Most Lithuanians were not indifferent to the event when it was not permitted to take the coffin of Algirdas Brazauskas, the first president of Lithuania since its restored independence, to Vilnius Cathedral, a public opinion survey shows. In early June, the confidence in the Church was expressed by 61.3% of the respondents while only 12.7% of the residents voiced their no-confidence in it, writes LETA/ELTA.
The representative poll conducted by the public opinion and market research centre Vilmorus on July 2-11 showed quite different results.
The daily Lietuvos Rytas on Saturday published the poll's results, according to which, the Church enjoyed the confidence of 47% of the respondents. Among those polled, 25.8% said that they had no confidence in the Church.
The ratings of Cardinal Audrys Juozas Backis faced even more dramatic changes.
Although on the sidelines of the authorities there have been talks that the hierarch's decision not to take Brazauskas' coffin to the Cathedral was influenced by the right wing politicians, most of the respondents blamed precisely Backis for the decision making.
Among those polled, as much as 33.8% of the respondents viewed Backis unfavourably while 24.2% of them voiced their support to him.
The majority of those polled had a clearly different opinion about Backis a month ago.
Then, only 5.6% of the respondents said that they distrusted the cardinal, while 46.5% viewed him favourably.
In the ratings, the head of the Lithuanian Catholic Church fell from the long-standing third place to the ninth.
SIC: TBC