ROME — The popularity of Pope Francis among American adults continues its steep downward trend, reaching its lowest point since his election in 2013, according to the latest Rasmussen report.
Rasmussen’s national telephone and online survey, conducted in early December, finds that only 41 percent of American Adults have a favorable impression of Pope Francis – down from 61 percent in 2013, the year he was elected.
Moreover, 31 percent now view Francis unfavorably, nearly triple his unfavorability rating in 2013 (12 percent). Twenty-eight percent of U.S. adults say they are not sure.
Predictably, more Democrats (53 percent) have a favorable opinion of Pope Francis than Republicans (36 percent) or independents (34 percent). Similarly, 35 percent of Democrats believe Pope Francis has been better than most recent popes, while just 13 percent of Republicans and 16 percent of the unaffiliated share that opinion.
The Rasmussen report corroborates other recent polls showing that the pontiff has been steadily falling in favor with the public.
While Rasmussen does not attempt to explain the causes of Francis’ loss of popularity, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Right, Dr. Bill Donohue, offered his own analysis of the problem last April.
Donohue, a sociologist, reacted to findings from the Pew Research Center showing that the pope’s favorability rating had declined by 8 percentage points just in the last 3 years to a new record low.
Over these years, Francis has endorsed civil unions and allowed the blessing of homosexual couples, leading to unprecedented pushback by clergy and lay faithful from all over the world, Donohue observed.
Francis named his friend Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, despite the fact that Fernández is not a high-level theologian, but whose claim to fame is having published a book on kissing (Heal Me With Your Mouth) as well as another book on the spirituality of orgasms (Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality), described by many as pornographic.
Donohue also observed that Pope Francis “allowed Fr. Marco Rupnik, a fellow Jesuit, to remain a priest in good standing, notwithstanding his being thrown out of the Society for Jesus for sacrilegious and sexual offenses.”
The pope similarly “failed to deal forthrightly with his Jesuit friend, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was sentenced to prison by an Argentine court for sexually abusing seminarians,” Donohue added.
Along with these disconcerting actions, Francis has put “severe restrictions on the Latin Mass,” Donohue wrote, to the chagrin of numerous faithful Catholics, and has punished conservative prelates such as Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, and Cardinal Raymond Burke, former head of the Vatican’s highest court, while allowing progressives to do as they please.
These and other issues “are seen by many practicing Catholics as wrongheaded,” Donohue argued, and go a long way to explaining why the pope’s favorability rating is “tanking.”
Since then, the pope has angered many by seeming to take sides against Israel in the ongoing Gaza conflict, calling for an investigation into whether Israel’s actions constitute “genocide.”
He also named a notorious LGBTQ+ activist as a cardinal and appointed another openly pro-gay cleric, Father Roberto Pasolini, to the prestigious role of Preacher of the Papal Household, while continuing to proclaim climate change “the real challenge of our century,” leaving many Catholics scratching their heads.
In its recent report, Rasmussen looked at the pope’s controversial decision to skip the December 8 reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which had been severely damaged in a 2019 fire. The event was attended by many heads of state and other renowned international figures but Francis chose to travel to the French island of Corsica instead.
According to the survey, only 27 percent of U.S. adults approved of the pope’s decision not to attend the ceremony at Notre Dame Cathedral, while 39 percent disapproved, and 35 percent said they were not sure.
