The Church's Shattered Reputation.

It will not surprise anybody that the reputation of the Catholic Church.  However, it is worth taking note of this report by the professionals, which tells us what we all know, but quantifies the damage, and analyses it in formal terms:

From PR Week:

Reputation Survey: The Catholic Church - Pope's Apology Falls Flat

Allegations of child abuse have damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church in the eyes of 82 per cent of the public, PRWeek/OnePoll's research finds.

The survey of 3,000 respondents - 16 per cent of whom were Catholics - found that a total of 72 per cent felt the Pope's recent apology to victims of paedophile priests did not go far enough.

Interestingly, 48 per cent of Catholic respondents felt the Pope's apology was sufficient, but only 24 per cent of non-Catholics felt the same.

The latest batch of stories surrounding allegations of child abuse within the Church has clearly caused reputational damage. Nearly 35 per cent of Catholics questioned said the stories would prevent them from going into a Catholic church.

And 44 per cent of Catholic respondents said the stories would make a difference when it came to allowing their children to attend a Catholic church. For non-Catholics, the figure was 61 per cent.

The news that the Vatican is to set up an investigation team has not made a great deal of difference to the public's perception of the Church. Only 23 per cent of Catholics said the investigation team had made their opinion of the Church more positive. For non-Catholics this figure was 13 per cent. Overall, 51 per cent of Catholics and 72 per cent of non-Catholics said this made no difference.

(Full Report:)