VATICAN CITY
Daily Journal
Bloomberg News
ROME — Pope Francis’s global survey of parishes conducted last year revealed sex scandals and negative experiences involving members of the clergy damaged the Roman Catholic Church’s image among its faithful.
“Sex scandals significantly weaken the Church’s moral credibility, above all in North America and northern Europe,” the Vatican said in its Instrumentum Laboris, a text summing up the results of a worldwide survey among Catholic parishes.
Last year, the Vatican asked parishioners around the world to give input on issues such as birth control, gay marriage and divorce. The results, which include parishoners’ perceptions of the church, were made public Thursday in a text that will serve as a starting point for discussions when bishops from around the world meet at the Vatican in October to debate family issues.
The survey confirmed that more than a decade of sexual scandals have seriously hurt the church’s image, affecting its own faithful. In April, Francis asked for forgiveness on behalf of priests who had sexually abused children and said more had to be done to rectify damage done and punish offenders.
The document also said that “some clergy are uncompromising and insensitive in their behavior” in daily interaction with parishoners, contributing to the image of the Church as not being supportive.
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