Is Pope Francis the most popular person in the world? Sometimes it feels that way, but with the Pontiff making his first trip to the United States this September there are signs that Americans maybe turning against him. A Gallup poll released last week suggested that Francis’s popularity has fallen dramatically in the country, down to 59 per cent from a peak of 76 per cent the year before.
The poll surprised the media. After all, the most unlikely fans have lined up to praise the Holy Father in recent years, among them actress-turned-activist Jane Fonda, football legend Diego Maradona and punk rocker Patti Smith. But Joe Public loves him too, it was assumed.
After all, it was not so long ago that Bloomberg Business broadcast a discussion during which serious analysts discussed whether Pope Francis was the most popular person in the world. Since his election in 2013 this is what opinion polls have consistently shown, most memorably illustrated when Time magazine named him their Person of the Year, only nine months after he was elected.
Francis’s popularity subsequently grew; according to a poll conducted by Pew Research last December, a median of 60 per cent of people across the whole world had a favourable view of the Pontiff, with only 11 per cent viewing him in a negative light. The report concluded:
“Americans are particularly fond of Pope Francis, with more than three-quarters (78 per cent) giving him positive marks.”
Yet the recent Gallup poll revealed that Francis’s popularity had significantly decreased among American Catholic conservatives especially, with just 45 per cent viewing him favourably, down almost 30 per cent. Why?
The obvious answer seems to be Laudato Si, the environment encyclical, which contained the one ingredient most likely to nauseate American conservatives: the assertion that global warming is a man-made problem. To provoke them further, he has recently denounced “trickle-down economics” while on a trip to Bolivia, reviving old suspicions that he supports Liberation Theology.
As Gallup analyst Art Swift wrote: “This decline may be attributable to the pope’s denouncing of ‘the idolatry of money’ and attributing climate change partially to human activity, along with his passionate focus on income inequality — all issues that are at odds with many conservatives’ beliefs.”
In recent years popes could be relied upon to highlight the concerns that many American conservative Christians of all stripes hold, including the protection of the unborn child and the promotion of the traditional family. So many might have felt betrayed that the Pope has chosen to make the environment such a central focus of his pontificate, a cause promoted by mostly left-leaning politicians in the US and beyond. That Francis has been praised by the likes of Jane Fonda can hardly have endeared him to them, either.
But another explanation for his plummeting popularity has been offered by Catholic commentator David Gibson, who argues that the much-discussed “Francis effect” has been replaced by “Francis fatigue”. In an article following the release of the Gallup poll he explained: “After the Latin America trip, popular conservative Catholic blogger Elizabeth Scalia wrote a lengthy post saying she is ‘frankly just tired of feeling scolded. I love His Holiness Pope Francis, but for a while now, I have been feeling harangued by him, as he’s been harping on us to do more, and ever more, to practise mercy on the world; to welcome the stranger, to clean up the rivers, to bring about justice and peace in our time; to level the playing fields, visit the sick, and so on.’”
Gibson continued: “That lament was picked up by other conservatives, such as Carl Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, who complained about what he sees as Francis’s constant ‘haranguing, harping, exhorting, lecturing. It probably doesn’t help,’ Olson added, ‘that Francis obsesses over particular points, to a degree that is, frankly, grating.’”
But does papal popularity really matter? Does it make a difference to people in the pews at the end of the day? Not according to Mark Gray of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, who says: “No pope since the end of World War II has had any observable impact on the Catholic affiliation percentage which has remained absolutely steady in the mid-20 per cent range.”
St John Paul II, for example, was seen favourably by more than 90 per cent of American Catholics in three separate Pew Polls during the 1980s and 1990s, but this didn’t stop the downward trend in Sunday Mass attendance.
St Matthew’s Gospel records that Christ said: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” Papal popularity ratings are no guide to the overall health of the Church no matter what the mainstream media would have us believe. Rather, like most opinion polls, they offer a blurry snapshot of what the world thinks of a particular pontiff and the majority view is not the barometer of truth.
Key facts:
✣ Francis’s popularity among other Christians has fallen to 52 per cent
✣ American liberals also see the Pope less favourably – down to 68 per cent
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