Germans Have Little Faith in the Catholic Church -- Pope's Popularity Declines

Edit: Imagine my shock. You would think that Marx's big push to legitimize mortal sin would make him and his confreres MORE, not less popular.

Germans consider television more trustworthy than the Catholic Church. In a survey, it is only in the rear midfield among 26 institutions. Trust in the pope also decreases.

Statistics | Bonn - 04.01.2018 According to a survey, Germans do not trust the Catholic Church with great confidence. Among 26 "non-political institutions," the Catholic Church in a study by the opinion research institute forsa for the television station RTL and ntv is only ranked 18th At 27 percent, however, it improved compared to the previous year by one percentage point. Here, the perception in West and East Germany deviates strongly from each other. For example, only 13 percent of East Germans give their trust to the Catholic Church; by contrast, 30 percent among the West Germans.

The Protestant church increased by two percentage points to 48 percent, ranking it in 13th place. In West Germany, 50 percent of the respondents trust them, in eastern Germany 34 percent.



Confidence in the pope, on the other hand, declined significantly last year. He is trusted by 54 percent of the respondents, which represents a decrease of 6 percentage points compared to 2016 and means 9th place in the current ranking. Here too, West and East Germany deviate strongly from each other. The pope enjoys, according to the data, 40 percent of the East Germans' trust, but 57 percent of West Germans.

Islam lost the most confidence

The strongest loss of confidence was recorded by Islam. It fell in the "trust ranking" from 25 percent in the previous year to 9 percent. That means rank 24. Behind it lie only managers with 6 per cent and advertising agencies with 5 per cent. Forsa boss Manfred Güllne believes Islamist attacks are responsible this low value for Islam.

37 percent of the respondents trusted the Central Council of Jews, three percentage points less than in 2016. The "trust ranking" is headed by the police, universities, doctors and their own employers. The media in the form of radio, press and television had each suffered 4 percentage point losses. According to the poll, 56 percent of Germans trust in the radio (8th place), the press comes to 40 percent (15th place), the television 28 percent (17th place).

The survey took place between December 15 and 20, with 2,307 people polled. (Well / KNA)