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	Poll Says Abuse Scandal Now Impacts US Catholics Less Than 2002 Crisis Catholic News Service May 6, 2010 http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1001912.htm The current clergy abuse scandal in Europe has not had the same impact on the U.S. Catholic Church as the 2002 reports of clergy abuse that focused on U.S. priests and bishops, according to a new poll. The New York Times/CBS News poll -- released May 4 -- shows that U.S. Catholics view the current wave of scandals as a "far-off storm" that has had "no effect" on Mass attendance, financial contributions or parish participation. Many of the Catholic respondents in the telephone poll conducted April 30-May 2 said they have seen a change in how the church is handling the abuse crisis. The poll questioned 1,079 randomly selected adults and included 412 Catholics. According to the poll, only one in 10 Catholics say the current abuse scandal causes them to consider leaving the church, unlike the one in five who, in response to a 2002 Gallup poll, considered leaving the church during the height of abuse allegations in the United States. While the abuse scandals in Europe made headlines worldwide in recent months, Vatican officials and U.S. bishops responded by criticizing the media for unfairly characterizing the church. In the poll, slightly more Catholics agreed that the news media had "blown the issue out of proportion" than those who said the issue had been accurately reported. Most said the news media had been harder on the Catholic Church than on other religions. A majority of the Catholic respondents said they are not happy with how Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican officials are handling abuse reports, but they are confident that church officials can do what is necessary to prevent further abuse. The questions specifically for Catholics had a margin of error of 5 percentage points. The same week the poll was released, clergy sex abuse was still part of U.S. news. On May 3, the Chicago Tribune reported that Jesuit Father Larry Reuter, former president of Chicago's Loyola Academy, was removed from active ministry after he admitted having an "inappropriate relationship" with a student during his tenure at the school where he was president from 1975 to 1990. Although it is unclear when this relationship occurred, church officials say it began when the student was 18. In Delaware, a state bankruptcy judge has been appointed to mediate settlement talks between the Diocese of Wilmington and more than 100 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests, according to court papers dated May 3. The diocese filed for bankruptcy last year before the start of civil trials in state court from allegations of abuse dating as far back as the 1950s. A group of more than 40 U.S. Catholic professors and intellectuals recently signed a statement in support of Pope Benedict's efforts to deal with clergy sex abuse and to seek "proper perspective on the whole issue." The board of directors of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars unanimously endorsed this statement during its April 24 meeting. The group sent a copy of the statement to Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, May 1. The statement, in part, says that the scholars condemn sexual abuse of minors by any members of the Catholic Church, especially the clergy, and share a "collective sense of sorrow and shame" for harm done to victims. It also recognized mistakes made by church officials regarding abuse. The statement thanked Pope Benedict for his "leadership and courage in dealing with the problem of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church" and condemned "unjust attacks made against him by certain elements of the secular media." In a recent interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City similarly said the church has made some "egregious errors" in its handling of the abuse allegations over the years, but he said he believes Pope Benedict has responded appropriately and decisively to remove priest abusers. Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory also defended the pope in an April 23 news conference in Atlanta before the fundraising dinner attended by U.S. cardinals for The Catholic University of America. Archbishop Gregory said he was confident the pope knew the severity of clergy sex abuse and would take the right steps to address it. The archbishop, who was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 as the American bishops wrestled with the sexual abuse crisis, said that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger "was the strongest voice" in the Holy See during that time. Archbishop Gregory said the church around the world is going through what the American bishops did before the USCCB adopted the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" that calls for removing priests from ministry for abuse, creating a safe environment for children and young people and the establishment of a lay-led advisory board to handle these matters. While the American bishops have adopted careful and well thought-out protocols, the archbishop said it is unlikely the Vatican would adopt them as the universal policy without changes. He said other countries have different laws and legal procedures that would need to be taken into consideration.
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