No Francis effect in Austria so far

I am beginning to wonder if the purported “Francis effect” – the (it must be said, self-serving) idea put forth by mass media fans of Pope Francis that his purported “liberalization” of the Church (as presented by the media) would bring throngs back into the Faith.  Even many conservative-ish Catholic bloggers have openly opined that such would occur, or hoped so.

Well, thus far we have data from two countries thought perhaps most to benefit from the Francis effect, where many liberal/left wing souls have left the Church since it opposes so many of their sacred political shibboleths.  Italy was first, which showed a continuing slow decline in Mass attendance, and now we have data from extremely liberal Austria, where at least half the Church/priests are in open revolt and there is talk of schism. Heresy abounds.  Has Francis reversed the flood out of the Church, or slowed it dramatically?  The data from German Katholisches site says, no:

in Austria in 2013, there were more than leaving the church than in 2012. Nearly 55,000 Catholics have left the Catholic Church as a corporate body under public law. Thus more Austrians left the Church in the first year of the pontificate of Pope Francis, than in the last year of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. The church leaders wonder about this phenomenon, which they had not expected.

“We would have expected better numbers,” said the Bishop of Linz Vicar William Viehböck. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. there was  relief heard from not a few official church authorities in Austria. The reasons are to be sought in the different understanding of the Church. The election of Pope Francis was greeted with cheers. Since then everything will “different” and “better”. But the harsh reality has caught up to the diocese now. [I think we can readily see why the Church is having such problems……]

The new figures refute this transparent, but black and white image, thanks to support of the media. In recent years  leaving the church had been interpreted by “appointed” sides as an “outcry” against “the log jam” and “backwardness”, yet there is currently a conspicuous silence. Church districts which are faithful have been demanding a fact-based analysis for years.  The individualization and dissolution of Church affiliation will be only be promoted rather than stopped by the progressive agenda with destruction of the liturgy, attenuated evangelization efforts and a staff that is no longer really Catholic, but speak in the name of the Church in public.

The increase in withdrawals is 4.8 percent. The percentage of Catholics in Austria’s population has thus declined   to a record low. From a Church perspective an exit from the Church is not possible. Through a serious act that violates church doctrine and order, believers can suffer excommunication and therefore the exclusion from the ecclesial community. [Especially if they don’t want to support the Liberal Tax-Church regime with its poorly managed healthcare facilities, liturgical abuses and shoddy catechesis.] This need not be explicitly imposed, but occurs automatically upon the act.

That last bit is particularly scandalous.  What Katholisches/Tancred is saying, is that those who opt not to pay the Church tax, publicly disassociating themselves from the Church, gets them automatically excommunicated, whether they may be daily Mass attendees and completely faithful souls, or not. Thus, good souls who have a philosophical problem with supporting the Church through “point of a gun” state-imposed confiscatory taxation incur automatic excommunication – ostensibly – for doing so.  But the worst left wing divorced-remarried heretic guilty of massive public scandal can present for Communion and it is not a problem in the slightest.

Progressive policies mean the death of faith.  They always have.  I would have hoped the experience of the late 60s-early 70s would have converted, or at least convinced, the progressive elements in the Church of their folly.  But intellectual ideologues are the most difficult to convert, or so said St. Thomas Aquinas.