This really makes me laugh:
A quick poll shows Catholics in the United States are open to the new pope, but aren’t ready to decide if they like him or not.
Nearly 60 percent of American Catholics who were surveyed told researchers they don’t know enough to have a positive or negative opinion of Pope Benedict XVI. But that same percentage said they think he’ll do more to unite than divide the church.
The Gallup poll for USA Today and CNN indicated that 47 percent of American Catholics don’t know if he’ll move Catholicism in the right or wrong direction. Two-thirds said they are confident he will handle well the problem of child molestation by priests.
Researchers polled 616 Catholics.
OK, I am not Catholic, so my opinion only counts for so much here, but, it doesn’t really matter what their opinions are. He is the Pope. Period. Catholics can either choose to follow him or choose a new religious branch. This is not like the Left saying they won’t follow George Bush.
Of course, it won’t matter whether anyone ever has a negative opinion of Pope Benedict XVI: he will love them all anyhow. I wish I could find the quote from John Paul II where that thought came from, no luck so far. It is from a story about how John Paul II was told during a mass audience that many of the young folks didn’t agree with him on everything, and John Paul said "That is OK. I love them anyhow."
