NEW YORK
Boston.com
January 10, 2005
NEW YORK -- The clergy sex abuse crisis that has battered the U.S. Roman Catholic Church for three years has had little impact on Mass attendance, according a study released Monday.
In each of the 10 separate polls conducted between September 2000, before the scandal began, and September 2004, about one-third of Catholics said they attend Mass at least once a week, according the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
Regular attendance spiked to 39 percent in February 2002, one month into the scandal, then hovered between 31 percent and 35 percent over the next two years. The margin of error for each poll ranged from plus or minus 2.2 percentage points to plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
"These surveys indicate little if any change in the percentage of adult Catholics who say they attend Mass every week," said Mark Gray, a center researcher.