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According to the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans who claim that Pope Francis has mishandled sexual abuse of the church has nearly doubled since January.
A poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center found that although seven out of ten American Catholics still see Francis positively, six in ten say that the pontiff is doing "only fair" or "mediocre" work in managing the crisis. sexual abuse. . The percentage of those who think that Francis does "excellent" or "good" work has dropped by 15 points since January. (RELATED: a group of lay Catholics spends more than a million dollars denouncing cardinals guilty of abuse or concealment)
To answer this survey, Pew interviewed 1,754 American adults on the phone, including 336 identified as Catholics. Although 72% of participating Catholics reported having a favorable opinion of Francis, only about half of participants said the same thing, which is the lowest approval rating of the pontiff since 2013.
The great scandals of sexual abuse in Chile, Ireland, Germany and the United States have shaken the Catholic Church in recent years. The scandals surrounding former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, systematic concealment and more than 300 predatory priests have been revealed in the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual assault, and the allegations of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano that Francis and David other church officials knowingly allowed McCarrick's abuse, provoked American anger.
Francis has fueled this anger by refusing to comment on Vigano's allegations against him and accusing those who make allegations against church officials of doing Satan's work. US church officials and lay leaders have called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding McCarrick's elevation to the rank of cardinal despite accusations of sexual abuse at his home. as well as an investigation into Vigano's allegations.
Until now, the Vatican has not published any of the "clarifications" promised on Vigano's accusations and a group of American laymen has launched an effort to audit each cardinal with a "Red Hat Report" intended to unveil those who have been credibly accused of hiding -up or scandal.
The Pew survey had a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points for the entire sample and 6.7 points for the Catholic sample.
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