Catholic Church in Austria
.JPG)
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna.
| |
| Austrian German: Katholische Kirche in Österreich | |
| Type | National polity |
|---|---|
| Classification | Catholic |
| Orientation | Latin |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Governance | Episcopal Conference of Austria |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Chairman | Franz Lackner |
| Primas Germaniae | Franz Lackner |
| Apostolic Nuncio | Pedro López Quintana |
| Region | Austria |
| Language | German, Latin |
| Headquarters | Vienna, Austria |
| Members | 4,557,471 (49.6 %) (2024) |
| Official website | Episcopal Conference of 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 (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
- Archdiocese of Vienna with the following suffragan dioceses:
- Diocese of Eisenstadt
- Diocese of Linz
- Diocese of St. Pölten
- Archdiocese of Salzburg with the following suffragans
- Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau (immediately subject to the Holy See)
- Military Ordinariate of Austria (immediately subject to the Holy See)
Statistics
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] | |||||||
| Year | Population | Catholics | % | Protestants | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 6,933,905 | 6,170,084 | 89.0% | 429,493 | 6.2% | ||
| 1961 | 7,073,807 | 6,295,075 | 89.0% | 438,663 | 6.2% | ||
| 1971 | 7,491,526 | 6,548,316 | 87.4% | 447,070 | 6,0% | ||
| 1981 | 7,555,338 | 6,372,645 | 84.3% | 423,162 | 5,6% | ||
| 1991 | 7,795,786 | 6,081,454 | 78.0% | 388,709 | 5.0% | ||
| 2001 | 8,032,926 | 5,915,421 | 73.6% | 376,150 | 4.7% | ||
| 2011 | 8,408,121 | 5,403,722 | 64.3% | 319,752 | 3.8% | ||
| 2021 | 8,979,894 | 4,827,683 | 53.8% | 270,585 | 3.0% | ||
| 2022 | 9,104,772 | 4,733,085 | 52.0% | 263,627 | 2.9% | ||
| 2023 | 9,158,750 | 4,638,842 | 50.6% | 255,738 | 2.8% | ||
| 2024 | 9,197,213 | 4,557,471 | 49.6% | 248,113 | 2.7% | ||
71% of Austrian Catholics support same-sex marriage and 26% oppose it.[4]
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,[5] 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.[5]
List of Catholic organisations in Austria
- Caritas Austria
- Katholische Jungschar
- Katholische Jugend
Notable people
- Mozart
- Emerich Coreth
- Leopold III, Margrave of Austria
- Heinrich Maier, important resistance fighter against Nazi terror
- Gregor Mendel
- Zacharias Traber
- Franz Wasner
See also
- Old Catholic Church of Austria
- Eastern Orthodoxy in Austria
- Religion in Austria
- Freedom of religion in Austria
- Catholic Church by country
References
- Back to citation Catholic Church, Statistical Data 2003 - 2024 in German, retrieved 17 September 2025
- Back to citation Pro Oriente, The Hungarian Catholic Church, accessed on 27 June 2026
- Back to citation Austrian Population, retrieved 17 September 2025; Catholic Church, Statistical Data 2003 - 2024 in German, retrieved 17 September 2025; Lutheran Church, Statistical Data 2024 in German, retrieved 17 September 2025
- Back to citation Pew Research Center, How Catholics around the world see same-sex marriage, homosexuality
- Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 The Catholic Tipping Point, old page version at archive.org