Austrian priest to promote optional celibacy, ordination of women, 10 am July 22

The Rev. Helmut Schuller, an Austrian Catholic priest and a leader in the church reform movement, will call for fundamental changes in the world's largest Christian denomination at a National Press Club Newsmaker at 10 a.m., Monday, July 22, in the Zenger Room.

Schuller, co-founder of The Preachers’ Initiative, a growing international organization of thousands of priests and deacons, will explore the group's “Call to Disobedience.”

The organization advocates optional celibacy for priests; opening the priesthood to married men and to women; transparency in Church governance, especially with regard to finances and parish closings; and a larger role for laity in church decision making.

The Preachers’ Initiative was formed out of concern over the shrinking number of Catholic priests, parishes and faithful.

Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley recently banned Schuller from speaking on any property in his archdiocese. The Preachers’ Initiative was rebuked by Pope Benedict XVI in a sermon last year, and Schuller was formally stripped of his title of “monsignor” a few months later, though he remains a priest in good standing in Austria.