Survey finds six out of 10 Catholics give him a ‘fair’ or ‘poor” rating, while just three out of 10 say his handling of abuse has been ‘excellent’ or ‘good’
Confidence in Pope Francis’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed the Catholic church this year has fallen sharply among the faithful in the US, a new survey shows.
Francis, once seen as a charismatic and popular leader who drew huge crowds of Catholics and non-Catholics when he visited the US in September 2015, has also seen his personal ratings plummet.
More than a third of Catholics now say the pope is doing a “poor” job on the issue of sexual abuse – three times the number who delivered the same verdict in 2015, according to research by the Pew Research Center.
Even among those who say they attend mass weekly, the share giving Francis positive marks for his handling of the crisis has halved since 2015, down to 34% compared to 67% three years ago.
Quite astonishing, that 34% have still tunnel vision.
The proportion of Catholics who have a generally favourable opinion of Francis has fallen by 12 points this year, down to roughly seven in 10. Only three in 10 say they have a “very favourable” view of the pope.
Among the US public as a whole, including non-Catholics, about half hold a favourable view of Francis – the lowest rating he has received in Pew surveys since he was elected pope in 2013. His ratings are now on a par with his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
Francis has struggled to get on top of a wave of sexual abuse scandals that have broken into the open this year, not only in the US but also in Australia, Chile, Germany and the Netherlands.
In the US, a grand jury report into clerical abuse in Pennsylvania, released in August, found that 300 priests had harmed more than 1,000 children over several decades. The abuse was compounded by collusion and concealment by senior church figures and attempts to silence and intimidate survivors.
Francis made no comment for almost a week, but then issued a letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics that publicly acknowledged the church’s failures in dealing with clerical sexual abuse.
I'm sure this will really help survivors. /s
Published in seven languages, the letter spoke of “sorrow and shame” and said: “Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others.”
That he even mentions forgiveness is really outrageous imo.
But it failed to propose any specific measures or sanctions against bishops who had been found to cover up abuse or had omitted to report it to police or other authorities.
The pope has also been accused of failing to act on abuse by two people who resigned in protest from a papal commission set up by the Vatican to make recommendations on the church’s role in child protection. One, Marie Collins, an abuse survivor from Ireland, said the issue was handled “with fine words in public and contrary actions behind closed doors”.
On a trip to Ireland in August, survivors criticised the pope for offering sympathetic words but no concrete actions.
Opponents of Pope Francis within the Vatican and the church have seized on his missteps to attack him. A retired Vatican diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, released an incendiary 11-page letter claiming Francis had known of abuse allegations against a high-ranking church figure from 2013, but failed to take action.
Viganò’s claims had the backing of the Vatican’s old guard, which bitterly resents Francis’s efforts to root out what it views as centuries of clerical tradition and he sees as hypocrisy and narcissism.
Source.
EffYouJohnPodesta ago
I wonder how many of the people helping with the adoption industry are actually from the Catholic church but are doing this intentionally to get more supply of children to abuse. I always thought anti-abortion promotion of adoption was mostly good until I realized how many children are stolen by CPS. The adoption at birth industry only dawned on me as being bad when I witnessed, on Facebook, a woman who was in a natural birth group with me posting about her surrogacy journey. She was selling her baby to a couple she didn't even know from another state for a $30,000 fee. They needed the money. When she couldn't get pregnant from donor egg and sperm from the intended parents, or from donor sperm and her own eggs implanted, she resorted to getting pregnant with her own husband's baby and selling it to the couple. I did some research a while back on the surrogacy industry and what I found was pretty suspicious. In some countries it is banned completely as it is considered child sales. And in many states in the U.S. it is illegal to act as a surrogate. It's a felony in some states.
I guess the supply is mostly older children from CPS, but I have heard that there were actually bounties on some certain younger babies.
This is also why the DNA registries exist in my opinion. The PKU testing done at birth would be fine and dandy except that the state stores our DNA in their database and they always have copies. They can come after certain children for the purposes of organ harvesting or MKU experiements through false CPS cases at any time.
unstoppable ago
I signed up today and want to make a post badly but I can't. So here I am posting generic rubbish in order to get some upvoats. Is it 10 I need or 100?
10 I am happy to wait but 100, Im gone. Just want to post and then go if possible, or can someone suggest a different more suitable platform
DerivaUK ago
Don’t like point chasing but I sympathise with your frustration and gave you an upvoat. Look forward to your contributions!
unstoppable ago
Hi buddy, thank you. It is posted already. I just wanted to drop my history and then go tbh. I couldn't care less for points. I think you have already read my bit actually come to think, thanks again!
Vindicator ago
I've upvoted your comments here, unstoppable, as has think-. You should be able to submit something very soon.
unstoppable ago
I can see that and really appreciate it. Please don't be disappointed in what I post though, it is just something I wanted to get off my chest and I think it relates to Pizzagate by way of personal experience. Thanks again
Vindicator ago
No worries. :-)
think- ago
It's only 10, @unstoppable. And you are kindly invited to do a post once you have acquired 10 CCP. If you need help, please don't hesitate to ping either me or the other mod who is modding today, @Vindicator.
You can't write PMs before having accrued 10 CCP, but you can write a comment, and ping me by adding my name like this: @think- (please note the dash)
You can find our v/pizzagate rules for submitting posts on the sidebar (please switch to 'desktop view' when on mobile). Please note that we don't accept mere link posts, please always submit articles or videos as 'Discuss' post - just copypaste the link into the submission sheet, and please add two or three sentences what the article is about and why it is relevant for our Pizzgate research.
Welcome to the board.
unstoppable ago
Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.
In truth I am not trying to become part of the community, I just wanted to tell my story and then leave if possible. I have no links or anything that can back up what I say, just my word.
Will I be able to still post?
think- ago
In this case, I'd recommend posting to v/pizzagatewhatever, our sister subverse for posts that don't need to have sources for the claims made or the stories posted there. Many Pizzagaters have subscribed to this sub as well, and will be able to read your post.
I will look at the post once you will have posted there, and, depending on the content, try to figure out whether it might be suitable for the main sub (maybe we can find some sources who kind of backup your story).
Will be offline for an hour or so, but won't forget to look at v/pizzagatewhatever later. You can always ping me by adding my name to a comment, when you need help with drafting your post.
Good luck!
unstoppable ago
Perfect, thanks!
think- ago
Kindly welcome.
carmencita ago
I have you an upvoat but let it be known that I am hoping you are of the same mind as us researchers and Crusaders for Our Children. Good luck posting. I down voat shills.
unstoppable ago
ps. I don't think you have upvoated me
unstoppable ago
I have been on pizzagate before it was "pizza" related. By same mind you mean working for good? I can assure you that I am no shill, I only stand to lose personally for posting. I just want to give an insight in to generational abuse. You heard of the Mcalpines?
shewhomustbeobeyed ago
These? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McAlpine_baronets - https://archive.fo/2IuPu
unstoppable ago
Yes Sir, that is them
fogdryer ago
I don’t know when the info started getting out. What decade was it the Boston scandal came out? It appears to me that the pressure is mounting on the Vatican I wonder how much goes to the nwo/ one religion?
There are other institutions in pedophilia, LDS etc
carmencita ago
It's all over the internet now about the grand jury report and the Lavender Mafia and their moving around of priests and hiding them. Also the laundering, lol as if the rest were not enough. 'The news that he had a bf, I am sure is making the rounds as well.
Keep posting, tweeting and sending out those memes. It's working. @Gilderoy @HennyPenny
think- ago
Will do. ;-)
carmencita ago
:)
Vindicator ago
LOL. "bitterly resents" "hypocrisy and narcissism". That's rich. This is a Francis puff piece. ...Oh -- it's from >The Guardian . Of course.
think- ago
LOL - well, they are certainly biased - but there is some truth to it since the conservative faction, which includes many who have also been guilty of stuff like abuse and cover-up of abuse, are trying to using his failure now to axe him (which I think is an excellent idea).
This is a) ironical, since the two previous Popes are as guiltiy of cover-ups as Francis, and b) a new, conservative Pope won't change anything for the better imo, since he will inevitably going to be elected by the very cardinals who have been guilty as well, and have been chosen by the previous Popes.
I recommend a closer look at the different factions in the Knights of Malta, for a better understanding of what has been going on.
WalnutSauceGoat ago
Quite astonishing, that 34% have still tunnel vision.
Tunnel vision? Dude, those are the pedos! Jeez....
think- ago
There are different reasons for having tunnel vision; one of them is certainly being a perp.
WhenEveMetEnki ago
Quite astonishing, that 34% have still tunnel vision.
To be fair, this is very difficult for Catholics; recent historical precedent (and we as a society have generally a very short memory) has established a framework wherein our faith or the Pope (supposedly infallible and chosen to represent God) is attacked, as JFK was for instance, and we demonstrate and act upon our faith in the Almighty by ignoring those attacks. I've never been particularly religious in the organized sense as I simply couldn't ignore the historical evil that has always coexisted within, but even for me it is nearly impossible to hear the things arising of late without wanting to dismiss it as an aberration being used by one sect to diminish and/or usurp another.
The alternative, that all we were raised to believe represented God and good is actually a cover for those so evil and detached from the morality we're taught comes from God and is inherent in all man, is almost too awful to grasp, despite the growing mountain of evidence.
Vindicator ago
Uh, no. Catholics do not believe the pope is infallible. They believe that teaching of doctrine by the pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra, which has only happened a few times in history. The last time was in 1950, when Pope Pius XII affirmed the ancient tradition that the Virgin Mary was assumed bodily into heaven after her death, not buried in a grave.
Any Catholic who thinks the Church teaches a human being is "infallible" in the colloquial sense is a very poorly formed Catholic. The Church has always taught exactly the opposite -- that humans, while made in the likeness of God and precious in his eyes, are prone to evil and must be constantly alert to temptation and deception, both within and without.
WhenEveMetEnki ago
Jay and Jill were beautiful and handsome
This is a complex phrase, in which Subject A is described by adjective A and subject B by adjective B.
I was referring to the framework (a system of thinking that evolves much more than the literal teachings that contribute to it, along with the many imperfections of our minds) within which we view our faith as infallible and the Pope as chosen to represent God.
I suspect you know that's what I meant, unless you skimmed it very quickly.
Vindicator ago
No, I didn't catch that nuance. Thanks for clarifying :-)