French Catholics split over Pope's comments

Comments made last week by Pope Benedict XVI, when he rejected the use of condoms to fight Aids, continue to make the headlines here in France.

First came political criticism from the foreign ministry, which said it expressed "its very strong concern about the consequences of the statements."

Then there was the decision by French television to carry the on-screen logo of Sidaction, the HIV-Aids awareness campaign, during its weekend programming - including for the first time the retransmission of all religious services.

Now it's the turn of the French in general and more specifically the country's Catholics to express their disquiet, with the release of two separate polls this past weekend.

And, if the polls are to be believed, the results show that they seem to be having some problems coming to terms with what the Pope said.

The first was published in the national daily, Le Parisien, on Saturday and conducted on the newspaper's behalf by Conseils-Sondages-Analyses, CSA.

According to the poll 57 per cent of the French in general - regardless of religious belief - have a "negative opinion" of the Pope following his statements.

Perhaps even more surprising though is the number of French Catholics who hold that point of view - 55 per cent according to the survey with only 29 per cent saying that they held a "positive opinion" of the Pope.

Admittedly the figures looked a little different when those who said they regularly attended church services were asked with 52 per cent saying they still held an overall "good opinion" of the Pope as opposed to 28 per cent who didn't.

Another poll in the national weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, and conducted by L’Institut français d’opinion publique, IFOP went even further and asked France's Catholics whether they thought the Pope should resign or retire.

While 54 per cent said he shouldn't, 43 per cent thought he should although the trend was reversed when asked whether he represented the values of the Catholic church - 49 per cent saying he didn't as opposed to 22 per cent who thought he did.

On issues which reflect the changes there have been within French society, there was also the widely held opinion (again among French Catholics) that the Church had to modify both its statements and position in several areas including contraception (83 per cent), abortion (77 per cent) and homosexuality (69 per cent).

Of course opinion polls are always open to interpretation and there's no disputing that they can also be influenced by those commissioning them and the composition of the questions.

But a similar survey also conducted on behalf of Le Parisien last September, perhaps puts the most recent ones into perspective.

It was carried out just before the Pope's three-day visit to this France when millions turned out to celebrate Mass both in the capital Paris and later in Lourdes in the south-west of the country.

At that time, among the French in general, 53 per cent of those questioned said they had a "positive opinion" of Benedict XVI.

Around 51 per cent of France's 63 million population say they are Catholic.