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| Cover of New York Post |
I recently received a comment from a Catholic who asked that I list some positive accomplishments of Pope Francis. It's kind of a surprising request as the majority of Catholics have a very positive opinion of Pope Francis. It is true that in the United States, his positive numbers have slipped slightly, as seen in the most recent poll released by Pew Research,
HERE. According to the most recent poll, released on October 7, 2015,
Among the 97 Catholics interviewed who say they attend Mass at least once a week, 84% have a favorable view of Pope Francis – down since February, when fully 95% of regular Mass-attending Catholics expressed a favorable view of the pontiff. Mass-attending Catholics have not become significantly more likely to express unfavorable views of Pope Francis; rather, they are now more likely to say they have no opinion.
As seen in this poll, the vast majority of American Catholics have no problem with Pope Francis. But, of course, when it comes to Catholic traditionalists, most view Pope Francis as basically their enemy. That is not surprising because, like all good fundamentalists, they label anyone who does not share their views as a heretic. In the case of Catholic traditionalists, the litmus test is believing that the Traditional Latin Mass is the only thing that will save the Church and the world. According to traditionalists, if you don't believe that, you're most likely going to burn in hell.
