*Priest mentions hell: Diocese then forbids him from teaching

RORATE CAELI, JULY 2014. Thomas Ladner (in the photo) is a 36 year old Austrian priest, usually dressed in a cassock and collaborator in the parish of Stans, in Tyrol, a small town of 1500 souls, where he also teaches religion in the primary school. Before the end of the school year, he was informed of the withdrawal of his permit to teach by the diocese of Innsbruck. The priest’s fault, according to the diocesan school office, would be that he had spoken to his young students about The Four Last Things, among which he mentioned hell and purgatory; “lessons not suitable for children at their stage in life,” that he had dealt with themes on the family in “terms no longer up-to-date,” and of having used “rhetorical language,” or rather – too traditional.

The reaction this time came from the parishioners themselves, who appreciate Father Ladner’s humane manner and pastoral work, above all with the young. Parents launched a petition, while the mayor wrote a harsh letter to the curia complaining about the agitation in the town brought about by such an “unacceptable decision.”

The story was reported in the local newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung, but, despite the clamour, the diocese and the Bishop, Manfred Scheuer, until now, have not shown any signs of changing their mind.