For one euro, a yellow vending machine pours one sixteenth of a sacramental wine chilled to six degrees. The device is equipped with a touchscreen, bank card reader and two small cooling compartments with taps. Payment and age verification are carried out using the pilgrims’ ATM cards. The idea for this came from the town pastor Thomas Lackner. According to the manufacturer, the “Messwein filling station” is the first of its kind in the world, the Franciscan priest told the “Kurier” newspaper (Tuesday).
All four selectable wines in the machine come from winegrowers in the region. They meet the criteria for altar wine: naturalness without additives and approval from the diocese for church use. The altar wine is not “consecrated”, i.e. changed to the “blood of Christ” according to the Catholic view, as in the celebration of the Eucharist. The samples are only good Burgenland wine.
On the one hand, money for the basilica should be earned with the altar wine vending machine. On the other hand, Father Lackner wants to attract more people to the church. He emphasized that such an attraction could motivate people to visit this place: “It can be the first step in overcoming the threshold of faith.” The baroque basilica in Frauenkirchen is not only a popular pilgrimage destination, but also a stopover for cyclists – in summer there can be hundreds a day.
Source: Nachrichten
