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, 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 4.98 million members.
For more than 50 years, however, the proportion of Catholics has decreased, primarily due to secularization and migration. The number of Sunday churchgoers in 2018 was around 6.3 percent.
Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled Primus Germaniae.

Organisation

Ecclesiastical structure

Call to Disobedience organization

The organization Call to Disobedience 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.

Notable people