The movement for reform, based on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, is now widespread around the Church; and of course it has got great impetus from the papacy of Francis.
About four years ago a meeting took place in Bregenz in Austria in an effort to connect the different movements. This meeting was originally seen as a network for the various priests movements, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, U.S
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s current strategy of censuring priests and religious is out of step with church teaching and has been roundly criticized as “ridiculous and self-defeating” by an Irish priest who fell afoul of the Vatican in 2011.
Speaking for the first time publicly about his experience, Redemptorist Fr. Gerry Moloney warned that “imposing sanctions on people does not make them change their views.”
He was one of 15 signatories to the recent letter to Pope Francis and the CDF calling for reform of the Vatican’s investigation processes and for greater accountability and transparency in its methods which were deemed “medieval,” lacking in basic politeness and designed to wear those being investigated down.
The efforts made by the Vatican to silence discussion on the ordination of women over the past 50 years have been both unsuccessful and unwise. In 1975, Pope Paul VI declared that the Catholic Church “does not consider herself authorised to admit women to ordination”.
This was followed a year later by a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which stated that the priest is a sign, and for that sign to be perceptible, “a natural resemblance” to Christ is required.
