Alois Kothgasser, the archbishop of the Diocese of Salzburg, has decided to apply for retirement. Kothgasser announced yesterday (Weds) that he informed Pope Benedict XVI. about his wish in a letter. Kothgasser, 75, added he hoped for a private conversation with the Pope to discuss who could succeed him. A decision is expected for autumn. […]
Frustrated churchgoers have put an advert in the paper for a new Catholic priest after the local diocese failed to find a replacement when the current priest was moved to a new area. The advert says that people in Taufkirchen an der Pram at Schärding in Austria are looking for a qualified priest to manage […]
A public hospital’s doctor and psychologist are under scrutiny for allegedly cooperating with an exorcist. Viennese media claimed yesterday (Weds) that the SMZ Ost Clinic staff held workshops with an exorcist in the services of the Diocese of Vienna. The man and the medics allegedly spoke about previous success stories of their partnership at public […]
Catholic Church killjoys have ordered a parish to take its confessional box auction offline – right after the highest bid was exactly 666 Euros.Priest Otto Weber of cash-strapped Hirschstetten parish in Vienna-Donaustadt decided to offer one of the churchs confessional boxes on eBay to carry out essential renovations.But Archdiocese Vienna decision-makers forced the canny cleric […]
The Roman Catholic Graz-Seckau diocese has today (Weds) revealed how a former victim of sexual abuse by priests tried to blackmail them for one million Euros.The dioceses made the statement when it confirmed reports about a case of sexual abuse of boys by a priest in the 1970s as reported by the newspaper Kleine Zeitung.The […]
By David RogersThe number of Catholics leaving the Church soared last year, according to Catholic press agency Kathpress.It reported today (Weds) that 53,216 people had left the Church last year – 30.9 per cent more than in 2008.The figure was 0.96 per cent of all Austrian Catholics, the agency said.The number of Catholics in Austria […]