Results of a Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll of 800 Catholics living in
the Archdiocese of Boston, conducted April 12-15 by KRC/
Communications Research. Selected questions are compared to
poll results from February.
Cardinal Law
Q.
Do you agree or disagree that Cardinal Law should resign?
Q.
Is your opinion of Cardinal Bernard Law ...
April 12-15
29% Extremely unfavorable
36% Unfavorable
17% Don't know / neutral
15% Favorable
3%
Extremely favorable
February 4-6
18% Extremely unfavorable
33% Unfavorable
19% Don't know / neutral
24% Favorable
5%
Extremely favorable
Q.
How would you rate the job Cardinal Law has done handling instances of
sexual abuse of children by priests?
April 12-15
71% Poor
17% Fair
5% Good
4% Excellent
2%
Don't know / neutral
February 4-6
58% Poor
19% Fair
15% Good
3% Excellent
9%
Don't know / neutral
Church leaders
Q.
Has what you’ve learned about sexual abuse of children by priests
caused you to donate less money to the church than before, or has it not?
Q.
Is your opinion of Pope John Paul II ...
April 12-15
5%
14% Unfavorable
19% Don't know / neutral
43% Favorable
19% Extremely favorable
Extremely unfavorable
February 4-6
3%
13% Unfavorable
15% Don't know / neutral
50% Favorable
20% Extremely favorable
Extremely unfavorable
Q.
Is your opinion of your parish priest ...
April 12-15
2%
4% Unfavorable
20% Don't know / neutral
47% Favorable
28% Extremely favorable
Extremely unfavorable
February 4-6
1%
3% Unfavorable
22% Don't know / neutral
44% Favorable
29% Extremely favorable
Extremely unfavorable
On resignation
The 65% who thought Law should resign were asked these questions:
Q.
If Cardinal Law does resign, will
other changes in the church be
necessary or will you consider the
crises resolved?
Q.
If Cardinal Law does resign,
should other local bishops leave as
well, or is the cardinal’s resignation
enough?
Responsibility
Q.
In a recent letter, Cardinal Law
cited inadequate record-keeping as
part of the reason for mismanagement
of cases of sexual abuse of children by
priests. Do you agree or disagree that
this contributed to the problem of
mismangement?
Q.
In general, do you think the leaders of the Catholic church care more about
protecting priests who have sexually abused children or helping the people who
were sexually abused by priests?
Q.
Do you think church leaders have tried to cover up cases of sexual abuse of
children by priests or not?
Note: Some totals may not add to 100% due to rounding. Margin of error: +/– 3 percentage points on
questions answered by all Catholics. When pollsters offered choices to the respondents, the choices were
rotated so that different options were offered first to different respondents.
