More than 87,000 people left the Catholic Church in Austria last year, it has been announced.
The Roman Catholic Church said Tuesday that between January and December 2010 87,393 people cancelled their membership – 63 per cent more than in the previous record year 2009.
Figures presented yesterday make 2010 a post-war record year.
The Roman Catholic Church said Tuesday that between January and December 2010 87,393 people cancelled their membership – 63 per cent more than in the previous record year 2009.
Figures presented yesterday make 2010 a post-war record year.
The highest number of people
leaving the Catholic Church in Austria was registered in 1938, the year
before World War Two broke out, when 200,000 members walked out.
Last year’s statistics mean that 65.1 per cent of the overall 8.5 million people living in Austria are Catholics, down from 89 per cent in 1961.
The share of Catholics in the population of Vienna ranges around just 39 per cent. The capital’s diocese suffered the highest exodus rate among the country’s nine provinces with 25,314 people leaving the Church, up by 53 per cent year on year.
Last year’s statistics mean that 65.1 per cent of the overall 8.5 million people living in Austria are Catholics, down from 89 per cent in 1961.
The share of Catholics in the population of Vienna ranges around just 39 per cent. The capital’s diocese suffered the highest exodus rate among the country’s nine provinces with 25,314 people leaving the Church, up by 53 per cent year on year.
The city’s diocese controversially
announced last year to give up a church in Ottakring district and hand
it over to the prospering Serbian-Orthodox community.
The diocese of Graz-Seckau, which registers the statistics of parishes in Styria, was also hit badly with 15,103 ended memberships – 70 per cent more than in 2009.
Gurk-Klagenfurt in Carinthia recorded the strongest year on year increase in the numbers of people leaving the Catholic Church, with 94 per cent. Around 5,600 people left the Roman Catholic Church in the southern province last year.
Alexander Hanika of federal statistic agency Statistik Austria told Die Presse newspaper today that current developments may mean that the share of Catholics in Austria may decrease to below 50 per cent in 20 years.
The diocese of Graz-Seckau, which registers the statistics of parishes in Styria, was also hit badly with 15,103 ended memberships – 70 per cent more than in 2009.
Gurk-Klagenfurt in Carinthia recorded the strongest year on year increase in the numbers of people leaving the Catholic Church, with 94 per cent. Around 5,600 people left the Roman Catholic Church in the southern province last year.
Alexander Hanika of federal statistic agency Statistik Austria told Die Presse newspaper today that current developments may mean that the share of Catholics in Austria may decrease to below 50 per cent in 20 years.
Experts said 10
years ago they expected this to occur in 2051. Hanika pointed out that
the number of deceasing Catholics is much higher than those getting
baptised. He also emphasised that the vast majority of immigrants coming
to Austria have other beliefs.
The Church has been confronted with a series of abuse scandals over the past years. Around 1,000 people came forward only last year to report they were beaten or verbally or sexually abused by clergy and staff at Catholic boarding schools and other institutions run by the Church since the end of the war.
Reports have it that the Church will have to do with six to 10 million Euros less in revenue due to falling membership fee figures and financial compensation paid to the victims of abuse.
Asked whether the Austrian Catholic Church plans to modernise itself to win back former believers, Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn said: "The question of celibacy and other issues are not decided upon by the Austrian Church. We will not segregate from the Worldwide Church."
Toni Faber, head of the St. Stephen’s parish in Vienna, suggested that the Church should get more involved in the public discussion of important issues. Faber caused controversy recently by suggesting that the law of celibacy for Catholic priests may not be contemporary any more.
Schönborn claimed a "new spring" was ahead for the Church despite the soaring exodus rate. "Betroffene kirchlicher Gewalt", a non-government pressure group for victims of abuse at clerical institutions, meanwhile said the 2010 figures were a "barometer of solidarity" with people beaten and molested by Catholic priests and teachers.
A poll by Karmasin showed last August that only 19 per cent of Austrians trust parish priests, down by 20 per cent year on year.
The Church has been confronted with a series of abuse scandals over the past years. Around 1,000 people came forward only last year to report they were beaten or verbally or sexually abused by clergy and staff at Catholic boarding schools and other institutions run by the Church since the end of the war.
Reports have it that the Church will have to do with six to 10 million Euros less in revenue due to falling membership fee figures and financial compensation paid to the victims of abuse.
Asked whether the Austrian Catholic Church plans to modernise itself to win back former believers, Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn said: "The question of celibacy and other issues are not decided upon by the Austrian Church. We will not segregate from the Worldwide Church."
Toni Faber, head of the St. Stephen’s parish in Vienna, suggested that the Church should get more involved in the public discussion of important issues. Faber caused controversy recently by suggesting that the law of celibacy for Catholic priests may not be contemporary any more.
Schönborn claimed a "new spring" was ahead for the Church despite the soaring exodus rate. "Betroffene kirchlicher Gewalt", a non-government pressure group for victims of abuse at clerical institutions, meanwhile said the 2010 figures were a "barometer of solidarity" with people beaten and molested by Catholic priests and teachers.
A poll by Karmasin showed last August that only 19 per cent of Austrians trust parish priests, down by 20 per cent year on year.
The agency also found that
doctors are the professional group Austrians put most trust in at 67 per
cent ahead of pilots (53 per cent) and teachers with 47 per cent.
SIC: AI/INT'L