Church support

U.S. Catholic bishops at their November meeting received sobering news from a national study of active Catholics. The survey found there had been a drop in contributions because of the clergy sex abuse crisis and warned of bigger drops if donor money is used to pay bills tied to the scandals.

This is particularly worrisome because the generosity of Catholics makes possible nearly everything the church does.

The Gallup Organization telephone survey of Catholics who said they were knowledgeable about the sex abuse scandals was sponsored by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities. FADICA is a Washington-based consortium of private organizations and donors who support Catholic-sponsored activities.

Of the 656 Catholics Gallup polled during October, 79% said they attend Mass weekly and the rest said they go almost weekly.

Here are some of the findings:

• 64% of respondents said the Catholic bishops have done a "bad job" in dealing with clergy sex abuse of minors.

• 18% have stopped supporting national collections, 13% have stopped contributing to diocesan collections and 6% have stopped giving to their parish.

• 26% said they would reduce their giving to diocesan and national collections if the funds would be used for lawsuits, and 22% said they would lower their parish giving if the money went to pay for lawsuits.

• 33% favor selling church property over other alternatives.

• 48% favor providing parishioners with an alternative, nondiocesan means to contribute to Catholic charitable causes.

• 63% thought the sex abuse crisis harmed the moral leadership of the bishops to speak out on other contemporary issues.

The survey also found some bright spots. More than 80% of Catholics said they have not changed their giving patterns on the parish, diocesan and national levels because they do not want to hurt the church in its fundamental pastoral and social mission. This mission includes serving the poor, immigrants and refugees, as well as persons from all economic levels who attend Catholic schools or religious education classes, receive the sacraments or look to the church at times of celebration -- such as births and marriages -- or sadness -- such as personal and family crisis or death.

These active Catholics also have expectations from their bishops: 65% said the church should be more accountable on its finances; 79% said each diocese should give a full accounting of costs involved in clergy sex abuse cases; 68% favor annual public audits of all church finances; 56% favor parishioner input on parish budgets; 59% favor parishioner input on diocesan budgets.

The laity took our bishops seriously at Vatican II when they defined the church as all Catholics -- the People of God. Clearly the people support the church's mission, but they want answers.