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 4.56 million members (49.6 % of the total Austrian population) in 2024.[1] For more than 50 years, however, the proportion of Catholics in the country has decreased.

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

The Holy See is represented in Austria by the Apostolic Nunciature to Austria.

Ecclesiastical structure

Statistics

Austrian dioceses since 1968

Over the last 50 years, the proportion of Catholics in Austria has decreased, primarily due to secularization and migration (from 89% in 1961 to under 50% in 2024). The number of Sunday churchgoers in 2023 was around 4.1 percent (as percentage of the total Austrian population that is 378,797 churchgoers out of a total population of 9,158,750). Pro Oriente reports that there are 2 priests and around 100 lay members of the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church living in Austria.[2]

Main Churches in Austria [3][1][4]
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%
20229,104,7724,733,08552.0%263,6272.9%
20239,158,7504,638,84250.6%255,7382.8%
20249,197,2134,557,47149.6%248,1132.7%

71% of Austrian Catholics support same-sex marriage and 26% oppose it.[5]

Criticism

Call to Disobedience organization

The organization Call to Disobedience (Aufruf zum Ungehorsam in German) is an Austrian movement mainly composed of dissident Catholic priests, which disagrees with teachings of the Catholic Magisterium. The movement, which started in 2006, claims that it is "positively received" by the majority of Austrian Catholic priests,[6] and favors ordination of women, married and non-celibate priesthood, allowing Holy Communion to remarried divorcees and non-Catholics. The group also believes the way the Church is governed needs reform.[6]

List of Catholic organisations in Austria

Notable people

Innsbruck Cathedral
Linz Cathedral

See also

References

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholicism_in_Austria