America isn’t the only country where the Roman Catholic Church has been severely affected by sex scandals – a sex scandal in Austria that led more than 10,000 Austrians to formally leave the church in a little over a months time has just come to an end with the appointment of an ultraconservative bishop to whip his diocese back into shape.
Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Bishop Kurt Krenn as head of the diocese of St. Poelten, 50 miles west of Vienna, and named as his successor Bishop Klaus Kueng, the prelate who investigated the scandal.
The scandal began in July when reports first surfaced about a sex scandal at a Roman Catholic seminary, a theological school for training priests, at St. Poelten.
Kueng was named by the Vatican to investigate the scandal after as many as 40,000 pornographic images, including child pornography, were discovered on computers at the seminary. He ordered it shut down in August.
According to reports, student priests known as seminarians, had been photographed kissing and fondling each other, as well as older priests.
One seminarian was arrested and convicted on child pornography charges – then given a six-month suspended jail sentence.
Krenn resigned last week in the face of public outrage after he unsuccessfully tried to dismiss the scandal as a “childish prank.”
Kueng is a member of Opus Dei, an ultraconservative faction of the Roman Catholic Church that is highly regarded by Pope John Paul.
