By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) – If Pope Francis weren’t headed to the United States in a matter of days, American Catholics would never have known how much others value their opinions.

While Catholics are preparing for the upcoming papal trip, polling organizations were preparing in the way they knew best, by coming up with questions to ask them.

A Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey shows 90 percent of Catholics have a favorable view of Pope Francis, and 89 percent feel that way about the Catholic Church. Of Americans overall, 67 percent view the pope favorably, and 56 percent view the church favorably. Even 64 percent of former Catholics have positive views of the pope.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in August mirrors the PRRI favorability numbers: 69 percent of women, 63 percent of men, 61 percent of Protestants, 87 percent of Catholics and 63 percent with no religion have a “very favorable” or “favorable” opinion of Pope Francis.

The Church is moving in the right direction, according to the Quinnipiac poll, by bold margins: among Catholics, 70 percent to 16 percent held that view; among all Americans, 43 percent to 21 percent said so; among Protestants, 36 percent to 24 percent agreed; and among those with no religious, 44 percent to 22 percent saw it that way.

“Pope Francis is sparking a resurgent confidence in the Catholic Church,” said a Sept. 3 statement from Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights commissioned its own poll of 1,000 Catholics in August. Among the results, 95 percent say their faith is important to their everyday life, 83 percent approve of Pope Francis’ job as pontiff, 79 percent say he has changed things for the better, and 68 percent say their commitment toward their church hasn’t been altered “in any significant way” in “the recent past,” perhaps an allusion to the clerical sexual abuse scandal that rocked the U.S. church more than a dozen years ago but whose aftershocks are growing more faint.

Asked if the Church should stick to its founding principles and beliefs, 52 percent said yes, but 38 percent said it should change. “In other words, some are conflicted,” said an article in the September issue of Catalyst, the Catholic League’s monthly newsletter.

By contrast, a Pew Research Center report released Aug. 31 on Catholic attitudes and their presence in U.S. society found strong majorities of Catholics supporting certain changes in church practice: 76 percent to allow the use of birth control, 62 percent to allow priests to marry and to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, 61 percent to allow cohabitating Catholics to receive Communion, 59 percent to allow women priests, and 46 percent to recognize same-sex marriage.

Although there are little expectations that the Church will actually change its position by 2050 on ordination issues and same-sex marriage, majorities expect change on the other issues surveyed.

On the subject of former Catholics, PRRI found nearly half of them – 49 percent, to be exact – no longer practice any religion. Of those who are now members of another faith, 16 percent said they are members of a “minority” Protestant religion, 14 percent are white evangelical Protestants, and 9 percent each are in white mainline Protestant denominations or non-Christian churches.

Twenty percent of the U.S. population identify themselves as Catholics, according to the Pew study. Nine percent are described by Pew as “cultural Catholics” – not Catholic by religion, but identifying as Catholic aside from religion. They see belief in the Resurrection, a personal relationship with Jesus and outreach to the poor as essential to Catholic identity.

Nine percent are ex-Catholics, raised Catholic but no longer identifying as such. Eight percent connect to Catholicism in other ways, such as through a parent or spouse. Every generational cohort, from millennials to those born in the pre-baby boom era, has a Catholic connection with at least 40 percent of its members.

The Pew study said 39 percent of Catholics attend Mass regularly, and 47 percent of cultural Catholics go to Mass at least occasionally. Attendance rates are higher for women, senior citizens, college graduates, whites and married Catholics.