Growing dissatisfaction: Mass attenders’ attitudes to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church

Abstract

Every five years between 1996 and 2016, first as part of the 1996 Catholic Church Life Survey (CCLS) and then the National Church Life Survey (NCLS) (2001-2016), Mass attenders in a national random sample of Catholic parishes were asked questions about the clergy sexual abuse crisis, resulting in five comparable datasets. The questions concern attenders’ attitudes towards Church authorities, their respect for clergy and religious, whether they think the media has been fair to the Church in reporting the crisis, and their assessment of the Church’s response. This chapter investigates how the attitudes of Mass attenders changed over time as the extent and seriousness of the crisis grew, and how they varied according to attenders’ demographic characteristics, their level of involvement in parish life, and their personal spiritual outlook.