Poll calls for Cardinal Connell to resign his post

A slim majority of the public believe Cardinal Desmond Connell should resign over the Church’s response to sex abuse allegations, a poll published today shows.

Cardinal Desmond Connell

Although 69 per cent of respondents in the poll, published in

The Star

newspaper, say Dr Connell has performed very badly in relation to the controversy, 56 per cent say he should now resign. Exactly a quarter said he should stay on, with 19 per cent not expressing an opinion.

The poll shows the Catholic Church as a whole has fared very poorly in public eyes, with a huge 91 per cent saying it has responded either very badly or fairly badly. Only four per cent said the Church had performed very well or fairly well.

The relation between Garda inquiries and the Church was also criticised, with 87 per cent saying members of the clergy should be prosecuted for not passing information to the Gardaí.

And 93 per cent of those polled said the Church should now hand over all relevant documents to the State inquiry announced last week by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.

The survey was conducted among 1,108 people in over 100 locations throughout the Republic.