Anti-Catholicism a thing of the past? Try again

According to this Washington Post story, a newly-released poll by priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley shows that anti-Catholic attitudes are common in the US. According to the survey...

73% of non-Catholic Americans believe that we Catholics do what the Pope & bishops tell us to do;
52% of non-Catholic Americans believe that Catholics aren't really allowed to think for themselves;

and then these kickers...
83% of non-Catholic Americans believe that we worship God as well as Mary and the saints;
and 57% of our fellow Americans believe that statues and images in Catholic churches are idols (i.e. things we worship).

Unbelievable.

There are some positives... according to Greeley's poll, younger and more educated non-Catholic Americans are less likely to be anti-Catholic. Well, that's something.

Still... wow.

We've got a lot of work to do. Hopefully the cleaning-up that should come from the sex & cover-up scandals will be the beginning of getting our house in order so that we can more ably turn outward and address some of these misconceptions.