U.S. Catholics are evenly divided over whether the church should change its policy of centuries and allow priests to marry.

Forty percent (40%) of Catholics say priests should be allowed to get married, while 39% disagree, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.

Among all Americans, the findings are much more lopsided. Fifty-five percent (55%) of adults say Catholic priests should be permitted to marry, and just 19% disagree. But just over a fourth of Americans (26%) are not sure.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of evangelical Christians and 54% of other Protestants believe priests should be allowed to marry, as do 58% of all others.

But then Catholics and Protestants practice their faiths in different ways.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls.) Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter.

Sixty percent (60%) of women favor letting priests marry, compared to 50% of men.

Both men and women over the age of 40 are more supportive of priests being permitted to marry than those who are younger.

The recent revelation that a prominent Florida priest, Father Alberto Cutié, was having an affair with a divorced woman has again put the issue in the limelight. Indicative of Cutie’s popularity, particularly in the Cuban-American community, is a Miami Herald poll that found that 74 percent of Catholics surveyed opposed the prohibition on priests marrying or having any type of sexual relations.

The Catholic Church, like most other denominations, is having difficulty attracting new clergy, but Pope Benedict XVI has reiterated that priests must remain celibate.

In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in 2005 just prior to Benedict’s naming, 63% of Catholics said the new pope should allow priests to marry.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free)… let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.

See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs available for Premium Members only.