French Catholics want church abortion/contraception policy changed

More than 80% of French Catholics want church policy on abortion/contraception changed, according to a poll published Sunday by France's Le Journal du Dimanche

Conducted by telephone on Thursday and Friday, after Pope Benedict XVI set off a firestorm of protest by denying the usefulness of condoms in preventing AIDS infection, the poll also found that almost half consider Benedict does a bad job defending the values of Catholicism. A separate poll for Le Parisien found that 57 percent had a bad opinion of Benedict.

An after-the-fact rewrite of the Pope's condom comments for the official record did not add to his stature. Although the change did effectively concede that the weight of expert and general public opinion is not with him.

French losing confidence in the Pope?

Le Parisien daily found 57 percent of respondents to a poll conducted Wednesday and Thursday in heavily Catholic France have a negative opinion of the Pope Benedict XVI, as opposed to last September, when it was 25 percent.

The same poll of 1,012 adults found that 23 percent have a positive opinion, according to the Associated Press, down from 53 percent six months ago (the rest expressed no opinion).

The cause of the Pope's rising negatives was not clear from poll reports, although the Pontiff has had some PR difficulties of late.