Over two-thirds of Lithuanians are sceptical that the Catholic Church is capable of dealing with child abuse cases, suggests a poll commissioned by LRT.
According to the survey by Baltijos Tyrimai, one in five respondents believe that the Lithuanian Catholic Church is capable of properly handling alleged cases of child abuse by members of the clergy. Meanwhile, the majority of respondents, 69 percent, said they did not believe this because the Church tends to cover up such cases.
One in ten people had no opinion or did not answer this question.
Women, people over 50, pensioners, and right-leaning respondents were more likely to believe that the Catholic Church in Lithuania is able to deal with child abuse cases.
Meanwhile, men, people aged 30-49, residents of district centres and smaller towns, respondents with more than secondary education, and left-leaning respondents were more likely to be of the opposite opinion.
Public anger ‘justified’
Milda Ališauskienė, a sociologist of religion and professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, notes that the debate on sexual violence in the Catholic Church has been going on for some time, while there has been an “eloquent silence” from the Church hierarchy on this issue.
“I think that society is also watching this and sees this silence as an inability to find solutions to difficult situations. This is the public’s response to the Church’s position in recent years when cases [of child abuse] keep emerging,” Ališauskienė told LRT.lt.
Povilas Aleksandravičius, a professor at Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, says he is not surprised that two-thirds of the public are sceptical that the Church is capable of dealing with child abuse on its own.
“Public anger is high and justified. People who trusted the Church more than any other institution – remember how positive the results of trust surveys have been for the Church in recent decades – have now found out that crimes have been covered up.
Therefore, the reaction of rejecting the Church is natural, even psychologically necessary for the Church to open its eyes and realise the necessity of a fundamental change,” Aleksandravičius tells LRT.lt.
Church promises to keep up efforts
LRT.lt has approached the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference for comment on the survey results.
“The Church assures that it will not lessen its efforts to uncover and investigate every case of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults and reiterates its request to report any information one has on such cases,” it said in a comment.
The Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference assured that any information about suspected crimes is “thoroughly investigated with the help of experts (including from the laity) and submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome for evaluation”. On the basis of these evaluations, the local leadership decides on the measures.
“Many measures” are being taken to prevent child abuse, according to the Bishops’ Conference, including the screening of future priests and candidates for work with minors and vulnerable adults. Moreover, it said, seminarians are trained to protect minors and vulnerable adults.
The survey of the Lithuanian population was carried out by the market and public opinion research company Baltijos Tyrimai between August 24 and September 5. The survey included 1,016 respondents, with a margin of error of 3.1 points.
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