Ahead of his visit to the United States later this month, Pope Francis garners high favorability marks from Americans.
Roughly two in three American adults — 66 percent — say they have a very favorable or favorable view of the pontiff, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
A plurality of Americans (43 percent) also say the Catholic Church today is moving in the right direction, in addition to saying Catholic Church leaders are in touch with the views of Catholics in America today (52 percent).
By and large, Americans really like Francis, with 18 percent saying they have a “very favorable” opinion of him and 48 percent saying “favorable.” Just 14 percent said their opinion of him was “unfavorable” or “very unfavorable.”
Francis, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has taken the papacy by storm since 2013, when he became the first non-European pontiff of the modern era.
Regardless, Francis still gets high marks among American Catholics, with 33 percent having a “very favorable” opinion of him and 54 percent having a “favorable” one.
Francis also garners high support across religions and genders: men (63 percent), women (69 percent), Protestants (61 percent), Catholics (87 percent) and those without a religion (63 percent) all view him quite favorably.
Francis will arrive in the U.S. from Sept. 22-27, visiting Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. He is set to become the first pope to address a joint session of Congress.
The telephone poll of roughly 1,800 Americans was conducted Aug. 20-25 with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The overall sample included 424 self-identified Catholics that carried a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
