Britons enthusiastic about papal teaching if not papal visit
76% of Britons think taxpayers should not be contributing towards the cost of Pope Benedict XVI's visit, according to research published recently by Theos, the public theology think tank.
The Pope is due to arrive on 16 September, the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II's 1982 trip.
In the ComRes poll of 2,005 adults, three quarters of Britons (76%) said that because the Pope was 'a religious figure', the taxpayer should not be contributing to the costs of his visit. Interestingly, young people are generally less hostile, with 69% of 18-24s opposed to paying compared with 82% of 55-64s and 80% of over 65s.
Only a quarter of people (24%) agree that they 'don't approve of the Pope's visit', compared with half (49%) who disagree. Over three-quarters (79%) of people said that they have 'no personal interest' in the visit.
Strikingly, the Theos research reveals that whatever the public thinks about the Pope's visit, they agree with his social teaching. In the poll, people were asked to comment on whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements contained in the Pope's third encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate. Twelve representative statements, taken directly from the letter, were tested and a significant majority of the public agreed with eleven.
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. To read the BBC's report of the research,
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