UNITED STATES
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)
By David Briggs
Pope John Paul II defended the rights of migrants in California, warned about what advances in robotics could mean for the dignity of the worker in Detroit and repeatedly challenged the U.S. to consider the effect of its global footprint on the world’s poor during his 1987 visit across the nation.
Yet one of my memories is this loud lament of a reporter from a respected, prominent newspaper:
It would be great to write about these things, but all my editors want to know is what did he say about sex.
Pope Francis will be trending across all media platforms next week when he arrives in the U.S. for a six-day visit beginning Tuesday that will include stops in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. …
The sexual abuse scandal matters: The church’s multiple failures in addressing sexual abuse of minors, and its continued refusal to either discipline its own leaders or fully release information on offending clerics, have created a lasting legacy of distrust.
In one online survey of Catholics who left the church, 20 percent of respondents who said they were returning to the church listed anger at church leadership over the sexual abuse scandal as one reason for their departure. Among those who say they are not returning, 64 percent said anger over the scandal was a reason they left.
“The scars of the sexual abuse crisis run deep” among those not returning to the church, said researcher Michael Cieslak of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford, Ill
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