The national conference of Catholic Action Austria (KaÖ) appointed Leopold Wimmer new president, at the end of the weekend’s conference. Wimmer, 65 years old, replaces Gerda Schaffelhofer, who had been chairman of KaÖ in the last six years. Leopold Wimmer is originally from Lower Austria. He studied physics at Vienna University of Technology, where he worked as an assistant, then he worked in telecommunication. From 1993 to 2018, he was sales manager for Caritas in the diocese of St. Pölten. Since 2008, he had chaired the Catholic Men’s Movement in Austria (KmbÖ). “The main goal of KaÖ is to live Christian faith in a proactive, contemporary way”, with “everyone joining forces to promote the Church”, Wimmer said after his appointment. “We want to show people that faith is precious for one’s personal life and for the development of society”. Especially in a society “which is less and less sympathetic”, according to Wimmer, Catholic Action must take action and bring the value of solidarity and the strengthening of cooperation into all the layers of the population. This also means “going against the rifts and conflicts of society that some people are stirring up in the political arena”, Wimmer stated. The two deputy presidents of the official lay organisation of the Austrian Church have also been appointed: Magda Krön and Armin Haiderer. Father Paul Zulehner has been reappointed spiritual assistant.