By BBC NEWS - BBC NEWS WEBSITE
Added: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:45:09 UTC

Some 77% of Britons think taxpayers should not help pay for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Scotland and England, a survey suggests.

An online poll of 2,005 adults issued by think tank Theos also found 79% had "no personal interest" in his visit.

The Pope is due to arrive on 16 September, the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II's 1982 trip.

The cost of the trip to UK taxpayers, previously estimated at £8m, could rise to between £10m and £12m.

The Catholic Church is also expected to make a contribution of between £9m and £10m towards the costs, which do not include an expected multi-million pound bill for policing the visit.

In the Theos survey, some 76% also rejected taxpayer funding for the visit on the grounds that the Pope was a religious figure.

Nearly one in four - 24% - agreed with the statement "I don't approve of the Pope's visit to Britain" with 49% disagreeing.

Under a third, or 29%, said they believed the visit would be good for Britain while 33% disagreed.

Earlier this week, a survey of 1,000 Scots found just 2% were "strongly opposed" to the visit, with more than 15 times as many people saying they were in favour of it.

Another 3% in the survey carried out by Opinion Research Business for the Roman Catholic Church, said they "objected" to the pontiff's visit to Scotland. Some 63% said they were "neither for nor against the visit".

In the Theos survey, researchers also put 12 statements - taken without naming the source - from the Pope's third encyclical letter which outlines his social policy, to people taking part in the survey.

A majority backed 11 out of the 12 extracts, including 82% agreeing with the statement "technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption".

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TAGGED: POPE