Scandal Closes Austrian Seminary

Vatican investigator Bishop Klaus Keung has closed a seminary in the Sankt Polten diocese because an estimated 40,000 images of child pornography were discovered on computers at the seminary along with pictures of seminarians and teachers in sexually explicit poses. Sankt Polten Bishop Kurt Krenn, widely regarded as the most conservative bishop in the country, dismissed the incident as “schoolboy prank,”and refused to resign. On July 20, Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schonborn expressed frustration that the Vatican had not acted sooner since the Austrian bishops had repeatedly warned Krenn not to accept students that had been expelled from seminaries in other dioceses. Krenn is rumored to be on friendly terms with Archbishop Stanislas Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s private secretary.
(National Catholic Reporter, 7/30/04, BBC 12/8/04)