{"id":42,"date":"2008-04-10T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-10T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/benedictions\/2008\/04\/poll-pope-enjoys-70-percent-ap.html"},"modified":"2008-04-10T17:35:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-10T17:35:00","slug":"poll-pope-enjoys-70-percent-ap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/benedictions\/2008\/04\/poll-pope-enjoys-70-percent-ap.html","title":{"rendered":"Poll: Pope Enjoys 70 Percent Approval Among U.S. Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Renee K. Gadoua<br \/>\nReligion News Service<\/strong><br \/>\nOn the eve of Pope Benedict XVI&#8217;s first visit to the United States next week, his approval rating among U.S. Catholics is 70 percent, according to a LeMoyne College\/Zogby International poll released Wednesday (April 9).<br \/>\nBut that still doesn&#8217;t top the popularity of his predecessor, John Paul II.<br \/>\nThe Contemporary Catholic Trends poll also found that a quarter of U.S. Catholics say the pope has only a little influence on world affairs.<br \/>\nA 70 percent approval shows that a significant majority of respondents believe Benedict is doing a good job leading the church, said Matthew Loveland, a sociologist of religion at Le Moyne who works with the Le Moyne\/Zogby poll.<br \/>\nIn spring 2003, the poll found that John Paul II had an 87 percent approval rating, and right after his death on April 2, 2005, 90 percent of Catholics said he did a good job, Loveland said.<br \/>\n&#8220;People really liked John Paul,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\nIn fall 2005, Pope Benedict&#8217;s approval rating was 75 percent, and in spring 2007, his approval rating reached 86 percent.<br \/>\n&#8220;It&#8217;s still very high,&#8221; Loveland said. &#8220;There are very few world leaders who would be complaining about a 70 percent approval. By his very nature he speaks out about controversial issues.&#8221;<br \/>\nSeveral other polls have also focused on the pope&#8217;s upcoming visit.<br \/>\nA poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion found that 58 percent of Americans, Catholic and non-Catholic, have a favorable view of the pope.<br \/>\nThat compares with 13 percent who have an unfavorable opinion and 17 percent who say they have never heard of him.<br \/>\nA Pew Research Center poll found that 52 percent of Americans (also not exclusively Catholics) have a favorable view of the pope, while 30 percent say they do not know enough about Pope Benedict to offer an opinion.<br \/>\nThe LeMoyne\/Zogby poll found that 42 percent of Catholics disagree with the church&#8217;s position that using artificial birth control is a sin, and 61 percent either strongly or somewhat agree that the Catholic Church should allow women to be ordained as priests.<br \/>\n<em>Copyright 2008 Religion News Service.  All rights reserved.  No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renee K. Gadoua Religion News Service On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI&#8217;s first visit to the United States next week, his approval rating among U.S. Catholics is 70 percent, according to a LeMoyne College\/Zogby International poll released Wednesday (April 9). But that still doesn&#8217;t top the popularity of his predecessor, John Paul II. The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Poll: Pope Enjoys 70 Percent Approval Among U.S. Catholics - Benedictions: The Pope in America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/benedictions\/2008\/04\/poll-pope-enjoys-70-percent-ap.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poll: Pope Enjoys 70 Percent Approval Among U.S. Catholics - Benedictions: The Pope in America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Renee K. Gadoua Religion News Service On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI&#8217;s first visit to the United States next week, his approval rating among U.S. Catholics is 70 percent, according to a LeMoyne College\/Zogby International poll released Wednesday (April 9). But that still doesn&#8217;t top the popularity of his predecessor, John Paul II. 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Gadoua Religion News Service On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI&#8217;s first visit to the United States next week, his approval rating among U.S. Catholics is 70 percent, according to a LeMoyne College\/Zogby International poll released Wednesday (April 9). But that still doesn&#8217;t top the popularity of his predecessor, John Paul II. 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