Austria

"The awakening of the Christian faith, the dawning of the Church of Jesus Christ was made possible, because there were people whose hearts were searching – people who didn’t rest content with custom, but who looked further ahead, in search of something greater: Mary & Joseph, the Twelve & many others.

We too need an open & restless heart like theirs. This is what pilgrimage is all about. Today as in the past, it is not enough to be more or less like everyone else and to think like everyone else. Our lives have a deeper purpose. We need God, the God who has shown us his face and opened his heart to us: Jesus Christ. Saint John rightly says of him that only he is God and rests close to the Father’s heart."

- Pope Benedict XVI, Apostolic Voyage to Austria

Queen of Peace Parish, Vienna, 1924

The Pallottines arrived in Austria in 1924, when they were entrusted with Queen of Peace Parish (Pfarre Königin des Friedens) in Vienna. Two years later, in 1926, they expanded their presence by founding the Johannes Schlößl community in Salzburg—today a retreat house and spiritual center overlooking the city. Since then, the Austrian Pallottines have been part of the German–Austrian Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, continuing St. Vincent Pallotti’s mission of reviving faith and spreading charity.
A shining witness of this spirit is Franz Reinisch (1903–1942), an Austrian Pallottine priest executed for refusing to take the Nazi oath, remembered today as a martyr of conscience.