Seven in ten called it a major problem that demanded immediate attention. A poll done for the Washington Post, ABC News, and showed that a growing majority of Catholics were critical of the way their Church was handling the crisis. The scandal reached Ireland, Mexico, Austria, France, Chile, Australia, and Poland, the homeland of the Pope. There were stories about clergy sex abuse in virtually every state in the Union. Confidentiality deals, designed to contain the Church’s scandal and maintain privacy for embarrassed victims, began to evaporate as those who had been attacked learned that the priests who had assaulted them had been put in positions where they could attack others too. The image of TV reporters doing live shots from outside klieg-lit churches and rectories became a staple of the eleven o’clock news. “As the scandal spread and gained momentum, Cardinal Law found himself on the cover of Newsweek, and the Church in crisis became grist for the echo chamber of talk radio and all-news cable stations.
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