Posted on 04/04/2005 8:00:34 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON - Most Americans want the next pope to work for changes in Roman Catholic Church policies to allow priests to marry and women to join the priesthood. And they want more done to combat sexual abuse by priests, an AP-Ipsos poll found.
A solid majority of Americans, and Catholics in the country, are calling for the changes even while saying they widely admire Pope John Paul II, who supported traditional policies against priest marriage and against allowing women into the priesthood.
"He crossed so many boundaries, opened doors to many governments," said Joseph Riess, a Catholic businessman from Vienna, Va. "But I think it's time for changes."
Just over half of Americans, 51 percent, and almost three-fourths of Catholics say John Paul, who died Saturday, will be remembered as one of the greatest popes, according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
The U.S. Catholic church is struggling with a variety of problems, including a dramatically shrinking U.S. priesthood, disagreement over the proper role for lay leaders, and a conservative-liberal divide over sexuality, women's ordination and clergy celibacy.
About two-thirds of those polled said priests should be allowed to marry and almost that many said they want women in the priesthood. A majority of Catholics supported both steps.
More than four in five Americans - and about the same number of Catholics - said they want to see the next pope do more to address the problem of priests sexually abusing children.
The church has been trying to deal with an abuse crisis that bubbled to the surface in January 2002 in the Archdiocese of Boston, then spread throughout the country. Since then, the church has adopted a toughened discipline policy, enacted child protection and victim outreach plans in dioceses, and removed hundreds of accused priests from church work.
Americans were divided when asked from where the next pope should come. Just over a third said he should be from Europe, while a similar number said he should be from a part of the world where Catholicism is growing fastest, like Africa or Latin America. The rest weren't sure.
"I don't think it matters where they're from," said Heather Schramko, a clinical researcher and a Catholic from Perrysburg, Ohio. "But they need to modernize the church."
The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,001 adults was taken Friday to Sunday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Some of the interviews were conducted before news broke Saturday about the pope's death, but most people knew he was gravely ill.
In my view, nearly every thing in OCP hymn books *is* tripe. Marty Haugan and David Haas have done more damage to Catholic liturgy than...well, I am not sure. The Huns?
If I have to sit through one more rendition of "On Eagle's Wings..." God help me. Even as a penance that's a cruel one.
Adoremus makes a decent hymn book. And it does include some Protestant hymns, by the way - the best ones, at any rate (I concede there are good ones).
Stop. Please. I am having flashbacks.
Possibly one of the worst hymns ever set to music.
Haugen Haas and Landry (let's not forget "Let Us Build a City of God," et al from Carey Landry) are like to Catholic liturgical music what Peter Paul and Mary were to folk music (coming from a person who liked Arlo and Woody Guthrie, stuff like Puff the Magic Dragon or Leaving on a Jet Plane is like mega barf for me w/ secular music!).........
JP2 was brilliant in his decision to move the levers of power at least parially out of the hands of the West. Even if we don't go down the crapper, we aren't going to be good for much for a while, I'm afraid.
****************
LOL! Sorry, I had to laugh at that. :)
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
I'd like to know who these supposed Catholics are who answered in such a ridiculous manner. Why can they not understand? The Church exists to change the world. The world does not exist to change the church!
"Truth is not determined by a majority vote" - Cardinal Ratzinger
Most Americans want the next pope to work for changes in Roman Catholic Church policies to allow priests to marry and women to join the priesthood.
'We think he's the greatest pope and he looked good on TV, but we just don't want any more of his yucky teachings. No abortions or divorces? Puhleeze. Get with the Ninties.'
- MSM Catholics for Whatever
"The next pontiff is certain to come from among the cardinals themselves, although the prelates could in theory elect any baptised male."
I have been working the phones the last couple of days and I believe I have enought votes to become the next Pope, so I am headed off to Rome!
/Sarcasm off
"Running a religion according to an AP poll? I think not!"
Funny thing. I saw some clergyman from Tulsa, Ok., on Fox this weekend claiming the new Pope would have to be far more liberal. Said that the new Pope would have to:
- support abortion on demand.
- support gay marraiges.
- support the homosexual life style.
After each, the clergyman (not a Catholic, but a bishop of some time) said, "the Pope must support this, the people demand it."
I said to my wife that this guy must think it's the ten suggestions. I also said this guy has it backwards, God makes the rules and the people have no right to demand any thing from God. But then I'm a baptist so what do I know?
Catholic opinion does not seem much different that American opinion as a whole. Catholics have regressed to the mean. That is what tends to happen in a culture as open and democratic and seductive as the American culture. That's my take.
The Catholic Church has been around for two millenia, it won't be supporting abortion, homosexcal agendas or a new family paradigm any time soon.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
You're pretty much right on. People slot religion into a space on Sunday morning (if even then), then absorb the zeitgeist the rest of the week.
Most of the disagreements, you'll note, are in the area of sexual morality. That's been the Achilles heel of the Church from the time of Christ. The thing is, Jesus didn't dwell all that much on sexual morality. He was more concerned with caring for the poor and our attitudes toward each other (basic charity).
By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Most Americans — Catholics and non-Catholics alike — want the next pope to allow priests to marry and women to join the priesthood, a major break from church rules and the judgment of Pope John Paul II, according to an Associated Press poll.
The charismatic pontiff was held in high regard by a majority of Americans and most Catholics, with many suggesting that John Paul will be remembered as one of the greatest popes. For many, the man who led the church for 26 years is the only pope they know.
But affection for John Paul has hardly eliminated the cultural divisions between the United States and the Vatican over the ordination of women, celibacy for priests and the role of lay people in the church.
"He was admired by people who disagreed so consistently on his views," John C. Green, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, said of the pontiff who died Saturday at 84.
The sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church has left many Catholics and other Americans convinced that the next pope must do more about predatory clergy. Eighty-six percent of Americans and 82 percent of the Catholics surveyed said greater steps were imperative.
Perhaps partly as an outgrowth of the abuse by priests, some also are calling for a larger church role for lay people, a notion that Rome has rejected. In the AP-Ipsos survey, 62 percent of Americans and 63 percent of American Catholics favor a greater say for lay people.
"The heart of the crisis has passed," said Martin E. Marty, a religion historian and professor emeritus of American religious history at the University of Chicago. Marty suggested that the bishops and the church still need to win back the confidence of Americans, and "the bishops and the church have to grasp this soon enough."
Changing views about the role of women and the predominance of married clergy in other faiths may help shape the opinions of Americans and American Catholics toward the Vatican's rules on ordination and priest's celibacy.
Catholics in the United States number 65 million — out of about 1 billion worldwide — and Jim Guth, a professor of political science at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., said American culture has had a significant influence on church members here.
"Catholics have considerable differences with Rome," Guth noted.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans and 60 percent of U.S. Catholics said the next pope should change church policies to allow priests to marry, while 25 percent of all Americans and 36 percent of Catholics said they preferred no change.
Most Americans, 64 percent, said women should be allowed to become priests, and 60 percent of the surveyed American Catholics agreed in the poll. Thirty-two percent of Americans in general disagreed, 38 percent of Catholics.
"Celibacy of priests is an issue that should be gone, priests should be able to marry," said Joseph Riess, a self-employed businessman and Catholic from Vienna, Va. Riess said he had mixed emotions about women priests.
Although such revolutionary changes seem unlikely soon for the tradition-bound church, some within the clergy say they may be inevitable, especially with the Vatican hard-pressed to enlist new priests.
"There are very few things that are absolutely unchangeable," said the Rev. Lawrence J. Madden, a Jesuit priest and director of the Georgetown Center for Liturgy in Washington.
Madden pointed out that more than 2,000 parishes out of nearly 20,000 do not have priests to offer Sunday Mass, a prospect that worries Catholics who consider receiving the sacrament of communion a critical element of their lives.
"The danger is we become a Eucharist-less church. I cannot see justifying that," Madden said. "People have their head in the sand."
In the survey, 37 percent of Americans and 41 percent of U.S. Catholics said the next pope should come from Europe while 36 percent of Americans and 43 percent of Catholics said the cardinals should choose a pontiff from Africa or Latin America, the fastest growing areas for Catholics.
The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,001 adults was taken Friday to Sunday and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. ___ On the Net:
and in a related AP poll a majority of those surveyed voted to melt the gold in Fort Knox and make a really big golden calf to worship.
Patients in a persistent vegitative state would be "volunteered" by judge Greer on the assumption that they are willing sacrifices.
Give me a break. Is there a breakdown as to the amount of regular Mass attendance among the respondents?
Or is this just the bunch that only shows up at Christmas and maybe Easter and takes up all the "good seats"?
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