What does it take to keep the faith when your church is roiled by a child sexual abuse scandal that goes back decades and involves several layers of leadership?

Pope Francis released a letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics on Monday in which he condemned the sexual abuse crisis gripping the modern church, saying “we showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” The letter follows the release of a grand jury report in Pennsylvania showing that Catholic leaders in that state covered up the abuse of at least 1,000 children by more than 300 priests over the course of 70 years.



Hundreds of our readers who said they are Catholic or were raised in the church have responded to the news this week in comments on our stories. Some have chastised those who continue to attend church, accusing them of complicity in the crimes of their leaders. Others have said that the scandal makes them want to remain Catholic in order to help shore up the institution from within.

Here is an edited and condensed selection of those comments.

We want to hear from other readers who are Catholic. Tell us how you are grappling with the news of the report.

Pride in Church Tradition

I am a lifelong Catholic who has many fundamental disagreements with the Church particularly in the following areas: the overall role of women, contraception, abortion, and those god awful princes of the church, the oh so entitled priests, bishops, cardinals, etc., that do populate the Catholic Church in numbers that are far too great for comfort.