U.S. Catholics Welcome a Papal Change: In a New York Times/CBS poll, the majority of Catholics said Pope Benedict XVI made the right decision to step down and hope for a more liberally focused leadership. 
 
 Roman Catholics in the United States say that their church and bishops are out of touch, and that the next pope should lead the church in a more modern direction on issues like birth control and ordaining women and married men as priests, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. 
 
 Seven out of 10 say Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have done a poor job of handling sexual abuse, a significant rise from three years ago. A majority said that the issue had led them to question the Vatican’s authority. The sexual abuse of children by priests is the largest problem facing the church, Catholics in the poll said. 
 
 Three-fourths of those polled said they thought it was a good idea for Benedict to resign. Most wanted the next pope to be “someone younger, with new ideas.” A majority said they wanted the next pope to make the church’s teachings more liberal. 
 
 With cardinals now in Rome preparing to elect Benedict’s successor, the poll indicated that the church’s hierarchy had lost the confidence and allegiance of many American Catholics, an intensification of a long-term trend. They like their priests and nuns, but many feel that the bishops and cardinals do not understand their lives. 
 
 “I don’t think they are in the trenches with people,” said Therese Spender, 51, a homemaker in Fort Wayne, Ind., who said she attended Mass once a week and agreed to answer further questions after the poll. “They go to a lot of meetings, but they are not out in the street.” 
 
 Even Catholics who frequently attend Mass said they were not following the bishops’ lead on issues that the church had recently invested much energy, money and credibility in fighting — artificial birth control and same-sex marriage. 
 
 Eric O’Leary, 38, a funeral director in Des Moines who attends Mass weekly, said: “I would like them not to be so quick to condemn people because of their sexual preference or because of abortion, or to refuse priests the right to get married or women to be priests. I don’t think the church should get involved in whether or not people use birth control.” 
 
 The nationwide telephone poll was conducted on landlines and cellphones from Feb. 23 to 27, when many Catholics were still absorbing news of the first resignation of a pope in 600 years. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points for the 580 Catholics, who were oversampled for purposes of analysis in the survey of 1,585 adults. 
 
 Benedict, a soft-spoken scholar and a church traditionalist, had apparently made little impression on American Catholics in his eight years as pope. Half of those in the poll said they either had no opinion of him or had not heard enough about him. Nevertheless, 4 in 10 had a favorable opinion, and only one in 10 unfavorable. 
 
 “He’s written three or four books, and his writings are incredible,” said Leonard Lefebvre, 70, a retired economist in Tequesta, Fla. “He’s continued on course, and he’s held the religion to where it’s supposed to be at.” 
 
 The poll suggested that the papacy no longer occupies the exalted position it once did. Asked whether the pope is infallible when he teaches on matters of morality and faith, 40 percent said yes, 46 percent said no, and 14 percent said they did not know. Nearly 8 in 10 Catholics polled said they would be more likely to follow their conscience on “difficult moral questions” than to follow the pope’s teachings. 
 
 When asked which “one thing” they would “most like to see the next pope accomplish,” the most common responses that respondents volunteered were, in order: bring people back to church, modernize the church, unify the church, and do something about sexual abuse. 
 
 A spate of new information about prelates hiding the misdeeds of pedophile priests appeared to have taken a toll. A higher percentage of Catholics said the pope and the Vatican had done a poor job of handling reports of past sexual abuse recently (69 percent) compared with 2010 (55 percent), when the abuse scandal flared in many European countries. This is despite the church’s many reforms in the last 10 years and reports of abuse by priests in the United States declining drastically. 
 
 Majorities said they wanted to see the next pope maintain the church’s opposition to abortion and the death penalty, even though they themselves were not opposed to them. Three-quarters of Catholics supported abortion under at least some circumstances, and three-fifths favored the death penalty. 
 
 “I can understand how the Catholic Church stands against it,” said Geri Toni, 57, of abortion. “We are not supposed to kill. That is one of our Ten Commandments.” ||||| Pope Benedict XVI, in failing health, became the first pope in six centuries to retire. Allen Pizzey reports from the Vatican on the pope's final day. 
 
 Analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus. 
 
 
 
 As the College of Cardinals descends on Rome this week to select the world's next pope, most U.S. Catholics want the new pope to be younger, to have new ideas, and to liberalize the church's teachings on issues like birth control, ordaining women, and permitting priests to marry, according to a new poll by CBS News/New York Times. 
 
 When former Pope Benedict XVI ascended to the Papacy after his 78th birthday in 2005, he was known for defending traditional Catholic teachings and values. As he becomes the first pope to retire since the Middle Ages, most Catholics - 66 percent - say they would prefer the next Pope to be younger with new ideas, rather than older with more experience. 
 
 
 
 The poll, conducted among a random sample of 580 Catholic adults from Feb. 23-27, showed a groundswell of support among U.S. Catholics for a more modern church in general: A majority said the Catholic Church is out of touch with the needs of its members. 
 
 More specifically, over half of Catholics - 54 percent - would like the next pope to espouse more liberal teachings going forward. Only 19 percent hoped for a continuation of Benedict's teachings, and 18 percent cited a desire for someone with more conservative ideas. 
 
 Foremost among those subjects where most Catholics see room for change is on the question of contraception: 91 percent said the next Pope should favor the use of condoms to help stop HIV, and 71 percent said he should favor artificial methods of birth control. Sixty-nine percent of Catholics said, too, that priests should be able to get married, and the same number said women should be able to become priests. 
 
 A majority of Catholics (56 percent) think the pope should continue to support the Catholic Church's opposition to the death penalty and legalized abortion, however. 
 
 
 
 Regardless, Catholics don't think it is necessary to agree with the pope on issues like abortion and birth control in order to be a faithful member of the church. Eighty-three percent of Catholics said they think it's possible to disagree with the pope on issues like these and still be a good Catholic, and 78 percent of American Catholics are more likely to follow their own consciences rather than the pope's teachings (13 percent) on difficult moral issues. 
 
 One challenge for the next pope will be to convince Catholics that the church understands them. Just 39 percent of Catholics say the church is in touch with the needs of Catholics today. Far more - 53 percent -- say it is out of touch. 
 
 Fewer people now (29 percent) than in 2005 (38 percent) have a great deal of confidence that the next pope will be in touch with their needs. Even so, 74 percent of Catholics say they have at least some confidence that the College of Cardinals will select a Pope who fits this description. 
 
 Asked what they most want the next pope to accomplish, Catholics cited a desire to see him bring people back to the church (12 percent). Nine percent said they want him to modernize it, eight percent want him to unify it, and another eight percent want to see something done about the sex abuse scandals. Seven percent said they want the new pope to allow priests to marry, and the same number wants him to change the rules on birth control and homosexuality. 
 
 Nearly half of Catholics say it doesn't matter to them where in the world the next Pope comes from. Fourteen percent think the next pope should come from Latin America, 13 percent think he should come from Europe, four percent think he should come from Africa, and 17 percent say someplace else. Hispanic Catholics (23 percent) are much more likely than Catholics overall (14 percent) to want the next Pope to come from Latin America. 
 
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– The last pope was installed as a 78-year-old spring chicken who wasn't cool with birth control. This time around, a majority of US Catholics think that should change. A CBS News/New York Times poll finds that 66% of American Catholics want a pope who is "younger with new ideas," compared to 26% who want to stick with someone "older with more experience." And 54% want the new pope to "change to more liberal teachings," compared to 19% who want Benedict's more traditional teachings to be continued and 18% who want someone even more conservative. The poll found that a majority of US Catholics think the church and its bishops and cardinals are out of touch with the modern world and disconnected from modern Catholics. Exactly which issues should the new pope liberalize? A huge number say birth control: 71% think he should OK artificial birth control, and a massive 91% say he should approve of condom use to stop the spread of HIV. Another big number, 69%, say he should allow priests to get married; the same percentage favors allowing women priests; and 62% think gay marriage should be legal. But a majority of respondents still hold traditional views on some matters: 56% think the pope should continue to oppose the death penalty and abortion.