First U.S. pope, Leo XIV, gets strong favorability rating from his home country
For those who attend mass weekly, the positive feelings are close to unanimous
United States Catholics are liking what they see so far about Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from their country.
According to a recently released poll by the Pew Research Center, 84 percent of U.S. Catholics say they have a favorable view of Pope Leo, formerly known as Robert F. Prevost, who was born and raised in the Chicago area.
A minuscule 4% said they have an unfavorable view of him. Of the remainder, most, or 11 percent of the total, hadn’t heard of him, while 1 percent declined to participate in the poll.
The high favorable rating includes 37 percent of the total who say they have a “very favorable” view of the pope and 47 percent who answered “mostly favorable.”
Few know much about new pope
The rating has to be viewed in the context, however, that American Catholics tend to not know a lot about the new pope, who began his papacy on May 8. Only 7 percent say they know “a lot” about him, and 25 percent say they know “nothing at all.”
That leaves 67 percent who say that they know only “a little.” (The remaining 1 percent gave the pollster no answer.)
The positive views are similar to those that American Catholics have held in recent decades toward other new popes. Pope Francis also had an 84 percent favorability rating when he started out in 2013. Pope Benedict’s rating was a lower at 67 percent near the beginning of his term in 67 percent, and St. John Paul II’s rating was a bit higher at 91 percent in 1987.
Those who attend mass weekly or more have an exceptionally high opinion of Pope, giving him a 95 percent favorability rating. But even those who seldom or never attend mass still seem to like him, giving him a 77 percent favorability rating.
There does seem to be a slight partisan divide, although the difference is close to the survey’s margin of error. Democrats give Pope Leo an 89 percent favorability rating, while Republicans give him 85 percent.
Even non-Catholics give Pope Leo a positive rating, of 56 percent.
Pew’s analysis is based on findings from a survey of 9,916 U.S. adults, 1,849 of them Catholics, who are part of its American Trends Panel. The survey was conducted from July 8 to Aug. 3.