Xavier University student joins team tracking Pope Francis’ visit on social media

Pumar said the pope’s visit “isn’t going to solve the immigration problem” but could lay the foundation for “people to talk and disagree with more civility and respect”. About two-thirds of practicing Catholics (65 percent) say the Eucharist is the true presence of Jesus Christ.

However, three quarters of Americans (74 percent) know little or nothing about Pope Francis’ visit to the US next month. On the other hand, a similar number of non-practicing Catholics (64 percent) say it is just “a symbol”.

More than two years into his papacy, Francis has disappointed some conservative American Catholics by not speaking about church teaching on marriage as frequently as his predecessors.

Ahead of the Catholic Synod of Bishops on the Family in October 2014, several cardinals came out against proposed changes to Church practice that would allow divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Nevertheless, almost three quarters of Americans (72 percent) think the pope has a message for all Americans.

Concerning the importance of various aspects of living out the faith, more than nine in 10 practicing and non-practicing Catholics see charity as important.

Few People, simply 31 %, have heard about Pope Francis’s encyclical on worldwide warming. “The pope is popular among Americans, and especially among Catholics, and there is a hunger for his message, with the vast majority of Americans understanding that he brings message for all of us”.

He doesn’t expect the church to change its teaching, but suggests there might be ways to make gay couples feel more welcome – comparable to engagement in the church by many Catholics who use birth control or have been divorced. Only about one third of each group (35 percent) rates news stories about the pope as “mostly accurate”. The initial plan called for the programs to be held at a Catholic church in Philadelphia, but the LGBT groups said the church’s pastor rescinded the invitation at the urging of Chaput’s office. Practicing Catholics are also seven points more likely to want substantial restrictions on abortion than Americans as a whole (91 percent to 84 percent). The survey of 1,331 U.S. adults, released Tuesday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Additional results are based on a survey of 3,002 adults and 702 Catholic Americans conducted April 6, 2015 through April 14, 2015 on both landline and cell phones. It was conducted in English and Spanish August 5-11. Results are statistically significant within +/-1.8 percentage points and +/-3.7 percentage points, respectively.