SALZBURG, December 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun joined his voice to those condemning the pro-LGBTQ concert that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn allowed and attended Nov. 30 in Vienna’s preeminent cathedral.
“I just think that silence can also be sin. That is why my answer to this event in the House of God is only a big NO. NO and NO again!” wrote the retired auxiliary bishop of Salzburg in the Austrian Catholic German-language news outlet kath.net.
In his trenchant rebuke, Laun quoted Archbishop Carlo Viganó’s denunciation of the November 30 AIDS charity concert as a “homoerotic and blasphemous provocation.”
Viganó decried the event in a message of support to Alexander Tschugguel, who organized a Rosary of reparation outside the 14th-century cathedral during the concert.
Tschugguel, the 26-year-old Austrian famous for taking several statues of the Pachamama pagan idol from a church in Rome during October’s Amazon Synod and throwing them in the Tiber, reported that the Rosary was attended by 120 people.
This is the third year in a row Cardinal Schönborn has allowed and attended the “Believe Together” concert, which is hosted by an organization called LIFE+ and marks World AIDS Day.
Last year’s event featured a shirtless actor known for playing homosexual roles standing on the altar rail, loud rock and electronic music, and actors dressed as demons.
This year, Thomas Neuwirth — the drag queen “Conchita Wurst” who represented Austria in the 2014 Eurovision contest — performed in the sanctuary with male and female adolescents used for back-up.
Organizer and homosexual activist a Gery Keszler thanked Schönborn for his presence and permission to use the cathedral, saying: “We are very grateful for the trust that the cardinal has placed in us.”
“The media have reported what happened in St. Stephen's Cathedral, of course, with the permission of the authority,” wrote Laun.
“I thought of Jeremiah’s lament in the face of the sins of the people: ‘And with this ye come and stand before my face in this house over which my name is proclaimed, and say, “We are safe” and then continue to pursue all those abominations. Has this house, over which my name is proclaimed, become a den of robbers in your eyes?’ [Jeremiah 7:9-11]” wrote the bishop.
“Perhaps we should say: a place for pleasure that God does not like?” he added.
“And I thought of the temple cleansing, how Jesus would not tolerate the merchants and even the harmless pigeons in the temple,” wrote Laun.
His column also included an extensive, unsourced quote by prefect for the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship Cardinal Robert Sarah regarding people with homosexual tendencies:
We must treat them with the greatest possible compassion. The first work of charity we owe them is the truth. No one expects a word of favor from the Church. A partnership between two people of the same sex can never be a marriage. There is no conviction of the person in this statement…. I implore the believers who are tempted to homosexuality not to be locked up in this prison of LGBT ideology. Through baptism you are children of God! Your place is — as for all Christians — in the Church. And if from time to time the spiritual struggle becomes too hard, fraternal love will carry you.
“To which I add, AMEN,” wrote Laun.
This is not the first time the outspoken 77-year-old bishop has criticized his brother bishops.
Notably, when German Cardinal Gerhard Marx and Bishop Franz-Josef Bode floated the idea in 2018 of blessing same-sex unions, Laun compared it to blessing a brothel or a concentration camp.
He also pointed out the oft-ignored but essential distinction between the sinner and the sin.
“But now concerning the question of Cardinal Marx, and not a few of the priests, the answer is simple: one may ask for God’s blessing for sinners, but not for the sin,” he wrote.
“That is to say, one could not consecrate a brothel, one could not bless a concentration camp or weapons which are not explicitly ordained for hunting or for legitimate self-defense,” observed Laun.
“Therefore it is clear that one may not bless a relationship which is sinful; [one may not bless] the mafia; no blessing for organizations or institutions which promote or procure abortions or which propagate ideologies which are against the Faith, antisemitic contents, or other forms of racist thought.”