In an interview with the newspaper "Sonntag", the Viennese expert spoke of a church "that will no longer be clerical, but synodal, that will no longer be based on ordination, but on baptism".
This church is built on the many people who accept their vocation from God and are willing to contribute their time, imagination and energy to the movement of Jesus.
He is not pessimistic about the question of priests either, Zulehner said: "Experienced people from faithful communities of the Gospel can be proposed to a bishop to be ordained priests so that the main source of the Church, the celebration of the Eucharist, does not fall by the wayside."
New church model
There is still an over-expectation of the baptised towards priests. "This is not surprising because they have been taught for centuries that an ordained person will look after them."
In this context, Zulehner speaks of an "expectation clericalism", which is not only directed at ordained priests, but also at full-time church staff in a similar way.
"Such a church is comfortable because you are taken care of. But it is being phased out," says the pastoral theologian: "We won't be able to continue this for much longer."
The service church is coming to an end. In its place comes a church that provides good services. In concrete terms, this means: "We are approaching this biblical normality again." The church community of the future will no longer be a priestly solo singing, but an "orchestrated choral singing".
Zulehner advises parishes to pray not only for priestly vocations, but also for church vocations and to specifically ask people to participate in projects. Be it in peace work, in commitment to the environment, in caring for migrants or alongside the poor.
Zulehner: "Let's encourage young people to check whether God needs them."
He observes that they join in when they are challenged and given responsibility.
He also advises "no longer to calculate from 100 per cent: Calculate up from zero per cent."
He is firmly convinced "that God is not a cynic, but that he gives us just as many and those vocations that we need now and today as a church in our reeling world. We should be like pastoral truffle pigs who find these wonderfully fragrant mushrooms - they exist."