Dalai Lama more trusted than Catholic leaders

The Dalai Lama is the most trustworthy religious personality to Austrians, a new survey has found.

Pollster OGM interviewed more than 500 Austrians to find they put more faith into the Tibetan Buddhism’s 14th Dalai Lama than Viennese Roman Catholic Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn and Pope Benedict XVI.

Ariel Muzicant, head of the Jewish Community in Vienna (IKG), and Austrian Islamic Denomination (IGGiÖ) President Anas Schakfeh did worse than the Catholic leaders, OGM said Friday.

Around 65 per cent of the overall 8.5 million people living in Austria are Catholics, down from 89 per cent in 1961. With 87,393, more Austrians than ever before left the Church in 2010, up by 63 per cent compared to the previous record year 2009. 

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