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.
