Majority of Germans responding to a recent survey are not convinced the Vatican is doing everything in its power to clear up an ongoing scandal about sexual abuse of children by clergy.
According to them, the Vatican is however not doing enough to prevent new cases.
Results of a YouGov survey contracted by dpa and released on Tuesday show that 59 per cent of respondents do not trust the Church to solve the problem.
Another 23 per cent think the church is addressing the problem, while 18 per cent had no response.
Senior Vatican representatives are due to start a meeting on Thursday to address the topic of abuse by clergy.
The matter was given more resonance at the weekend after the Vatican announced the defrocking of senior U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick for abuses.
A majority of the German respondents, 72 per cent, said they think Church requirements that priests remain celibate are the source of the problems.
The rest 14 per cent did not agree and 13 per cent did not respond.
A majority of 82 per cent was for ending the celibacy requirement.
The Church should also stop treating homosexuality as a problem and consider it to be as equally acceptable as heterosexuality, said 64 per cent.
An additional 21 per cent did not agree, while 15 per cent expressed no opinion.
Women should be able to serve as priests, said 72 per cent, with 13 per cent against, however 54 per cent said they did not see the Church taking this step in the next 20 years, only 24 per cent did.
The survey included responses from 2,054 people asked between Friday and Monday.