Gregorio Borgia / AP

Pope Francis waves as he is driven through a crowd in St. Peter's Square prior to the start of his weekly general audience on Wednesday.

Twenty million Americans consider themselves lapsed Catholics, but Pope Francis is convincing many to test the holy waters again with his bold gestures and common touch.

After years of disenchantment with the church's hierarchy and teachings, former members of the flock say they are willing to give the Vatican a second chance under new leadership.

Dallas teacher Marilyn Rosa is one of them.

"It was a sign," Rosa, 57, said of the Argentine Jesuit's election as pontiff last month. "It was like a miracle."

Born and raised Catholic, Rosa attended parochial schools and had a church wedding for her first marriage. Over the years, she drifted away from the religion that had been such an integral part of her Puerto Rican family's life.

She questioned the relevance of church policies in the modern world. As a divorced woman, she felt cast out. The pedophile-priest scandals disgusted her.

Three years ago, she quit going to Mass and joined an evangelical church. But she didn't feel at home and she started to wonder how she could fill the void.

"The day the pope got elected, I turned on the TV and when I learned he was Latin, I went crazy at home," said Rosa.

"When they started to talk about how he lived by himself and didn't move into the archbishop's residence, how he took the bus to work, I said, 'I know God is talking to me. This is the man we needed.'"

On Palm Sunday, she and her second husband "reverted," attending services at Dallas' St. Pius X Catholic Church.

"It was packed. I had to stand up the whole time. But I felt so happy. It was like a revival," she said.

Ron Feldman

Father Peter Mussett of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center in Boulder, Colo., had five people tell him they were returning to the faith in a week because of Pope Francis.

Rosa has kept going to back to St. Pius, encouraged by what she's seen of the pope: from the simple white robe he wears to his rejection of the opulent papal apartment in favor of a spartan guest house.

"He's not letting himself be controlled by the rest of the church," Rosa said. "He's his own man."

Embrace of poor, emphasis on service
It's unknown how many others have joined Rosa around the country and globe and the vast majority of lapsed Catholics have not been enticed back. In the U.S., that's a huge pool of potential "new" members for an institution challenged by secularism and rival religions.

A 2009 report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated one in 10 adults in the U.S. was raised Catholic but has broken with the church. Its teachings on abortion, homosexuality, birth control and treatment of women were often cited as reasons.

Pope Francis hasn't given any hint of radical change on those issues, but his man-of-the-people persona is appealing to some of the unfaithful.

Tom Peterson, president of Catholics Come Home, which airs ads aimed at the lapsed, said his website traffic tripled the day of the election, adding several thousand visitors. It's been double ever since.

Some interest could stem from the hubbub surrounding the selection of any pontiff, but Peterson thinks Francis' "love for the poor and his humility is exciting people to a great extent."

Father Peter Mussett, pastor of the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center, which serves the University of Colorado at Boulder, agrees.

Slideshow: Pope Francis: His life before the papacy

Marcos Brindicci / Reuters

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected to lead the Catholic Church following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. 

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"I had five people in a week who were saying, 'Pope Francis has inspired me to return to my faith,'" he said. "It's pretty remarkable."

Brian O'Neill, 48, an Irish-American cop from Washington State, went to Catholic elementary school and a Jesuit high school but hasn't practiced since graduating from a secular college. He says that could change soon.

The Vatican's stance on social issues, along with the gilded lifestyle of some higher-ups previously drove O'Neill away. Francis' embrace of the poor and his background as a service-minded Jesuit might bring the father of two back.

"I was shocked and amazed when he started doing those things -- you know, 'No Popemobile for me,'" said O'Neill, who wrote a column for his local newspaper about possibly returning to Catholicism.

He said that while Francis' views on church teachings might still be far from his own, his election heralds change.

"When the church says that's the guy we're going to put on St. Peter's throne, that says enough about where the church wants to go," O'Neill said. "Will I go back? I'm planning on it -- if I can find a good service."

'He's another retro pope'
Last weekend, when he was formally installed as bishop of Rome, the pope used the opportunity to appeal to defectors, urging them to come back to the fold.

The News Tribune (Tacoma)

Brian O'Neill, a cop and father of two from Washington state, is a lapsed Catholic who is considering returning to the church because of Pope Francis.

It will take more than an invitation for Kathy Budreski, though. The 70-year-old left Catholicism after the abuse scandal and has been attending a Unitarian church in Cape Cod.

She was heartened to see the cardinals pick a pope from South America, and loved seeing Francis hug a little boy with cerebral palsy after Easter Mass but says he's not a progressive.

"He has a big heart and he loves the poor people, but he's not going to do anything to change the stance of the church on birth control and gay rights," she said.

"I don't see him as a mover and shaker. He has some wonderful qualities but he's another retro pope."

Slideshow: The election of Pope Francis

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Cardinals from around the world gathered in the Vatican to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Related:

Sex-abuse crisis: Experts draft to-do list for Pope Francis

'Peace to the whole world': Pope urges unity in Easter Sunday address

Pope chooses simple residence over regal papal apartment

Full coverage of Pope Francis from NBC News

AP

Cardinals attend a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013.

As Roman Catholic cardinals convene in Rome to elect a new pope, American Catholics say that the sex abuse scandal is the most important issue facing the church today, according to a new poll.

Thirty-four percent of Catholics in the United States chose sex abuse or pedophilia in a poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that was released on Wednesday. The poll was conducted Feb. 28 through March 3. Benedict XVI, now pope emeritus, left the Vatican for the papal retreat of Castel Gandolfo last Thursday.

Nine percent of respondents said they thought the church suffered from low credibility, and seven percent said they felt the church was not modern enough, according to the Pew poll.

What wasn’t on the minds of Catholics? The abdication of the pontiff, a development unprecedented in modern times. Only one-in-twenty Catholics said they considered the lack of a pope among the most pressing issues facing the faith.

Asked what the Catholic Church’s most important contribution to society is, 27 percent of adherents said charitable works including service to the poor, sick, and needy, the Pew survey found. Eleven percent said that moral guidance is the church’s greatest contribution.

The specter of sex abuse has followed numerous cardinals to the Holy See. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles will be among those electing the next pope, despite revelations of abuse under his watch. Recently revealed documents show that Mahony helped to conceal the activities of abuser priests, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Another cardinal, New York City Archbishop Timothy Dolan, was deposed shortly before leaving for the conclave in an ongoing case involving the archdiocese of Milwaukee, which Dolan used to head. Hundreds of people have claimed that they were molested by priests in the archdiocese.

A recent New York Times / CBS News poll also found that the sex abuse scandal was foremost in the mind of American Catholics, with seven out of 10 respondents saying that American Catholic church has done a poor job of handling the crisis. In that poll, a majority said that the way the church has dealt with the issue has caused them to question the Vatican’s authority, according to the New York Times.

Related:

• LA's Cardinal Mahony calls himself 'scapegoat' ahead of deposition, conclave
• 'Thank you for your friendship': Benedict leaves Vatican for final time as pope
• Late dinners, grappa: The behind-the-scenes work of picking a pope

Nick Ut / AP

Cardinal Roger Mahony officiates during Ash Wednesday services in 2008 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

Popular pressure is mounting in the U.S. and Italy to keep California Cardinal Roger Mahony away from the conclave to elect the next pope because of his role shielding sexually abusive priests, a movement targeting one of the most prominent of a handful of compromised cardinals scheduled to vote next month.

Amid the outcry, Mahony has made clear he is coming, and no one can force him to recuse himself. A Vatican historian also said Wednesday that there is no precedent for a cardinal staying home because of personal scandal. But the growing grass-roots campaign is an indication that ordinary Catholics are increasingly demanding a greater say in who is fit to elect their pope, and casts an ugly shadow over the upcoming papal election. 

Conclaves always bring out the worst in cardinals' dirty laundry, with past sins and transgressions aired anew in the slow news days preceding the vote. This time is no different — except that the revelations of Mahony's sins are so fresh and come on the tails of a recent round of sex abuse scandals in the U.S. and Europe. 

This week, the influential Italian Catholic affairs magazine Famiglia Cristiana asked its readers if the Los Angeles-based Cardinal Mahony should participate in the conclave given the revelations. "Your opinion: Mahony in the conclave: Yes or No?" reads the online survey of one of Italy's most-read magazines. 

The overwhelming majority among more than 350 replies has been a clear-cut "No." 

The magazine is distributed free in Italian parishes each Sunday. The fact that it initiated the poll is an indication that the Catholic establishment in Italy has itself questioned whether tarnished cardinals should be allowed to vote — a remarkable turn of events for a conservative Catholic country that has long kept quiet about priestly abuse and still is deferential to the church hierarchy in its backyard. 

That initiative followed a petition by a group in the United States, Catholics United, demanding that Mahony recuse himself. So far 5,600 people have signed the petition, according to spokesman Chris Pumpelly. 

"It's the right thing to do," Andrea León-Grossman, a Los Angeles member of Catholics United, said in a statement on the group's website. "In the interests of the children who were raped in his diocese, he needs to keep out of the public eye. He has already been stripped of his ministry. If he's truly sorry for what has happened, he would show some humility and opt to stay home." 

Mahony, however, has made clear he will vote. "Count-down to the papal conclave has begun. Your prayers needed that we elect the best pope for today and tomorrow's church," he tweeted earlier this week. He promised daily Twitter updates. 

Separately on Wednesday, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was deposed about clergy abuse in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which he led from 2002 until 2009. The Milwaukee archdiocese has sought bankruptcy protection from nearly 500 abuse claims. The attorney for the Milwaukee archdiocese said Dolan was mainly questioned about his decision to publicly name clergy known to have molested children. 

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, one of the Vatican's top canon lawyers, told The Associated Press that barring any canonical impediments, Mahony has a right and duty to vote in the conclave. At best, he said, someone could persuade him not to come, but De Paolis insisted he wasn't suggesting that someone should. 

Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's former sex crimes prosecutor, said it was up to Mahony's conscience to decide whether or not to participate. 

"It's not an easy situation for him," Scicluna was quoted as saying by Rome daily La Repubblica. 

Related: Boston's sandal-wearing Cardinal O'Malley getting papal buzz

Last month, a court in Los Angeles ordered the release of thousands of pages of confidential personnel files of more than 120 priests accused of sex abuse. The files show that Mahony and other top archdiocese officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield accused priests and protect the church from a growing scandal while keeping parishioners in the dark. 

Mahony was stripped of his public and administrative duties last month by his successor at the largest Catholic diocese in the United States. But the dressing-down by Archbishop Jose Gomez only affected Mahony's work in the archdiocese, not his role as a cardinal. Gomez has since urged prayers for Mahony as he enters the conclave. 

Mahony has responded directly and indirectly to the outcry on his blog, writing about the many "humiliations" Jesus endured. 

"Given all of the storms that have surrounded me and the archdiocese of Los Angeles recently, God's grace finally helped me to understand: I am not being called to serve Jesus in humility. Rather, I am being called to something deeper — to be humiliated, disgraced, and rebuffed by many," Mahony wrote. 

He said in recent days he had been confronted by many angry people. "I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage — at me, at the Church, at about injustices that swirl around us," he wrote. "Thanks to God's special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them." 

Mahony declined further comment Wednesday, according to the archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamburg. 

Mahony is scheduled to be questioned under oath on Saturday as part of a clergy abuse lawsuit about how he handled a visiting Mexican priest who police believe molested 26 children in the Los Angeles archdiocese during a nine-month stay in 1987. The Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico in 1988 after parents complained. He has since been defrocked but remains a fugitive, with warrants for his arrest in both the U.S. and Mexico. 

Historian Ambrogio Piazzoni, the vice prefect of the Vatican library, said there was no precedent for a cardinal staying away from a conclave because of personal scandal, though in the past some have been impeded either by illness or interference by governments.

Regardless, he said, any decision to stay away would have to be approved by the full College of Cardinals given that the main duty of a cardinal is to vote in a conclave. 

"The thing that characterizes a cardinal is to be an elector of the pope," he told reporters. 

Italian newspapers have been filled with profiles of the cardinals whose presence at the conclave would be an "embarrassment" to the Vatican. They include Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, accused of covering up sex abuse; Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, whose offices were searched in 2010 amid a crackdown on pedophile priests by Belgian police; and Cardinal Justin Rigali who retired as archbishop of Philadelphia in disgrace after a grand jury accused him of keeping credibly accused abusers on the job. 

Dirty laundry was also aired in the run-up to the 2005 conclave that elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope. 

Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, for example, was cited in a criminal complaint just days before the conclave alleging involvement in the 1976 kidnappings of two fellow Jesuits during Argentina's dark years of military dictatorship. The cardinal's spokesman at the time called the allegation by a human rights lawyer "old slander." 

According to the only published account of the 2005 secret balloting, Bergoglio came in second place. 

AFP - Getty Images file

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, shown here at a 2009 press conference, is generating buzz ahead of the papal conclave in Rome.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley is generating buzz in Rome as a possible contender to be the next pope, even though Vatican watchers have long said an American pontiff is a longshot.

John L. Allen, a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, took note this week of the growing number of Italian newspapers and commentators who have mentioned O'Malley as a candidate or written favorably about his cleanup of the archdiocese's sex-abuse scandal.

"Right now, it's tough for an American journalist to walk into the Vatican Press Office without fielding questions from colleagues about him," Allen wrote.

O'Malley -- a distinctive figure in the monkish brown cassock of the Capuchin religious order -- isn't entertaining questions about his chances of succeeding Pope Benedict XVI when the College of Cardinals convenes.

"As the Cardinal said last week at his press conference, he has a round trip ticket to return home and will rely on the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit as the College of Cardinals enter the conclave in March," spokeswoman Kellyanne Dignan said.

O'Malley, 68, was named archbishop of Boston in 2003, after Cardinal Bernard Law stepped down amid allegations he covered up sex abuse by priests. He was elevated to cardinal three years later. 

Thomas Groome, a theology professor at Boston College, said that of all the American bishops who've had to deal with the abuse crisis, O'Malley "has come closest to satisfying the victims." He sold the archdiocese's palatial headquarters and used the money for victim settlements.

A low-key personality who prizes simplicity and "isn't a hardened idealogue," O'Malley would bring a starkly different style to the papacy, Groome said.

"We'd go from Prada booties to sandals and no socks," he said. "He wouldn't be a blustering public personality like John Paul. You'd have to go back to John XXIII to find someone analogous."

Groome said that when O'Malley's name surfaced he initially laughed it off but now thinks he could emerge as the next pope from a brokered conclave where the cardinals from the northern and southern hemispheres square off.

Franco Origlia / Getty Images file

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, attends a concistory held by Pope Benedict at Saint Peter's Basilica on November 24, 2012, in Vatican City, Vatican.

"There are 117 cardinals and probably 116 of them would love to be pope," he said. "The one who wouldn't is O'Malley and that could be why he gets it."

Rocco Palmo, who writes the popular Whispers in the Loggia blog, noted that O'Malley heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' high-profile pro-life committee, giving him exposure outside his Boston archdiocese.

But he said it's way too soon to say he's on a short-list.

"It's a wide open field, and anything is possible," Palmo said. "But there are 117 voting cardinals and in the next 25 days, I expect to hear every one of those cardinals' names mentioned."

O'Malley is no Vatican insider and some will question whether he has the managerial mettle to accomplish a much-needed overhaul of its sprawling bureaucracy. And there's never been a pope from the Capuchin order of friars, who are noted for their service to the poor. 

It's been conventional wisdom that American cardinals have little chance of being the pope because of a global phobia of a U.S.-dominated Vatican. Allen says that may have changed because the country's superpower status has dimmed over the decades.

"The Americans have the second-largest voting bloc -- 11 -- after the Italians," Palmo said. "It's only natural an American name is going to appear at some point."

Previously, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was mentioned by many as America's top papal possibility. He says those predictions are off-base.

“Those are only from people smoking marijuana,” Dolan said Sunday at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Slideshow: The life of Pope Benedict XVI

Javier Barbancho / AFP - Getty Images

Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Look back at his life from childhood through his papacy.

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Frantzesco Kangaris / AFP/Getty Images

Demonstrators hold placards during a march protesting against the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to London on Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "deep sorrow" Saturday for the "immense suffering" of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.

As Pope Benedict XVI’s prepares to step down, his legacy is being viewed through the prism of how he handled the child sex abuse crisis, with some observers saying he dealt with it aggressively while others calling his response to the scandals “woefully inadequate.”

During Benedict’s eight-year papacy, thousands of people came forward to claim that they had been raped or molested by priests as children, and that bishops had covered it up.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, it was Benedict’s old office that dealt with abuse cases, yet he never admitted failure by himself or of the Vatican, and never punished bishops who ignored or covered up the abuse.

“It’s hard to escape the fact that his biggest challenge was the sex abuse crisis and it really didn’t get better during his papacy,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of the upcoming book “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal.” “And in fact, one can see that the church declined in moral authority, especially in the developed world and that includes places like Ireland and Belgium, which were until a few years ago the most Catholic and the most conservatively Catholic countries in the world. And all of this, I really think is traceable to his failure.”

Benedict was “locked into an institution that may not be able to deal with this in a structural way,” he added. “He could go around and minister to victims, which he did, and I think that was a brave and profound thing to do, but he couldn’t change the definitive elements of the Catholic Church that enable abuse.”

Benedict made apologies and met with victims in the United States, Australia, his native Germany, Britain and Malta. The church also paid out more than $2.1 billion in settlements from 2004-2011 to victims, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In 2002, before he took up the papal post, a zero tolerance policy was implemented. But those efforts were not enough, critics said.
One victims’ rights group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called on Benedict to use his remaining days in the post to turn that around by forcing bishops to reveal the names of those priests facing credible accusations of abuse.

Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images

Demonstrators hold placards before a march protesting against the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to London on Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "deep sorrow" Saturday for the "immense suffering" of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.

“We can’t mistake words for deeds and, you know, actions speak louder than statements and to be honest with you, we feel that his response has been woefully inadequate,” said Barbara Blaine, the group’s president.

Another group, BishopAccountability.org, a library and internet archive of the scandals, welcomed the church’s efforts to address the troubles among its ranks, such as tackling the issue directly on the Vatican website and by making adjustments to its youth policy.

But the site’s founder, Terence McKiernan, said Ratzinger, even before taking on the papal post, was dogged by the scandal since he had read so many of the accounts of abuse in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He said Ratzinger had followed Pope John Paul II’s policy of not defrocking all accused priests — noting that the church was already concerned about losing priests to old age and dwindling seminary numbers.

“I think that it’s a huge opportunity missed, you know, people will say he did things and that’s certainly true,” McKiernan said. “But given the enormity of the crimes … and given the enormous power that the Pope has, I think that you could say that Benedict reacted to all of this rather than taking action. And apologies and nice speeches are not the same as actually taking vigorous action to remove the people responsible and revealing all the information that needs to be revealed. So it’s an opportunity missed, and I think as a result, the church has lost incredible amounts of credibility in all this.”

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP/Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI puts oil on the altar during the Mass to mark the dedication of the new white marble altar in St. Mary Cathedral in Sydney on July 19, 2008. Pope Benedict XVI apologized explicitly to victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy, expressing his shame and calling for perpetrators of the "evil" to be brought to justice.

Benedict officially leaves office on Feb. 28. One of those who will participate in electing his successor, Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, was himself stripped of his administrative and public duties in early February after church personnel files revealed that he and other top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Still, some felt Benedict did step up to tackle the issue engulfing the church.

“He inherited a very tragic situation and he confronted it head on and has been a great reformer on this issue,” said Maureen Ferguson, a senior policy adviser at The Catholic Association. “The Catholic Church in the United States is now one of the leading institutions in terms of child protection policies.”

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, agreed.

“Nobody clearly did more to counter this problem in the Catholic Church,” he said. “ … he did move expeditiously, quite frankly, with a lot greater aggressiveness than his predecessor. John Paul II was a great man but this issue did languish there in the Vatican until Joseph Ratzinger … was able to deal with it.”

Donohue said that about a month before Ratzinger was named Pope, he spoke about the “filth” in the Catholic Church, referring to priests who were sexually abusing children.

He also banished a popular priest from ministry, Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who was accused of sexually abusing underage seminaries, according to the National Catholic Reporter. 

“He took a position which took a great deal of courage to go against a very popular priest,” Donohue said. “An investigation of him had begun (under) John Paul II but it took Benedict to finish him, and he did finish him.”

“I think history will treat him very well in terms of dealing with the problem,” he added. “I think the issue is basically behind us, almost everything we hear today are these old cases.”

But D’Antonio wasn’t sure history would be so favorable to Benedict.

“He would have had to pick up the church and drag it into the 21st century but, you know, he could have,” he said. “He might have died trying, the stress of that might have been even more profound, he would have faced tremendous intrigue and opposition, but I suspect that instead he may go down in history as a caretaker, an interpersonally kind pastor who made no mark when he had the chance to.”

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of his deep sadness at the Connecticut school shooting during his Sunday address to the crowd in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City.

Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, died in Friday's shooting spree in the town of Newtown, Connecticut, including 20 children and six adults killed at the school and one adult killed at a nearby site, police said.

"I was deeply saddened by Friday's senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut,” he told the crowd.

“I assure the families of the victims, especially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer. May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain.

“During this Advent Season, let us dedicate ourselves more fervently to prayer and to acts of peace. Upon those affected by this tragedy, and upon each of you, I invoke God's abundant blessings!"  

Slideshow: Connecticut school massacre

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

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On Saturday, the pontiff conveyed his "heartfelt grief" through Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy, he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community with the spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love," Bertone said. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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