Dutch Catholics are pleased with their new pope and give him 7 out of 10 for how he is doing his job, Trouw reports on Tuesday.

The 76-year-old Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as the new pope in March, and took the name Francis. His appointment was seen as a move by the Catholic church towards renewal.

‘Pope Francis will have to make a new start in terms of recovering confidence in the church following the sexual abuse scandal and the problems in the Vatican,’ the Telegraaf said at the time.

Trust

The survey by TNS-Nipo for the Catholic broadcasting company RKK also shows that 90% of Dutch Catholics trust the new pope, and 80% are proud of him.

‘The church in the Netherlands faced a wall of mistrust and suspicion, and sometimes accusations, in the recent past,’ bishop Franz Wiertz of Roermond told the RKK. ‘That this man has broken through that wall is wonderful.’

About one-quarter of the Dutch population is Catholic.

Of the non-Catholics questioned, 4% did not know there was a new pope, Trouw said.