The disclosures of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and how it was mishandled by office-holders has not only had a traumatic effect on victims and survivors, but has had a significant impact on the wider Catholic community in England and Wales.This is confirmed in the results of a survey reported by the Tablet (10th October 2024).

Marcus Pound and Gregory A. Ryan of Durham University, who authored the report 'The Cross of the Moment', reflect on the responses of 3,000 self-identified Catholics to an online survey run by YouGov.  The survey gathered data on three main aspects of the Church’s handling of clerical sexual abuse of children:

• what awareness do Catholics have of these issues?
• what attitudes do they hold towards the bishops’ handling of abuse?
• what impact has the abuse crisis had on the religious practice of ordinary Catholics? 

We found that around one-third (35%) of Catholics who had previously attended Mass to some degree reduced their Mass-going because of the abuse crisis; 15% stopped completely. 20% of Catholics who had previously donated money to the parish or diocese reported that they had stopped giving; a further 15% said they had decided to reduce their giving.

Other results included:

• Regular Mass-goers demonstrated greater resilience to disaffiliation, with 83% continuing their practice unchanged, and only 3% ceasing attendance at Mass.
• Occasional Mass-goers were impacted more significantly, 43% reducing or stopping attendance.
• 32% of regular Mass-goers were more confident that child sexual abuse is “consigned to history” compared with occasional Mass-goers (25%) and those that never attend Mass (17%). 
• A large majority of Catholics (77%) thought that the Church had lost moral authority because of its leaders’ handling of abuse cases.
• There is strong support (71%) for the Day of Prayer for Victims and Survivors, particularly among 18-24 year-olds, with 73% in favour, and only 5% against.

The authors conclude:

All of this should give the Church in England and Wales, and beyond, encouragement in its efforts to address the abuse crisis and its aftermath. Not only through listening to survivors, taking reparative action, and improving its safeguarding procedures, but through listening and communicating to the wider Church and finding ways – as a synodal Church – of maintaining the health of the ecclesial body in the face of the trauma brought about by the crisis.

The full quantitive report is attached below.