Pope Leo tops Gallup newsmaker favourability poll

A Gallup poll taken from July 7-14 showed the Pope with a 57 per cent favourable rating and only 11 per cent unfavourable, resulting in a net 46 per cent favourable score. Eighteen per cent weren’t sufficiently familiar with him to have an opinion and 13 per cent had not heard of him.

Other prominent figures with net positive favourable ratings were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (+18 per cent) and US Senator Bernie Sanders (+11 per cent).

US President Donald Trump’s rating was -16 per cent, with 41 per cent favourable and 57 per cent unfavourable. The lowest rankings went to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (-23 per cent) and Elon Musk (-28 per cent).

The figures for Pope Leo closely match Pope Francis’ ratings in 2013, then viewed favourably by 58 per cent and unfavourably by 10 per cent, as well as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 (55 favourable, 12 per cent unfavourable).

All three pontiffs also earned higher-than-average support from American Catholics in their initial ratings, with Leo viewed favourably by 76 per cent, Francis by 80 per cent and Benedict by 67 per cent.

One way Pope Leo differs from his predecessors is that his favourable rating is higher among liberals than conservatives (65 per cent against 46 per cent), whereas in Benedict’s and Francis’ early days as pope — in 2005 and 2013, respectively — they were each viewed more favourably by conservatives than liberals. That pattern persisted for Benedict through Gallup’s final reading on him in 2010, three years before he resigned in 2013. Francis, on the other hand, was liked more by liberals (70 per cent) than conservatives (42 per cent) in 2023.

Unlike the political figures measured in the latest poll, Pope Leo is viewed more favourably than unfavourably by all US political party groups — although, consistent with the ideological differences in his ratings, he is liked better by Democrats than Republicans.

Gallup concluded that Pope Leo has broad appeal in the US, setting him apart from public figures with clear party associations, whose images are often highly polarised.

“Although liked by all party groups, he gets better ratings from Democrats and liberals than Republicans and conservatives,” the analysis noted. “Given the similarity to Francis’ image in his later years, this could indicate that Americans perceive Leo to be continuing Francis’ approach to religious and social questions, or that they are assuming that’s the case until shown otherwise.”

FULL STORY

Pope Leo Most Favorably Viewed of 14 Newsmakers (By Lydia Saad/Gallup)