  was the musician, composer and especially priest, Josef Kronsteiner formed the bridge  in the period by which the celebration of the traditional rite in the Diocese of Linz was never broken. After his death,  another retired diocesan priest continued the celebration in the traditional rite, until 1991 when the chaplaincy at the Minorite church was transferred to the FSSP founded in 1988. 

The Fraternity of St. Peter has its own office in Linz, which is usually supported by several priests. The FSSP ever provides for a dignified and reverent celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. It is a proclamation, administering the sacraments and pastoral obligation that includes the entire, nearly two thousand years of tradition of the Catholic Church and is faithful to the mandate and committed to the teaching of Jesus Christ. It's a seed that falls on fertile ground, as vocations show.

Text: Wenzel Huber-Chwateck
Image: Wikicommons / Gloria.tv (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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