THE NEGATIVE impact of the Murphy report on the public perception of the Catholic Church is evident in the latest Irish Times/Ipsos, MRBI poll.
One consolation for the church is that a majority of those polled believe it will change to prevent child abuse happening in the future.
A very substantial majority of people, 74 per cent, think that the church did not respond adequately to the report, with just 16 per cent believing it did respond adequately and 10 per cent having no opinion.
The view that the church has not responded adequately to the report clearly influenced the response of the substantial majority of voters who feel its control of the primary education system should no longer be maintained.
Surprisingly enough there were no wide variations in terms of age. While the over-65s were marginally more supportive of the church’s position, the views of the 18-24 age group were very similar.
In line with the responses to the other questions about the church the 18-24 age group were less hostile than middle-aged voters and more in line with their grandparents’ generation than their parents.
The most positive aspect of the poll from the church’s point of view is that a majority of voters believe the institution will change to prevent clerical child abuse from happening in the future.
When asked if they thought the church would change to prevent abuse, 52 per cent said they believed it would, 35 per cent said it would not and 13 per cent had no opinion.
Fianna Fáil voters were most supportive of the view that the church would change, while Fine Gael voters were almost equally inclined to the same view.
Labour, Green Party and Sinn Féin voters were more negative.
The church might also take something positive from the response of people to the question as to whether their attitude to it had changed following the Murphy report disclosures.
While 47 per cent of voters said their attitude to the church had become more negative, precisely the same percentage said it had not changed.
However, some people taking this view already had a negative attitude to the institution.
There was a similarity in the responses by region to all the church-related questions.
Dublin was easily the most negative region in all cases, while there was no great variation across the rest of the country.
People living in rural areas were much more positive than those in urban areas.
In party political terms Fianna Fáil voters were least hostile to the church, with Sinn Féin voters the most hostile.
