Lack of priest in Innsbruck: How pastor's rooms are breaking new ground

Lack of priest in Innsbruck: How pastor's rooms are breaking new ground

In recent years, the Innsbruck diocese has experienced a significant decline in the number of priests, which is a major challenge. In order to counter this lack of priests, the diocese has developed innovative strategies that make it possible to keep the church community active and maintain the pastoral offer.

The diocese has summarized around 240 parishes in 70 pastor rooms. According to pastor Alois Juen, who works in the pastoral room Fritzens-Volders-Wattens, the number of priests in this area fell to just two in 2018. In order to fill the resulting gap, the diocese relies on a strong team of lay people and full -time employees, including around 800 permanent people who support the priests in administrative and organizational tasks.

support from lay people

Bruno Tuderer, who leads the pastoral room Fritzens-Volders-Wattens, emphasizes how important the collaboration is in the team. "The greatest advantage is that you don't fight alone. You have a team with which you can exchange ideas," explains Tieverer. The integration of laypersons into organizational tasks enabled the priests to focus more on their central role as a pastor. Pastor Juen describes how he is able to be the pastor he always wanted to be and emphasizes the relief from organizational help.

The Diocese of Innsbruck follows a future -oriented approach with this strategy to counter the further tightening lack of priests. In contrast to the Diocese of Linz, which radically reduced the number of parishes, Innsbruck remains with the original size of the pastor's rooms to maintain a feeling of community and belonging. "When it gets bigger, you lose the cover," notes Bishop Hermann Glettler, who emphasizes that the diocese does not intend to change this structure.

demands for reforms

Despite these positive developments, there are also critical voices in the diocese, considering the reform of the celibacy and for greater integration of women into the church community. Pastor Juen expresses his view that celibacy should be revised in order to also strengthen the place of women in the church. "Women could be integrated much more," he says, and thus addresses an important topic within the discussion about the future of the church.

These topics reflect on the endeavor of the diocese to develop a sustainable and including pastoral practice that meets the current challenges. The development towards greater teamwork and the integration of lay people into pastoral care are essential steps that contribute to the preservation of pastoral work in the community.

For more information on this topic, detailed reports and analyzes are available at tirol.at available.