(RNS) — A majority of American Catholics view Pope Leo XIV’s papacy positively so far, though they admit they know little about him, a Pew Research Center survey released on Friday (Sept. 12) shows.
The survey, part of Pew’s ongoing research on Catholicism in the United States, polled American Catholics on their opinions of Leo, their thoughts on him being the first U.S.-born pope and how they think his pontificate will compare to that of his predecessors. It also highlights how Mass attendance and political affiliation factor into American Catholics’ views of the new pontiff.
Eight out of 10 American Catholics said they had a favorable opinion of Leo, including 37% who said their opinion was “very favorable.” A minority (4%) indicated they disapproved of Leo, while 11% said they had never heard of him. The survey was conducted between July 8 and Aug. 3 and has a margin of error for Catholics of +/- 3.1 percentage points.
For this first public opinion study on Leo, Pew researchers polled 9,916 American adults, including 1,849 Catholics.
Though more than half of non-Catholic Americans (56%) said they view Leo favorably, a third (31%) said they’ve never heard of him.
Leo, whose name alludes to an earlier pontiff who championed the rights of the poor, was born in Chicago and served in Peru for many years. He succeeded Pope Francis after his death in April.
“I find it striking that the share of Catholics who view Pope Leo favorably today is identical to the share who had a positive view of Pope Francis back in the early days of his papacy,” said Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of religion research at Pew, in an email to RNS.
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