AUSTRIA
Die Presse
(Die Presse - Printed Edition) 18.01.2005
Vienna – Around 50,000 people opted to leave the Austrian Catholic Church last year after the church was rocked by the St. Poelten scandal, according to statistics released on Monday. In some dioceses the number of people leaving the church increased by 40 per cent on 2003 figures and figures from the Vienna diocese indicate that people started leaving the church en masse after the gay sex and child porn scandals at a priest seminary became public in July. Speaking in an interview with “die Presse,” Theologian Michael Zulehner said that the proportion of registered Catholics could drop as low as 60 or even 50 per cent in the Alpine republic.