KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
May 21, 2019
By Maria Benevento
A survey released May 20 by the St. Leo University Polling Institute reveals that 81.3% of Americans in general, and 89.3% of Catholics, believe the Catholic Church was slow to take action on clergy sexual abuse.
The poll also asked respondents how much they agreed that each of a series of reasons had contributed to “slow church action,” and asked them to select “contributing factors” for the abuse crisis.
It found that by far the most commonly identified cause of the church’s slow response — by 74% of Americans and almost 85% of Catholics — was a desire to “preserve and protect the Church’s influence and reputation at all cost.”
The second and third most popular options were “to avoid the financial ramifications” and “to protect the ‘good old boys’ network,’ ” with both statements earning agreement from between 40% and 42% of both Americans overall and Catholics.
On several other options, Americans in general and Catholics diverged by more than 10 percentage points. Americans overall more likely to indicate that church leadership “believed the clergy instead of victims” (37.6% versus 26.4% of Catholics) or believed “clergy were above the law” (34.1% versus 24%).
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