VZCZCXRO9608
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHVI #0151/01 0400955
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090955Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4163
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 0009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENNA 000151 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF VN AU
SUBJECT: AUSTRIA: RECORD DECLINE IN CATHOLIC CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IN 
2009 
 
REF: 09 VIENNA 1026 
 
VIENNA 00000151  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. Summary: A record number of Austrian Catholics chose to leave the 
Church formally in 2009, cancelling their annual contributions.  The 
departures are widely attributed to a number of controversies that 
wracked the Church during the year, especially the abortive Vatican 
appointment of an ultraconservative priest as auxiliary bishop in 
Linz.  Church leaders see the declining membership as part of a 
broader trend away from religious faith, while some reform-minded 
Catholics assert that the Church has lost touch with the population. 
 End summary. 
 
Contribution Numbers Sharply Decline 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  Figures released on January 13 showed a record decline in 
official membership in the Austrian Catholic Church, following a 
year wracked by controversy.  In total, 53,216 Catholics chose to 
withdraw from the Church in 2009, an increase of 30 percent over the 
previous year's decline.  Withdrawal is also a significant financial 
blow, as the Church loses the automatic financial contribution 
registered members make via the state tax office.  The number of 
withdrawals was also the highest ever one-year decline, outpacing 
previous highs in 1995 and 2004.  The decline was an exclusively 
Catholic phenomenon; the Protestant Church, by comparison, 
experienced a decrease of only 3.5 percent, attributable to deaths 
outpacing births.  In total, one million Austrian Catholics have 
left the Church in the past 30 years. 
 
¶3. Outside observers attribute the Church's losses to a number of 
controversies that took place during the year.  The most damaging of 
these was likely the Vatican appointment of ultraconservative priest 
Gerhard Wagner as auxiliary bishop in the Upper Austrian city of 
Linz (reftel).  Wagner, whose views include the belief that 
Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution against New Orleans, 
withdrew his nomination after local Church lay leaders and some 
clergy opposed his appointment.  Church membership in Linz declined 
by 43 percent in 2009, the highest rate for any diocese.  At least 
some of the outflow is believed to be among Wagner's supporters who 
were angry that his appointment was blocked. 
 
¶4. The Austrian Church also clashed with the Vatican when Cardinal 
Schoenborn publicly criticized the Pope's decision in January 2009 
to rescind the excommunication of Holocaust-denier Bishop Richard 
Williamson.  Then, in March, an Austrian priest admitted to a 
25-year relationship with a widow, sparking a debate about whether 
priests should be allowed to marry (one poll indicated that 90 
percent of Austrians believe they should).  Schoenborn and other 
Austrian Church leaders traveled to the Vatican at the Pope's 
invitation in June 2009 to discuss these matters. 
 
Church: Austrians Increasingly Estranged from Religion 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶5. Church spokesperson Erich Leitenberger acknowledged to us that 
the controversies had taken a toll, but also blamed negative media 
coverage for contributing to the outflow. Cardinal Schoenborn, 
speaking publicly in October 2009, said Austrians continued to 
distance themselves from religious faith and predicted that Catholic 
Church membership in Austria would continue to drop below the 
current level of 67 percent of the population.  Schoenborn rejected 
the argument that objections to the contribution system, in which 
Catholics (and Protestants) automatically pay a contribution to the 
national Church at tax time unless they opt out, is hastening the 
departure of Austrians from the Church.  The Cardinal argued that 
the Church receives less in contributions than it pays back to the 
government in the form of taxes. 
 
Critics: Church Unresponsive to Members' Needs 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶6.  Hans Hurka, writing for the lay group "We Are the Church," saw 
the situation differently.  Hurka called the departures a protest 
against the "authoritarian hierarchy" of the Church, and called for 
Catholics dedicated to reform to divert their membership fees to his 
organization, which calls for allowing women to be priests, ending 
the clerical/lay hierarchy, abolishing the celibacy requirement for 
priests, and consulting with members on important issues such as the 
naming of bishops.  Luitgard Derschmidt, president of the national 
lay organization "Catholic Aktion," attributed the decline to a 
Church too absorbed in its own quarrels to understand the "concrete 
living situation" of its members. 
 
Comment: Resigned to Decline 
---------------------------- 
 
¶7.  The Catholic Church continues to hold an important place in 
Austrian society, not least via the formal powers granted it in 
public life.  The declining number of contributing members does, 
however, reflect the fact that Austrian Catholics feel increasingly 
alienated from the Church.  Catholic leaders so far do not appear to 
 
VIENNA 00000151  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
have any serious ideas for addressing the decline. 
 
EACHO