Some 64 per cent of people interviewed as part of a Prime Time/MRBI survey believe Catholic religious orders and the State are equally to blame for the fact that abuse of children in residential institutions went on so long.
Just 6 per cent believed the State was mainly to blame, while 25 per cent believed the religious were mainly to blame.
Some 1,000 people, 90 per cent of them Catholic, were surveyed in a poll on attitudes to the Catholic Church in Ireland last weekend. The results will be broadcast on RTÉ television's Prime Time tonight.
Among its other findings were that 10 per cent of Catholics surveyed didn't believe bread and wine became the body and blood of Christ at consecration, while 38 per cent disagreed with the doctrine of papal infallibility.
Some 10 per cent of Catholics did not believe in life after death, 13 per cent did not believe in the Virgin birth, and 5 per cent did not believe Jesus was the Son of God.
Just a quarter agreed with celibacy for priests, while 66 per cent disagreed with a statement that there should not be women priests. Some 24 per cent believed divorce was morally wrong, while 60 per cent agreed abortion is morally wrong.
Some 68 per cent of Catholics did not agree that divorced people should not be allowed marry in a Catholic church.
Some 45 per cent agreed homosexuality was morally wrong, and 45 per cent agreed that gay couples should not be allowed to marry in church.
