ABC News/Washington Post Catholic Church in Crisis Poll, March 2002

This special topic poll was designed to ascertain the
feelings and opinions respondents surveyed about the recent scandals
within the Catholic Church concerning the sexual abuse of children by
Catholic priests. Those surveyed were asked to describe their views
toward the Catholic Church, specifically whether they endorsed the
Roman Catholic Church policies that priests cannot get married and
that women cannot become priests, whether they agreed with the way the
Catholic Church has dealt with the issue of sexual abuse of children
by Catholic priests, whether such abuse is common, whether the
Catholic Church was taking the proper actions to deal with the issue,
whether this issue had hurt the overall reputation of the Catholic
Church in their eyes, and if so, by how much. Respondents were asked
if they believed Catholic priests were more likely than other men to
sexually abuse children, and if the following policies and practices
were part of the problem: not allowing priests to marry, not allowing
women to be priests, transferring priests accused of sexual abuse to
another parish, not calling the police when a priest was accused of
sexual abuse, being reluctant to dismiss priests because of a shortage
of priests, or the lack of Vatican oversight of the Catholic Church in
the United States. Persons queried were asked whether they approved of
transferring a priest who had been accused of sexually abusing a child
to another parish without telling parishioners about the accusation,
whether the Church should inform parishioners and/or the police about
such charges, and whether the Church should be required to do this by
law. Respondents were then questioned about their overall opinions on
how the Church had handled the issue, as well as their knowledge of
instances in which a Catholic priest had been accused of sexually
abusing children in their community, or instances in which friends or
relatives had been abused by a Catholic priest. Persons of the
Catholic faith were asked how satisfied they were with the leadership
provided by their parish priest or priests, their bishop, and the
Pope, whether the church effectively involved lay people in deciding
church policies, and whether they approved of the way their parish
priest or priests, their bishop, and the national leaders of the
Catholic Church had handled the issue of sexual abuse of children by
priests. Catholic respondents were also asked whether their diocese
should publicly report the amount of money paid to settle lawsuits
against priests accused of sexually abusing children, if their diocese
should publicly release the names of priests who had been accused of
sexually abusing children, whether the issue of sexual abuse of
children by priests had caused them to alter the amount of money they
gave to the Church in donations, if this issue had caused them to
reexamine their personal faith, if they were aware of any priests in
their own parish that have been accused of sexually abusing children,
whether there was a chance that they would leave the Roman Catholic
Church, how likely they were to leave, and if their leaving was
motivated in some way by the issue of sexual abuse by
priests. Non-Catholic persons were asked if they were aware of any
clergy within their religious congregation that had been accused of
sexually abusing children. Additionally, all persons queried were
asked whether they approved of the way President George W. Bush was
handling his job. Background information on respondents includes age,
gender, education, religion, frequency of attendance at religious
services, race, and Hispanic origin.