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NEWS
Catholics Back Strong Steps on Abuse, Poll Finds
May 3, 2002
By ROBIN TONER and JANET ELDER

American Roman Catholics say that priests who sexually abuse children and teenagers should be barred from participating in parish life and that any accusations of abuse should be investigated by local law enforcement rather than the church, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Church leaders in Rome last week appeared split about how to handle cases of past abuse - that is, whether to apply a zero tolerance policy to all offenders, future and past - but American Catholics showed few signs of ambivalence as regards "parish life." Nearly 8 in 10 of those polled said a past abuser should be barred from "parish life" even if "church leaders believe he is truly sorry for what happened."

Seventy percent said Catholic lay people should be involved in decisions about cases of abuse by priests, not just the clergy. "We have children and can identify with those families that are being hurt," said Helen Crowley, 73, of Pittsburgh.

Nearly half of the Catholics polled saw "some" progress in last week's meeting of American cardinals at the Vatican - 13 percent saw "a lot" - but there were several signs of continuing, deep discontent.
Indeed, the poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, indicates a striking breach between American Catholics and their leadership on these issues. It also suggests that the scandal is taking a toll on the image of Pope John Paul II.
Fifty-three percent of American Catholics said they had a favorable view of the pope - a drop of 16 percentage points from a CBS News poll conducted two weeks earlier, before the Vatican meeting was called to deal with the issue.

The nationwide poll interviewed 1,172 adults by telephone, including 433 Catholics. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all adults and five points for Catholics.

The poll was conducted in the aftermath of a two-day emergency meeting at the Vatican on the question of sexual abuse, at which American cardinals and leaders of the bishops conference suggested they would move toward a policy of zero tolerance for future offenders. But they appeared to be divided over whether all past offenders should also be automatically removed.

On many questions in the poll Catholic opinion matched or paralleled that of the total American public. For instance, 62 percent of Catholics said American Catholic leaders had done a poor job of handling the scandal. Sixty-one percent of all respondents held the same view.

But on a few topics Catholics and the total set of respondents expressed contrasting opinions, mostly those with which Catholics have the benefit of greater familiarity. For example, only 28 percent of Catholics said celibacy increased the likelihood of priests abusing minors, while 49 percent of the total polled took that view.

Nearly half the Catholics surveyed said the pope had done a poor job handling the problem of sexual abuse of children and teenagers in the church, and 48 percent said they believed he knew about the problem all along. While 71 percent of Catholics said they felt the pope and other church leaders "took the issue seriously enough" when they met in Rome, 58 percent said the pope should have generally done more to address the problem.

"The pope represents well the philosophies and the goals of Roman Catholics," said Steven Clay, 55, of Lansdowne, Pa., "but I think he's behind the times with the sexual abuse cases. I think he was out of touch or put out of touch by people who shelter him."

Discontent was also voiced about American church leaders; a majority of Catholic respondents said they thought those leaders had done a poor job. Asked if those leaders had gone far enough in publicly apologizing to the victims of cleric abuse, nearly 6 in 10 said they had not.

Poll respondents generally said that the problem of sexual abuse of children and teenagers was as common in other walks of life as in the priesthood. A majority of all those polled also said that the problem was limited to "a few or hardly any priests," a position held by most Catholics as well.

American Catholics were overwhelmingly in favor of allowing priests to marry. More than 7 in 10 supported a married priesthood, up from about half who felt that way 30 years ago. "We had an exceptional priest for eight years and he left the priesthood because he wanted to get married," said

But 6 in 10 Catholics surveyed said they did not believe that celibacy was a cause of the abuse problem. While most of the Catholics surveyed had no opinion of Cardinal Bernard F. Law of the Boston Archdiocese, now under fire for his handling of these cases, those who did were overwhelmingly negative. In contrast, Catholics voiced high levels of trust and confidence in their own parish priests, and said the scandal had not affected their attendance at Mass or their contributions. Most Catholics said they still felt comfortable around their parish priest and most - including the mothers of young children - said they would have no trepidation about leaving their child alone with him.

As reflected in previous polls, Catholics disagree with the church's position on artificial methods of birth control: 71 percent of those polled favored it, while the church forbids it. Other areas of disagreement include the death penalty, which is opposed by the church yet supported by most American Catholics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/03/national/03POLL.html?ex=1021486042&ei=1&en =235fe3122659fb8c