The Austrian Bishops’ Conference will meet for its summer plenary assembly in Mariazell from 8 to 10 June, under the presidency of Archbishop Franz Lackner O.F.M.. At the heart of the proceedings will be the election of the president and vice-president, whose six-year terms have expired, and the examination of the recent social encyclical of Pope Leo XIV.
The election of the new president
Lackner’s mandate at the head of the Austrian episcopate dates back to June 2020, when he was elected, also in Mariazell, in the midst of the pandemic. At the time, the Bishop of Linz, Manfred Scheuer, was chosen as his deputy. Both offices have now reached the end of their terms.
According to the statutes of the Conference, the president must be chosen from among the diocesan bishops. All sixteen members of the assembly have the right to vote: the nine diocesan bishops, the military bishop, the five auxiliary bishops currently in office and the Cistercian Abbot of Wettingen-Mehrerau. The election requires a two-thirds majority; from the third ballot onwards, a relative majority is sufficient.
Among those eligible are, in addition to the two archbishops Franz Lackner of Salzburg, 69, and Josef Grünwidl of Vienna, 63, the diocesan bishops Benno Elbs of Feldkirch, 65, Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck, 61, Wilhelm Krautwaschl of Graz-Seckau, 63, Josef Marketz of Gurk, 70, Manfred Scheuer of Linz, 70, Alois Schwarz of St Pölten, 73, and Ägidius Zsifkovics of Eisenstadt, 63, as well as the military bishop Werner Freistetter, 72.
The new social encyclical
The bishops will also discuss Magnifica humanitas, the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV. On Tuesday 9 June, a meeting is also scheduled with the Apostolic Nuncio to Austria, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana.
The programme
The assembly will begin on Monday 8 June at 3 p.m. with a prayer at the Altar of Grace in the Basilica of Mariazell. The opening afternoon will be devoted to a study seminar on religious life, attended by the leaders of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders: the Prioress General Franziska Madl, Provost Anton Höslinger, Secretary General Sister Christine Rod and Executive Director Peter Bohynik, together with the president of the Conference of Secular Institutes of Austria, Maria Lukas.
The proceedings will conclude on Wednesday 10 June at 11.15 a.m. with a solemn Holy Mass in the basilica, presided over by the Bishop of Graz-Seckau, the Most Rev. Wilhelm Krautwaschl, to which the faithful are invited.