Compared to 2016, the number of respondents who define the relationship between the ROC and the Catholic Church as “normal, working” decreased by 13%. The share of respondents who believe that under Pope Francis the relations between the two Churches have improved went from 58% to 31%. At the same time, 60% of Russians would react positively to Francis’ visit to Russia.
Compared to February 2016 the number of respondents who define the relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church as “normal, working” has significantly decreased: in 2016 this point of view was shared by 57%, in 2021 – 44%.
The share of respondents who believe that under Pope Francis the relations between the two Churches have improved has decreased by 27% (from 58% in 2016 to 31% in 2021).
More Russians now agree that Francis is not only the head of the Catholic Church, but also one of the leaders of this day and a moral authority: the share of respondents supporting this point of view is 45% (7% more than in 2016).
60% would react positively to Francis’ visit to Russia, which is 16% less than in 2016, when this idea had the most supporters.
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The survey by the Levada Center was conducted December 16 – 22, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample was comprised of 1640 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The answer distribution is presented as percentages of the total number of participants along with data from previous surveys.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
The ANO Levada Center is included in the registry of non-commercial organizations acting as foreign agents.