Over the past two decades, the Austrian Church has experienced some internal tensions and dissent by groups like “We Are Church.” The Bishops have tried to respond to these problems with various initiatives of pastoral renewal, such as the 1998 National Assembly “Dialogue for Austria,” intended to search for a way to reconcile the different tendencies of Catholicism in Austria. Some of the conclusions of that Assembly concerning marriage, birth regulation, the concept of conscience, the pastoral care of homosexual persons and the divorced as well as the permanent diaconate, were criticized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Recently, the Austrian Bishops confirmed their intention to convene a “Forum on the Future of the Church”.

In their previous visit to the Holy See in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI, in view of the “painful events” and the “critical areas of social life,” encouraged the Bishops to a full teaching of Catholic doctrine, with moving words: “Please use zealously the Compendium and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Ensure that your priests and catechists use these instruments, that they are explained in parishes, associations and movements, and used in families as important reading.”