A further reduction of its faithful was recorded by the Roman Catholic Church in Austria last year

According to new official data, the religious disaffiliation of Catholic believers was increased by 14.9% last year compared to 2018, when the total number of faithful was 5.05 million, which decreased in 2019 to 4.98 million, in a country of a total population of 8.8 million inhabitants.

Possible reasons for the religious disaffiliation of the faithful from the Roman Catholic Church are, according to Kathpress news agency, cases of abuse as well as the charges the former bishop of Klagenfurt is facing.

According to analysts in Vienna, apostasy from the ecclesiastical orders has resulted in a reduction of the receipts of the Austrian Roman Catholic Church from subscriptions.

Today, in Austria the second in number officially recognized Church after the Roman Catholic is the Orthodox, with 500,000 faithful.

Source: ANA-MPA