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.
Running anything according to an AP poll. IIRC, they had Kerry winning.
Can they get anymore ridiculous?
And another thing. While the poll also sampled American Catholics it did not state whether they were actual church goers or just people with a 'catholic heritage.' Anyways, almost 2/3rds of Catholics are now in South America and Africa (with a whle 1/2 being in South America), and they tend to be far more conservative in beliefs that the respondents above. Hence i doubt any pope will be saying abortion is ok.
E.D. Hill sounded disappointed when she interviewed the former US Ambassador to the Vatican when he said that no one likes war, when she asked him why the Pope was against the Iraq war. JPII was against the Iraq war, as any sane human being would be, but in the larger scheme of things, he felt it was justified. President Bush didn't want to send America into war with Iraq, but Saddam left President Bush with no other option.
doesn't represent THIS American.
Well, or Eastern Orthodox, or Ethiopian, etc.
No the church does not need to be run from by outside opinions, but this looking the other way and accepting homo priests will destroy them from the inside..
Seems that if the responders want a very liberal main line church, they can jump to one.
NOOOO!
That is all.
Okay, that's not all. Who ARE these people???? Sorry, but the Catholic church is NOT a democratic organization. The sooner these folks figure that out, the less it will sting when they are rebuked. Again.
whle = whole
You will be just as disappointed as the liberals.
No the church does not need to be run from by outside opinions, but this looking the other way and accepting homo priests will destroy them from the inside
they are working all the wedge issues that they can. i can understand that, but it would have been better to wait a few days than to start that on the day he died.
Either a church is run by God or by the people.
I agree.The Church is a Kingdom with Christ as the head. It is not a democracy. Polls have absolutely no bearing upon who leads things in the Church. It is the Magisterium with the Holy Father that guard the Church.
I'm not Catholic, so my comments are addressed to Christianity in general.
Jesus chose 12 apostles. Which ones were female?
All throughout the Old Testament priests are discussed and named. None are female. If God wanted females as priests (and then preachers), why didn't he do so in the bible, which is where we are supposed to look for guidance?
That doesn't mean that women are to be viewed as inferior or can't be leaders in other areas. Deborah is highlighted in the OT as a great judge, and there are numerous examples throughout the bible of great women serving God in so many ways. But we shouldn't adopt a non-biblical church structure just because that's what some want. Better to stick what God wants. Perhaps we can't say for certain what he wants, but when in doubt, play it safe and stick to what the bible infers.
IMHO
Wrong.
And they want more done to combat sexual abuse by priests, an AP-Ipsos poll found.
AP get's in half right. As if their credibilty lends any validity.
AP Poll: New pope should revise the Ten Commandments to the Seven Suggestions.
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