{"id":19117,"date":"2013-07-11T15:35:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T20:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/american-catholics-want-pope-francis-to-address-abuse-scandal\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:39","slug":"american-catholics-want-pope-francis-to-address-abuse-scandal","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/07\/11\/american-catholics-want-pope-francis-to-address-abuse-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"American Catholics want Pope Francis to address abuse scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>
\u00a9 STEFANO RELLANDINI\/Reuters\/Corbis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Pope Francis made significant updates to the Vatican City\u2019s laws today, addressing (among other things) issues related to child sexual abuse. Sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography are now classified as crimes against children and can be punished more harshly, according to the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"FT_Pope_Priorities\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

These laws apply only to the small population of the Vatican City State \u2013 an estimated 839 people<\/a> \u2013 and are not part of the Catholic Church\u2019s canon (religious) law, so they will not directly impact how the scandal continues to play out around the world. But Pew Research Center polling shows that addressing the sex-abuse scandal is something American Catholics consider important.<\/p>\n\n

A Pew Research Center poll<\/a> in March showed that seven-in-ten U.S. Catholics think addressing the abuse scandal should be \u201ca top priority\u201d for the new pope.<\/p>\n\n

Just before Francis was elected, another poll<\/a> found that when American Catholics are asked to identify in their own words the Catholic Church\u2019s most important problem, fully a third (34%) mentioned sex abuse, pedophilia or some other reference to the scandal \u2013 far more than any other issue.<\/p>\n\n

A poll conducted<\/a> before Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s retirement in February showed that nearly two-thirds of U.S. Catholics (63%) thought Benedict did a \u201cpoor\u201d or \u201conly fair\u201d job of addressing the scandal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Pope Francis begins to address issues facing the church, Pew Research Center surveys of American Catholics finds that seven-in-ten think it’s important for the church to address the sex-abuse scandal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[180,436,172,170,217],"bylines":[854],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-19117","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-catholicism","category-pope-francis","category-religion-politics-1","category-religious-leaders-institutions","category-sexual-misconduct-harassment","bylines-michael-lipka","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short 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