UNITED STATES
ABC News
By Gary Langer
Mar 11, 2013
A record number of American Catholics disapprove of the church’s handling of its sexual abuse scandals, underscoring the challenges facing the next pope as he seeks to restore confidence and trust in the church’s leadership.
More broadly, Catholics in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the church, while relevant, also is out of touch with their views. Majorities differ with doctrine on issues such as ordaining women and allowing priests to marry, as well as on some central social issues.
See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.
In clearly its greatest difficulty, an overwhelming 78 percent of Catholics now disapprove of how the church has handled the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests, and two-thirds disapprove strongly – the highest and strongest disapproval since the scandals erupted more than a decade ago, up sharply since U.S. church leaders sought to address the issue in 2004.
Sixty percent of Catholics, more generally, describe the church as “out of touch” with the views of Catholics in America, and by 54-38 percent Catholics urge a new direction by the next pope, away from traditional policies and toward new approaches that better reflect “the attitudes and lifestyles of Catholics today.” Less-frequent churchgoers, in particular, seek change – but even among those who attend Mass frequently, more than half call the church out of touch.
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