Catholic Church in Austria

The Catholic Church in Austria is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope in Rome. The Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops (Vienna and Salzburg), the bishops and the abbot of territorial abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. The Austrian church is the largest Christian Confession of Austria, with 4.73 million members (52.0 % of the total Austrian population) in 2022.[1]


Catholic Church in Austria
Austrian German: Katholische Kirche in Österreich
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna.
TypeNational polity
ClassificationCatholic
OrientationLatin
PolityEpiscopal
GovernanceEpiscopal Conference of Austria
PopePope Francis
ChairmanFranz Lackner
Primas GermaniaeFranz Lackner
Apostolic NuncioPedro López Quintana
RegionAustria
LanguageGerman, Latin
Members4,733,174 (52.0 %) (2022)
Official websiteEpiscopal Conference of Austria
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Innsbruck Cathedral

For more than 50 years, however, the proportion of Catholics has decreased, primarily due to secularization and migration (from 89% in 1961 to 52% in 2022). The number of Sunday churchgoers in 2021 was around 3.1 percent (as percentage of the total Austrian population that is 281,131 churchgoers out of a total population of 8,978,929).

Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled Primus Germaniae (Primate of Germany).

Organisation
Main Churches in Austria [2][1][3]
year population Catholics  % Protestants  %
19516,933,9056,170,08489.0%429,4936.2%
19617,073,8076,295,07589.0%438,6636.2%
19717,491,5266,548,31687.4%447,0706,0%
19817,555,3386,372,64584.3%423,1625,6%
19917,795,7866,081,45478.0%388,7095.0%
20018,032,9265,915,42173.6%376,1504.7%
20118,408,1215,403,72264.3%319,7523.8%
20218,979,8944,827,68353.8%270,5853.0%
20229.106.1264,733,17452.0%263.6272.9%

Ecclesiastical structure
Austrian dioceses since 1968

List of Catholic organisations in Austria

Statistics

71% of Austrian Catholics support same-sex marriage and 26% oppose it.[4]

Criticism

Call to Disobedience organization
Main article: Call to Disobedience

The organization Call to Disobedience (Aufruf zum Ungehorsam in German) is an Austrian movement mainly composed of dissident Catholic priests which started in 2006. The movement claims the support of the majority of Austrian Catholic priests and favors ordination of women, married and non-celibate priesthood, allowing Holy Communion to remarried divorcees and non-Catholics which disagrees with teachings of the Catholic Magisterium. The group also believes the way the Church is governed needs reform.[5]

Notable people
Linz Cathedral

See also

References
  1. Catholic Church, Statistical Data 2003 - 2021 in German, retrieved 11 January 2023
  2. Austrian Population, retrieved 14 February 2023
  3. Lutheran Church, Statistical Data 2022 in German, retrieved 14 February 2023
  4. How Catholics around the world see same-sex marriage, homosexuality Pew Research Center
  5. The Catholic Tipping Point
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