Polls reveal indifference to Pope’s visit to Britain

Although most Catholics are behind the Pope’s visit to Britain this month, a new poll has uncovered widespread indifference to his visit beyond the Catholic faithful.

The Ipsos MORI poll for Catholic newspaper The Tablet looked at the views of 996 people over the age of 15, among them 117 Catholics.

It found that found that two-thirds of those surveyed (63%) were neither supportive of the Pope’s visit nor against it. Just 25% said they supported the Pope’s visit, while 11% said they opposed it.

Despite the lack of excitement among the general population, most of those surveyed (63%) agreed that British society should retain its Christian culture, with only 8% opposed to the idea.

One in five of those polled (22 per cent) said they planned to follow the visit closely. Among those with no religious affiliation, one in 10 said they would follow the visit closely.

The findings suggest that campaign groups opposed to the Pope’s visit, such as Protest the Pope, are having little success in their bid to turn the general population against the visit, which takes place from 16 to 19 September.

The poll found strong support for the visit among Catholics. While 10% of those polled said they planned to attend one of the official events taking place during the Pope’s visit, that figure was 71% among Catholics.

The poll also found that more people were able to correctly identify the Pope from a photograph than the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, although somewhat surprisingly nearly a quarter of Catholics were unable to recognise the Pope.

The results have been released at the same time as another poll for theology think tank Theos also found widespread apathy towards the Pope's visit, with 79% of the 2,005 adults surveyed saying they had "no personal interest" in his visit.

The findings, released today, also found that more than three-quarters of Britons (77%) do not believe taxpayers should fund his visit, despite his visit coming at the invitation of the state.