15/2025
2025-06-06
Pope Francis: What Polish People Appreciated about Him
The May CBOS survey asked what, if anything, Poles appreciated about the recently deceased pope. Respondents were presented with a list of areas in which Francis had achievements or had taken a particular stance, and asked to choose three of these.
Heading the list was his simplicity and solidarity with the poor, chosen by close to half (46%) of the people surveyed. This percentage was virtually 20 points higher than that of the next choice. Over one in four (27%) respondents indicated Pope Francis’ fight against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, one in five chose his ability to reach young people (20%) and his striving for world peace (19%). Smaller percentages of respondents chose the pope’s attempts to make Vatican finances more transparent and less prone to corruption (17%), his openness towards marginalised groups such as migrants and the LGBTQ+ community (14%) and his support for inter-faith dialogue (12%). Only small percentages of respondents appreciated Francis for his attempts to extend lay influence within the church (7%), his support for protection of. the environment (6%) or mentioned other things not on the CBOS list (2%). However, one in six of the people surveyed said there was nothing they appreciated about Francis (16%), while one in ten did not know (9%).
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The pope’s simplicity and solidarity with the poor were particularly appreciated by older people, while the youngest more often liked his support for protection of. the environment and openness towards marginalised groups. However, those who found nothing to appreciate about this pope were also mostly the youngest respondents and, unsurprisingly, those who do not engage in religious practice.
More on this subject in the CBOS report.
This ‘Current Events and Problems’ survey (421) was conducted using a mixed-mode procedure on a representative sample of named adult residents of Poland, randomly selected from the National Identity Number (PESEL) register. Respondents independently selected one of the following methods: Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI); Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), respondents receiving researchers’ telephone numbers in an introductory letter from CBOS; Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI), where respondents filled in the online questionnaire independently, gaining access by means of a login and password provided in an introductory letter from CBOS. In all three cases the questionnaire had the same structure and comprised the same questions. The survey was carried out between 5 –14 May 2025 inclusive on a sample of 1080 people (64.4% using the CAPI method, 23.7% CATI and 11.9% CAWI). CBOS has been conducting statutory research using the above procedure since May 2020, stating in each case the percentage of personal, telephone and internet interviews.
