Thousands leaving Catholic Church in Austria
September 19, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Over 85,000 Catholics formally left the Church in Austria last year, the country’s episcopal conference has reported. The previous year has seen an even larger exodus of over 94,000.
Those departures have contributed to annual drops of 2% in the number of Austrian Catholics, as the number of baptisms has lagged significantly behind the number of funerals.
In Austria as in neighboring Germany, the Church benefits from a “church tax”—a tax surcharge that the government assesses on registered members of religious bodies. Catholics who end their registration are no longer given the right to the sacraments.
In both countries, the active Catholic population has been shrinking rapidly as inactive Catholics seek to avoid the extra tax.
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