Poll of the Day: 54% feel Pope Francis struck right note with comments on ‘imperfect’ Catholics

More than half (54 per cent) of respondents to an Irish Times poll think Pope Francis struck the right note with a statement on Friday calling for the church to be less strict and more compassionate towards "imperfect" Catholics.

The pope asked for church to be softer towards those who divorced and remarried, saying “no one can be condemned forever”.

He said gay people should be respected but firmly restated the church’s position that there are “absolutely no grounds” to equate gay unions to heterosexual marriage.

Of the 971 who took part in the online poll 54 per cent felt the pope’s comments were just right, 43 per cent believed they were too conservative and 3 per cent that he was too liberal.

The question was “what do you think about the pope statement?”

The 'Irish Times Poll of the Day' was a self-selecting survey of readers of irishtimes.com which ran from 12pm-6.30pm.