ABC News/Washington Post Catholic Church in Crisis Poll, March 2002 (ICPSR 3432)

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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.

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