Religions

Pope Francis begins a highly anticipated seven-day South American trip on Sunday that includes stops in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. As millions of faithful Catholics prepare to welcome Pope Francis next week, here are key facts about his trip.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a newly declared Republican candidate for president, is hoping to attract support from conservative evangelical Christian voters. Jindal himself is a Catholic, and, as the son of immigrants from Hindu-majority India, was raised in the Hindu faith.

While either Christians or Muslims make up the largest religious group in nine-in-ten nations around the globe, the religiously unaffiliated rank second in size in most of the Americas and Europe, as well as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

55% of Catholics rated Francis positively on addressing sex abuse, and 53% gave him high marks on environmental issues. But these were two out of nine areas in which Francis drew the least positive ratings.

Pope Francis will publish an encyclical addressing environmental issues and climate change this Thursday, a subject that continues to deeply divide Americans, including Catholics, along partisan and ideological lines.

A solid majority of U.S. Catholics believe that Earth is warming. But climate change is a highly politicized issue that sharply divides American Catholics, like the U.S. public as a whole, mainly along political party lines.

Popes have written encyclicals on an array of topics, ranging from the nature of work to the virginity of Jesus’ mother, Mary.

There has been considerable debate over the country's Muslims and the role of extremism, but no backlash against Muslims in French public opinion.

Despite their increasingly upbeat economic mood, Europeans show growing support for nontraditional political parties critical of the EU.

Fact Tank sat down with David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, to explore what the new findings mean.