AUSTRIAN FEMALE 'BISHOP' SEIZES EUCHARIST

CC, July 10, 2009. An Austrian woman who identified herself as a Catholic bishop snatched the Blessed Sacrament from a ciborium after she was refused Communion at a Mass in Linz. Bishop Ludwig Schwarz had declined to administer the Eucharist to Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, who has been excommunicated because of her participation in a feminist "ordination" ceremony.

Excommunicated Female "Bishop", Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger seizes Communion.

The Sunday worship celebration in the Parish of St. Peter in Linz did not make the excommunicated "Bishop" Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger as happy as she would have wished. Bishop Ludwig Schwarz refused her communion with the Host. Then she took the wafer herself.

400 people joined the celebration of Mass in the Parish of St. Peter on 28June.. It was held in honour of the church's patron, St. Peter. Among them, high-ranking politicians. But few noticed what happened during the Communion.

Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger was dressed as a Bishop when she appeared at the Mass in official dress with a large pectoral Cross. During the Communion she chose, consciously or unconsciously, the row in which the Diocesan Bishop Ludwig Schwarz distributed communion. The bishop suggested to her that she should not come, because he could not give her Communion. But Mayr-Lumetzberger would not stop. When it came to her, she was not given the Host. According to ecclesiastical law,someone excommunicated may not receive communion.

Mayr-Lumetzberger took the host herself from the ciborium. "I was there for all men and women in a similar situation in life," she says in discussion with OÖN. Is it normal to receive the Host like this? "There are different models of the Communion," she says. What did she feel? "In the first moment, nothing. But now I feel hurt and angry, like a woman who has been beaten for the first time by a man, "says Mayr-Lumetzberger.

Had she expected to receive Communion?" Yes. The Gospel is a higher authority than canon law. "Mayr-Lumetzberger is excommunicated since according to Canon Law ordination of priestesses is prohibited. It had however never happened that she did not receive the Host. The Church of St. Peter is her home parish. "I know Christine a long time. For me, she has never come for Communion. She knows what situation this would put me in "says Parish Priest Franz Zeiger. This Sunday, she came dressed as a Bishop to the Mass.

Do she wish to provoke and did she want to attract attention? "I cannot judge. But dress codes, I cannot enforce on anybody, "says Pastor Zeiger. Did he understand the attitude of Bishop Ludwig Schwarz? "Yes. in canon law he cannot. " Observers had the impression that the situation during the Mass was painful for Bishop Ludwig Schwarz.