The annual survey carried out by the Buddhist Jogye Order, each year through the Institute for the study of Buddhism and society that questions the nation’s religious sensibility, confirming the primacy of Catholics. Protestants slip in rating because of sexual and financial scandals that have hit the "mega-churches".

Seoul (AsiaNews) – Catholicism is the most trusted religion in South Korea. This was revealed by the latest survey done by the Buddhist Jogye Order, each year through each year through the Institute for the study of Buddhism and society that questions the nation’s religious sensibility.

The study was  conducted on a sample of 1,200 people aged 16 and over. The results show that the nationwide confidence in religions generally dropped from 25% to 11.8%.

Catholicism has overall scored 38.9%, followed by Buddhism with a 32.8% and Protestant denominations with 10.2%. Despite the non-Catholic Christians are about 20% of the total population, the number of sexual and financial scandals that have hit various Protestant congregations have undermined the relationship of trust with its members.

Priests, according to the survey, inspire most confidence: 51.3% of respondents considered them - regardless of creed - good people; the monks follow with 38.5% and pastors with 17%.

The religious concept has gained ground in terms of its influence on society, scoring 40.4% against 26.7% of those who consider it irrelevant. The Koreans respect "more than anything else," the care for the weak and the suffering by people with religious beliefs, but they fear "the lack of transparency in the financial sector", defining it as "the worst problem of religions today."

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