Three quarters of Poles evaluate Pope Francis’s pontificate positively

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Three quarters of Poles positively evaluate the legacy of Pope Francis, according to a new poll published on the eve of the late pontiff’s funeral.

The event will be marked as an official day of national mourning in Poland, a country where the majority of people identify as Catholic.

According to the survey, conducted by IBRiS on behalf of the Polish Press Agency (PAP) after the pope’s death, 74.1% of Poles say they positively evaluate the pontificate of Francis. Only 12.3% view it negatively.

The poll also asked respondents which changes introduced by Francis they perceived as the most important. The most popular answers were strengthening the fight against sexual abuse in the church (64.1%) and allowing divorcees to receive holy communion (47.2%).

The next most popular answers were allowing the blessing of same-sex couples (26%), increasing the number of women in managerial positions in the Vatican (23.8%), and the greater participation of lay people in decisions about the Catholic church (22%).

“Pope Francis’ pontificate is held in high esteem by Polish society,” Kamil Smogorzewski of IBRiS told PAP. He suggests this “may mean that the direction of the Catholic church chosen by Francis is appreciated by Poles and should be continued”.

Positive views of Francis’s pontificate were most strongly declared by Poles who regularly practice religion (94%), as well as those who identify as right-wing politically (78%). Among non-believers and non-practitioners, the percentage of positive evaluations dropped to 40%, while negative ones rose to 32%.

When asked how the late pope’s actions have affected the image of the Catholic church, 66.7% of Poles assessed that he improved its image while 12.4% thought he had a negative impact.

According to the most recent national census, taken in 2021, 71% of people in Poland identify as Catholics, down from 88% a decade earlier. The Catholic church in Poland has been hit in recent years by revelations of negligence in dealing with clerical sex abuse and accusations of political interference.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 after 12 years as the head of the Catholic church. His funeral will take place on Saturday and will be marked as an official day of national mourning in Poland.

It is only the third time in history that a non-Polish individual has been awarded such an hour: the last was Stalin, in 1953, when Poland was under the control of a Soviet-installed communist government; and first was former US President Woodrow Wilson, who supported Polish independence, in 1924.

Several high-ranking political figures from Poland have confirmed their attendance at the funeral, including President Andrzej Duda – who called Francis “a great apostle of Mercy…guided by humility and simplicity” – and the speaker of parliament, Szymon Hołownia.

During his time as pontiff, Pope Francis visited Poland once, in 2016, when the city of Kraków was hosting the Catholic church’s World Youth Day.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Grzegorz Jakubowski/KPRP

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.