UNITED STATES
Tribune-Review
By Bill Zlatos
Published: Saturday, March 9, 2013
As the College of Cardinals prepares to elect a new pope, Roman Catholics view the child sexual abuse scandal as the greatest problem facing the church, a recent survey found.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 28 to March 3 found that 34 percent of Catholic respondents named sexual abuse as the most important issue. That’s nearly four times the second-most common response, a lack of credibility or trust, cited by 9 percent of surveyed Catholics.
“Just to know a priest would take advantage of a child is frightening,” Heather Bierer, 34, of West View said while on her way to noon Mass last week at St. Mary of Mercy Church, Downtown. Like the many Catholics surveyed nationally, she cited the sex abuse scandal as the church’s most pressing problem.
Members of other faiths probably would have named it, too, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
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