Amid new revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI’s job ratings for handling the scandal have plummeted. Only about one-in-ten (12%) say the pope has done an excellent (3%) or good job (9%) in addressing the sex abuse scandal; 71% say he has done a poor (44%) or only fair (27%) job.

The pope’s ratings for addressing the continuing scandal have declined sharply since April 2008, shortly after his visit to the United States. At that time, 39% said he had done an excellent or good job in dealing with the abuse scandal, while 48% said he had done only fair or poor.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted April 1-5 among 1,001 adults on landlines and cells phones, finds most Americans (74%) have heard either a lot (29%) or a little (45%) about the pope. Awareness of the pope is nearly as high as it was in April, 2008, just after Pope Benedict XVI’s high-profile visit to the U.S., when 84% of the public had heard something about the pope.

Among those who have heard at least a little about the pope, Catholics express more positive opinions of the pope’s handling of the abuse scandal than do Protestants. Nonetheless, Catholics have become more critical of how the pope has addressed the issue: 59% give him only fair (31%) or poor (28%) ratings in the current survey, up from 40% in April 2008. Catholics who attend church at least once a week are more supportive of the pope’s performance than those who attend church less often – though negative ratings among both groups have risen since 2008.

Protestants are more critical than Catholics in rating the job the pope has done addressing the sex abuse scandal. About seven-in-ten (72%) give the pope only fair or poor ratings, up from 46% in 2008. There is little difference between the views of white evangelical and white mainline Protestants. Religiously unaffiliated Americans are the most critical of the pope’s handling of the abuse scandal: 86% say the pope has done a poor or only fair job addressing the situation.

Following his first visit to the United States as spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI is viewed more favorably than he was a few weeks before his trip. Currently, 61% of Americans say they have a favorable impression of the pope, up from 52% in late March.

Views of Pope Benedict’s outreach to other faiths have shown substantial improvement. Roughly half (51%) of those who have heard at least a little about the pope say he has done an excellent or good job with respect to his interfaith efforts while just 29% rate his efforts in this area as only fair or poor. In late March, the public was evenly split in assessments of the pope’s promotion of relations with other religions in March (39% excellent or good vs. 40% only fair or poor).

Opinions of Pope Benedict’s handling of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal, an issue raised by the pontiff several times during his visit, are more mixed. About half (48%) who have heard something about the pope rate his efforts in addressing the scandal as only fair or poor, while 39% say he has done a good or excellent job in this regard.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, was conducted April 23-30 among 1,000 Americans; it was conducted shortly after the pope’s April 15-20 visit to Washington D.C. and New York City. The survey finds a dramatic increase in the proportion of Catholics expressing highly favorable views of the pontiff. Nearly half (49%) of Catholics say they have a very favorable opinion of the pope, up from 36% in the late March survey, conducted March 24-29. Overall, positive opinions of Pope Benedict among Catholics have risen from 74% to 83%.

For analysis of the press coverage of the pope’s U.S. visit, see the accompanying report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, “During U.S. Papal Visit, Media Focused on the Shepherd and His Flock“.

Benedict XVI and John Paul II

Pope Benedict’s image among Catholics remains somewhat less positive than Pope John Paul II’s in 1996, after he had served nearly 20 years as pope. At that time, fully 93% of Catholics expressed favorable views of Pope John Paul II.

However, just as many Catholics now express very favorable opinions of the current pontiff as did so of John Paul II in 1996 (49%).

Pope Benedict is viewed more favorably by both Catholics who attend church regularly as well as those who do not; in fact his image has improved the most among the less observant. Among Catholics who attend church weekly or more often, 57% now give the pope a very favorable rating, up from 49% a month ago. Among those who attend less often, 41% now have a very favorable opinion of the pope, up from 25% in March.

Better Grades for Interfaith Outreach

The pope receives much better ratings than he did in late March for promoting good relations with other religions, and the change has been particularly striking among Protestants – especially white evangelical Protestants – and Catholics who attend church infrequently.

By roughly two-to-one (49%-25%), Protestants who have heard at least a little about the pope say he has done an excellent or good job in promoting positive relations with other religions. In late March, just 32% said he had done an excellent or good job in handling interfaith outreach, while 43% rated his efforts as only fair or poor.

The proportion of white evangelical Protestants who say Pope Benedict has done an excellent or good job promoting in relations with other faiths has increased from 32% in March to 57% currently. White evangelicals now have somewhat more positive views of the pope’s efforts in this regard than do white mainline Protestants (57% vs. 47%); in late March, the two groups offered similar assessments of how well the pope was doing in promoting good relations with other religions.

Overall, 70% of Catholics familiar with the pope express positive views of his efforts to foster good relations with other religions, up from 64% in late March. Most of the improvement has come among less observant Catholics (up 12 points); there has been less change among highly observant Catholics (up three points), who already gave the pontiff high marks for his efforts in this area.

Pope Faulted for Handling of Abuse Scandal

Americans view the pope’s efforts to address the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church far less positively. Catholics express more positive opinions of the pope’s handling of the abuse scandal than do Protestants. Even among Catholics, however, only about half (49%) of those who have heard at least a little about the pope say he has done an excellent or good job in addressing the abuse scandal.

There are wide differences in opinions about the pope’s handling of the abuse scandal among highly observant and less observant Catholics. Highly observant Catholics, by a margin of almost two-to-one (60% to 33%), give the pope a positive assessment on this issue. Less observant Catholics are more critical of the pope’s handling of the sex abuse scandal; a plurality (48%) says he has done only a fair or poor job, while 38% rate his efforts positively.

Among Protestants, white evangelicals rate the pontiff’s handling of the church’s sex abuse scandal more positively than do white mainline Protestants. Nearly half of white evangelical Protestants (45%) who have heard at least a little about the pope say he has done an excellent or good job in dealing with the scandal, compared with 32% of white mainline Protestants.

Views of Pope’s Ideology Unchanged

While overall impressions of the pope have improved over the course of the past month, there has been little change in the public’s assessment of Pope Benedict XVI’s ideological leanings. Nearly half of Americans (47%) say he is conservative, a number virtually unchanged from 45% in late March. Notably, somewhat more highly observant Catholics view the pope as conservative than did so in late March (71% vs. 62%). There has been a smaller change in the views of less observant Catholics; 55% currently view him as conservative compared with 53% in late March. Among Protestants, 42% say Pope Benedict is conservative, up from 34% in late March.

Two weeks before his first visit to the United States as spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI continues to be viewed favorably by a majority (52%) of Americans, which is virtually unchanged from August 2007 (50%). However, the pope remains unfamiliar to a relatively large number of Americans: Three-in-ten say they do not know enough about Pope Benedict to offer an opinion, which also has not changed much since last summer (32%).

Among American Catholics, the pope is, not surprisingly, better known and viewed more favorably than among the general public. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Catholics in the United States view their religious leader positively, which also has not changed since August 2007.

However, the current pontiff continues to be less highly regarded than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Favorable opinions of Pope John Paul II consistently outnumbered unfavorable views by much wider margins than is the case for Pope Benedict XVI.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted March 24-29 among 1,001 Americans, finds that as Pope Benedict completes his third year as spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics, he gets mixed ratings for his efforts to promote good relations between the Catholic Church and other major religions.

Overall, 39% of those who have heard at least a little about the pope say he has done an excellent or good job in promoting positive relations with other faiths, but about as many (40%) say he has done only fair or poor in this regard. Overall opinions about the pope’s efforts to foster good relations with other faiths are largely unchanged from last August (38% excellent/good vs. 46% only fair/poor).

Among Catholics, however, opinions of the pope’s outreach efforts have improved. Nearly two-thirds of Catholics (64%) say he is doing an excellent or good job at fostering interfaith relations, up from 54% in August 2007. Among Protestants, there has been very little change in views of how the pope is doing in promoting good relations with other religions.

Views of Pope Benedict’s ideology have changed somewhat since last summer. Currently, 45% of Americans view Pope Benedict XVI as conservative while 28% say he is either moderate or liberal. In August 2007, 56% said that Pope Benedict was conservative while 22% said he was moderate or liberal.

John Paul II Better Known, Better Liked

Pope Benedict XVI is considerably less well known, and less favorably viewed, than his predecessor John Paul II was in the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, 30% express no opinion about Pope Benedict XVI; just 10% offered no opinion of Pope John Paul II in May 1987, nearly a decade after he became pope.

Although Pope Benedict’s overall favorability has changed little since last summer (52% overall today, compared with 50% overall in August 2007), the percentage saying they have a “very favorable” view of the pope has increased slightly (from 14% to 18%). This is largely driven by increasingly positive assessments from highly observant Catholics (those who attend church at least weekly); 49% view Pope Benedict very favorably today, compared with 39% who did so in August.

Observant Catholics See Pope Doing Well in Outreach

A substantial majority of Catholics who attend church at least weekly (78%) also say the pontiff is doing a good or excellent job promoting relations with other major religions. This is an increase of 18 points since August 2007. By comparison, the opinions of Catholics who attend less frequently have not changed over this period.

The balance of opinion among white evangelical Protestants has shifted somewhat in the opposite direction, however. White evangelical Protestants are less likely today to say the pope is doing an excellent or good job at developing good interfaith relationships (32% compared with 40% in August 2007).

Overall, 45% say Pope Benedict is conservative, down from 56% in August 2007. Although a majority of Catholics (58%) continue to say the pope is conservative, this number is considerably less than the more than two-thirds (68%) who viewed the pope this way in August 2007. An increasing number of Catholics (31% compared with 22% in August) identify the pope as moderate or liberal, and this change is seen among both highly observant and less observant Catholics.

Protestants’ views have also shifted over this time period, moving both toward a more moderate view of the pope’s ideological leanings and less certainty about his ideology. In August 2007, 47% of Protestants viewed Pope Benedict as conservative, compared with 34% currently. However, 35% of Protestants today are unable to characterize Pope Benedict’s ideology, compared with 28% in August of last year.

Partisans Differ in Views of Pope

Opinions of the pope are, on balance, favorable among all political groups. However, significantly more Republicans (62%) than independents (50%) or Democrats (47%) view the pope favorably.

Republicans also have more positive evaluations of Pope Benedict’s promotion of good relations with other religions. A plurality (46%) of Republicans evaluates him positively on this question. By contrast, Democrats are more evenly divided; 39% say he is doing an excellent or good job, compared with 38% who say he is only doing a fair or poor job. Independents are the most critical of the pope’s efforts to foster relations with other religions. Only about third independents (32%) rate his interfaith efforts as excellent or good, while about half (51%) rate them as fair or poor.