Pope miles ‘more popular than the Church’, poll finds

A nationwide poll on the role religion plays in Austrians’ lives has shown that Pope Francis ranks “miles above” the Church, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

“Appreciation of Pope Francis is miles above that of the Church. His are absolutely peak values,” Werner Beutelmeyer, the head of the Linz Market Institute that conducted the poll, told the Kärntner Kirchenzeitung (Carinthian church paper) on 23 June.

The poll showed that 57 per cent of Austrians think Francis “absolutely reliable” while only 20 per cent think the same applies to the Church, and 42 per cent are convinced that Francis is capable of solving problems while only 14 per cent think the Church can.

Asked which tenets of the Creed they believed in, very few people, even committed Catholics, believed in the holiness of the Catholic Church, particularly on account of clerical sexual abuse scandals. Both the abuse scandals and the spate of controversial bishops’ nominations in Austria under the then Pope John Paul II in the 1980s and ’90s had shattered trust in the Church, Mr Beutelmeyer explained. The Church’s commitment to helping refugees and the poor was appreciated, he said, and charismatic personalities and personal Christian witness – as seen with Francis – were called for.