With Pope Francis midway into the sixth year of his pontificate, the percentage of U.S. Catholics who view him favourably, while still strong, is noticeably down.

And, compared to a January poll by the Pew Research Centre that showed Catholics being evenly split on how well Pope Francis has handled the issue of clergy sex abuse, numbers in the new poll, released on Oct. 2, show that twice as many Catholics feel he is doing only a fair or poor job on the issue than say he is doing a good or excellent job.

The overall favourability number for the Pope is 72%, split between 42% of Catholics who see him “mostly favourable” and 30% who view him “very favourable.” The latter number down a third from the last Pew poll last January, when Pope Francis had been at 84% favourability. The 72% figure is lower than Pew’s favourability findings for Pope Benedict XVI except for its first poll asking the question shortly after Pope Benedict assumed the papacy in 2005.