There is a shortage of personnel not only in numerous trades and in tourism, but churches also need more priests. The shortage is now leading to reshuffles and merging of tasks in East Tyrol. In Carinthia there are also fewer priests than parishes: 234 priests are active in 336 parishes.
“Personnel changes in our parishes cause uncertainty and anger in some parishes and joy in having a new pastor in others. Many cannot understand why popular priests leave their parishes and take on new tasks,” says Dean Franz Troyer. “Looking at the entire diocese of Innsbruck, a lot can be explained: this year alone, 17 priests are retiring, some of whom lead large pastoral care areas as deans and pastors and leave a big hole in the staff of our diocese.” Siegmund Bichler, currently provisional parish priest in the Lienz pastoral care area -South, becomes pastor of Prägraten and Virgen and head of the pastoral care area. Fr. Martin Bichler OFM, currently provisional parish priest in the parish of Lienz-St. Marien, will be pastor in the fully established Lienz-Süd pastoral care area with the parishes of Lienz-Holy Family, Lienz-St. Marien, Lavant, Tristach and Leisach and the Amlach pastoral care center. Deacon Michael Brugger will continue to be in charge of the pastoral care room. Fritz Kerschbaumer, currently provisional pastor in the Prägraten-Virgen pastoral care area, will become pastor in the Stubai pastoral care area with the parishes of Schönberg im Stubai, Mieders, Telfes, Fulpmes and Neustift. Deacon Leo Hinterlechner will continue to lead the pastoral care room. Josef Mair, currently dean and pastor in the Hochpustertal pastoral care area and the Inner- and Ausservillgraten parishes, will retire and work as an assisting priest in the Sonnseite pastoral care area. Andreas Schätzle, priest of the Archdiocese of Vienna, will become pastor of the fully established Hochpustertal pastoral care area with the parishes of Sillian, Heinfels, Tessenberg, Innervillgraten and Ausservillgraten. Fr Paul Salamon OFM Conv will remain Vicar in the Pastoral Care Room. Changes are necessary to fill the positions of these 17 priests. “And due to the lack of priests, unfortunately also the merging of tasks,” says Troyer. In the Diocese of Innsbruck, to which the East Tyrolean parishes belong, deacons and lay people can also take on management tasks in the parishes as heads of pastoral care rooms or parish curators or parish coordinators. “In this way, good management of the parishes and pastoral care rooms should be made possible and the priests should be ‘released’ for pastoral care. In the Lienz deanery, the two pastoral care areas Lienz Süd and Sonnseite are managed by this new management model,” explains the dean. Location in Carinthia In the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt there are 336 parishes in 23 deaneries, of which 223 parishes have fewer than 1,000 Catholics. The smallest parish is Loibltal / Brodi with 31 Catholics, the largest is Wolfsberg with 8,433 believers. There are 197 diocesan priests and 37 religious priests active in the diocese. There are also five religious brothers and 111 religious women. 62 permanent deacons, 31 pastoral assistants, 3 pastoral supervisors and 4 pastoral assistants as well as more than 3,000 parish councilors supported the priests. As of January 1, 2023, 338,139 Carinthians were Catholic, which is 59.9 percent of the population Population. In the Diocese of Gurt-Klagenfurt there are also personnel changes every autumn; many priests look after several parishes and also hold other tasks in various church committees.
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