NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four out of five Americans believe the Roman Catholic Church is too lenient in punishing priests who sexually abuse children and a majority said Pope John Paul II should make clearer whether the church will remove pedophile priests, a poll released on Saturday showed.
The survey of 1,000 adults, including 261 Catholics, was conducted for Newsweek magazine on Thursday and Friday amid a months-long scandal over sexual abuse by priests. The pope told U.S. cardinals meeting at the Vatican last week that pedophilia was a crime that had no place in the church.
The U.S. Catholic Church has been shaken by disclosures priests known to have molested children were merely transferred from parish to parish rather than defrocked.
According to the poll, 82 percent of Americans thought the Church had been too lenient on pedophile priests, while just 2 percent said it had been too harsh. Eight percent felt the church's response had been appropriate.
Among Catholics, 81 percent said the church had been too lenient, 3 percent too harsh, and 10 percent about right.
The poll found 96 percent of Americans and 97 percent of Catholics, believed pedophile priests were a problem for the church, while 87 percent of Americans and 85 percent of Catholics considered the problem "serious."
Nevertheless, 56 percent of Americans and 57 percent of Catholics, said the pope had not made clear whether the church should remove pedophile priests. Only 26 percent of Americans and 30 percent of Catholics said he had moved church policy on the issue in a clear direction.
Opinions were more split evenly on whether this week's meeting at the Vatican did any good in addressing the problem.
Five percent of Americans and 8 percent of Catholics said the meeting went "a long way" toward solving the problem, while 41 percent of Americans and 47 percent of Catholics called it "a good start." Forty-four percent of Americans and 40 percent of Catholics, said the meeting did not go far enough.
The Newsweek poll was released a day after the Gallup Organization issued the results of a different poll showing only 52 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the Catholic religion, while 39 percent viewed it unfavorably. That compared with 64 percent favorable and 27 percent unfavorable views in a similar poll in March 2000.
The Newsweek poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates and had a 3 percent overall error margin.