Record numbers of people have left the Church in Salzburg, clergy have admitted.Some 3,000 Catholics formally left the Church in Salzburg province during the first half of 2009 - as many as normally leave in an entire year.
Salzburg Archdiocese councillor Adalbert Stifter said Monday the the controversial nomination of Upper Austrian pastor Gerhard Maria Wagner as auxiliary bishop of Linz and Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to lift the excommunications of four bishops in the Pius Brotherhood early this year were behind the large numbers turning their back on the Church.
Stifter said 1,100 Catholics had left the Church in February alone but that the number had fallen to 250 by June.
Salzburg Archbishop Alois Kothgasser has sent each Catholic who has decided to leave the Church a letter asking him or her to meet with Stifter to talk about the reasons for their decision.
Stifter said: "There is a need to clarify the situation in regard to bishops’ nominations, events in other dioceses and issues such as celibacy that have been under discussion for years."
Stifter also commented on the Church tax that Catholics have to pay. He said: "Many consider the tax to be too high, especially during a time of economic difficulty, but it is often possible to make adjustments based on personal situations."
Stifter added the Church would continue its efforts to bring people who had left the Church back into the fold. He said 300 people had rejoined the Church last year in Salzburg.
Wagner’s nomination in January angered some Catholics because of his conservative views and a series of controversial statements.
The ultra-conservative priest has labelled the Harry Potter books as "the work of Satan," homosexuality as "curable" and natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as God’s punishment of human sin.
Mounting opposition to Wagner’s nomination among Austrian Catholics and prelates finally forced him to ask the Pope to withdraw it. The Pontiff did so in March.
Wagner has remained recalcitrant, however, as suggested by his refusal to attend Linz Bishop Ludwig Schwarz’s special Mass of reconciliation last month.
Wagner said he had stayed away because of the use of a modern monstrance during a Corpus Christi procession in Linz on 11 June, which he called "a provocation." Schwarz had also criticised its use as unauthorised and as not in keeping with traditional observances of the religious feast.
The Pius Brotherhood rejects some of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and includes a bishop who has denied the Holocaust.
Austria has the eighth highest percentage of people claiming to follow a religious faith - 79 per cent - among European Union (EU) member states.
The "European Values Study 2008" released last week, which covered 46 countries, mostly in Europe but including Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, also showed the number of atheists had increased from two per cent in 1999 to four per cent of the Austrian population in 2009.
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