We like him; we really, really like him!

It's not much of a shock to hear it, but according to Pew Researchers American Catholics are quite fond of their new pope. After a little more than three months with Papa Frank, 84 percent of U.S. Catholics "viewed favorably," to use Pew's survey speak, the new pontiff, and 43 percent "express a very favorable view." Just 5 percent of U.S. Catholics "express an unfavorable view of Pope Francis." (Who are these hard-to-please folks?)

That's significantly better, reports Pew, than Pope Benedict XVI did during his early days, when he was rated favorably by 67 percent of U.S. Catholics three months into the job in July 2005.

The survey also finds that Francis's appeal is not limited to U.S. Catholics; Americans as a whole, 57 percent of them, "have a favorable opinion of Pope Francis." Roughly three-in-ten "cannot yet rate the new pope," while a dour, apparently humorless minority of 14 percent "have an unfavorable opinion of him."

You can see the rest of the results of Pew's papal sweepstakes here.

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Tim O'Leary

5 years 6 months ago

84% is a very good number, though the sample was very small for Catholics (193 Catholics, with error rate of +/- 8.5%). I couldn't see how they determined who was Catholic, but I assume it was self-identification on a phone call In the provided link, Pew has a table that shows popularity of the popes going back to John Paul II, whose "viewed favorably" number was in the 90% for most of his Papacy and for his last year was 93%.

Michael Barberi

5 years 6 months ago

The favorability of Pope Francis is a positive sign. It is hard not to like him, really like him. We all pray that Pope Francis will be guided by the Holy Spirit and address the many issues the Bishops and others believe are important to the Church.

Mary Sweeney

5 years 6 months ago

Holly Kirby's song "The Light Through the Day" speaks to me of the sentiments people have towards Pope Francis. He has helped many "come to life". Song at http://hollykirbymusic.com/fr_home.cfm. Click on "Listen and Shop" under Holly's Shop. "The Light Through the Day is the last song under "Latest Singles".