The
Sacrament of Confirmation in
Austria (2014)
D. Grof
On 24 August Bishop Richard Williamson visited, at the invitation of Fr.
Martin Fuchs and domestic
traditional Catholics, the
Austrian town of Aigen, to
administer the Sacrament of Confirmation
for several children, to serve the Holy Mass, and to give a
lecture.
Not only Austrian faithful attended the event but
also a limited number
of faithful from Czechia and Slovakia, even
though the event was not on the request
of the organizers for several reasons publicly
announced in our countries.
The program began at 9:15 am with preparation of 7 confirmees, including also 1
boy and 1 girl from Czechia.
From 10 am, after the opening remarks
of Bishop Williamson to confirmees, the administering of the Sacrament
of Confirmation itself took place. Then the Bishop celebrated
the Holy Mass for a total of
about 90 faithful (including 18
Czechs and 4 Slovaks) who came to
the event. The Bishop´s blessing followed afterwards.
For the capacity reasons the celebration took place in a new, larger chapel which is not completely built up yet, however, this
detracted nothing from the solemn character of the celebration. Original small chapel used to be lent to SSPX
before; however, after Fr. Fuchs´s coming to Aigen and rejection of Menzingen´s
policy, the number of faithful increased so much that it was necessary to start
building the new chapel.
Many thanks belong to Fr. Fuchs and the organizers who after the
ceremony ensured lunch for
all the faithful (some
of whom spent 7 hours travelling to
participate in the feast), and generally
contributed to the excellent atmosphere
with their minutely prepared program.
Cake
for little confirmees
After lunch, some faithful due to the remoteness
of their homes left for their way back. However,
the program still continued with Bishops Williamson´s
lecture in German language which started at 14:30 and
lasted about 2 hours. The Bishop among others focused on apostasy in
Church in history and on current situation of SSPX.
We thank Fr. Fuchs and
traditional Catholics from Austria for the invitation and warm welcome and
Bishop Williamson for his faithful
performance of his Episcopal duties.
Deo Gratias!