Priests still appreciated but their image is tarnished

France

For some, clerics are ‘moralisers’, for others, ‘moral guides’

The French appreciate their priests but a growing number don’t think society needs them and two-thirds believe their image has been tarnished by the recent sexual abuse scandals in France, according to a recent survey, writes Tom Heneghan.

The Ifop poll for the newspaper La Croix showed that 83 per cent of those surveyed said priests listened to people — a result unchanged from a similar poll in 1996 — and 56 per cent said they were “necessary for society”, a drop of 12 percentage points since then. Positive impressions were higher among practising Catholics, with over 90 per cent saying they were “close to the people” or “a witness of God on Earth”. Some 65 per cent of the respondents said that priests were “moralisers” but half said they were moral guides – including half of those from other religions. Half of those surveyed found priests “happy” and “well-rounded” – 11 points more than an Ifop poll found in 1993.

But 65 per cent of people said that recent scandals of clerical sexual abuse of minors had tarnished priests’ image – a view that was held by Catholics, non-Catholics and people of no religion.

While three-quarters of all those surveyed (and 92 per cent of all Catholics) said they had had contact with a priest at some point in their lives, just over half of those between 18 and 24 could say that.

A Polish cardinal has warned for the first time that his Church, like others in Europe, may have to start merging its 11,000 parishes and recruiting foreign priests because of a looming shortage in native clergy, writes Jonathan Luxmoore. “Various models are being considered in the wider Church, such as enabling one priest to serve several parishes, or joining several parishes into one,” said Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw on his return from a meeting with the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy.