New York • As sex abuse scandals continue to buffet the Roman Catholic Church, U.S. Catholics are steadily losing confidence in Pope Francis’ handling of the crisis, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.
The survey, released Tuesday, found that 31 percent of U.S. Catholics felt the pope was doing an excellent or good job in addressing the issue, down from 45 percent in January and 55 percent in 2015.
Sex-abuse scandals have plagued the Catholic Church worldwide for decades, but events this year — several with direct U.S. connections — have elevated the issue to crisis-level at the Vatican and sown discord among church leaders in the U.