Posted on 11/15/2013 2:28:46 PM PST by NYer
Polling is one of the great tools of modern political campaigns, and one of the banes, too.
Polls can be wildly inaccurate. Look at virtually any poll prior to any vote on same-sex marriage in the many states where it has been voted down. They uniformly showed traditional marriage would lose. But with only one exception, traditional marriage has won, even in liberal states.
Polls rely on many intangibles that can sway the person answering: the wording of the question, the sample size, and where they are drawn from.
The results of polls are often used not to find out what people are really thinking but to sway the people in one direction or the other. A candidate down 15 percent in a series of polls can lose further support because his potential voters are thoroughly demoralized.
So why has the Church sent around a questionnaire on the hot button teachings like same-sex marriage, divorce, and contraception? Is the Church now open to changing its teaching based on the results? The mainstream media thinks so, as do progressive Catholics.
The Church is planning an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops looking specficially at “Pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization” to take place in October 2014. Last October 18, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops sent a preparatory document to the world’s bishops and to others that included a questionnaire and asked them “to share it immediately as widely as possible…so that input from local sources can be received.”
Let me be clear: I'm less concerned here about the intentions of the Vatican and more about the way the questionnaire is being used by progressives. Such questionnaires, seeking episcopal feedback, have been used before. And it is not clear that the Vatican has, in this case, actually asked for the participation of the laity.
In any case, the reaction has been both swift and excited and predictable. The Democratic pressure group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good created www.papalsurvey.com where they will gather answers and forward them to the Vatican.
The always excitable National Catholic Reporter wrote, “The Vatican has asked national bishops’ conferences around the world to conduct a wide-ranging poll of Catholics asking for their opinion on church teachings on contraception, same-sex marriage, and divorce.” They went on to announce this was the first time the Church’s hierarchy has asked for such input from grassroots Catholics since at least the establishment of the synod system.
Some dioceses have eagerly put the questionnaire up on a website called “Survey Monkey.” The Church in England and Wales has done so, as has the diocese of Broken Bay, Australia. There are probably more.
Linger over this for a minute: Survey Monkey is a public site that allows virtually anyone with an Internet connection to answer.
I hope that rock-ribbed traditionalists are out there pushing their teams to answer, just as I am sure the progressives are doing so. I suspect some cheeky atheists are also answering, maybe Muslims, too. Why not everybody? Why not have anyone and everyone “vote” on Church teaching?
But what is this document anyway? Preparatory documents (lineamenta) are always sent out to bishops prior to a Synod and with the documents there are questions for the bishops to ponder. And bishops are urged to consult over the questions and come back with responses.
What is unclear at this time is whether they have ever asked for such a broad consultation, if that's indeed what's happening. And it's rather clear that the letter from the Vatican hasn't precisely asked for a poll of the laity. It asks for “input from local sources.”
What the heck does that mean? For Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, it means polling the general public, and, sad to say, it also means that for the Church in England and Wales.
But when you read the questions themselves, you are hard-pressed to figure how even a highly educated, fully catechized layman could answer them. And, it should be noted, the questions are not as much about Church teachings per se (as progressives and the media are reporting), but about how Church teachings are understood and received.
Check out the first question: “Describe how the Catholic Church’s teachings on the value of the family contained in the Bible, Gaudium et Spes, Familiaris Consortio, and other documents of the post-conciliar Magisterium is understood by people today?”
How about this one: “What place does the idea of the natural law have in the cultural areas of society: in institutions, education, academic circles, and among the people at large? What anthropological ideas underlie the discussion on the natural basis of the family?”
Does anybody think the average layman is equipped to answer such questions? My wife is a Georgetown-educated lawyer who has worked on complicated legal and policy issues her whole professional life. She would blanche at answering these questions, as most of us would.
And then there are the questions that can only cause mischief. Under same-sex relations, the only questions are about “civil unions” and the pastoral attention to people in such unions. Nothing whatsoever about the Catholic understanding that same-sex marriage is never allowed or that same-sex adoption does “violence” to the child, as the Church teaches.
And then look at how a progressive group rewrites the questions to advance their own agenda. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good asks, “How does your parish community welcome same-sex couples and gay persons? How are they included in the life of the parish? Are they given sufficient space to be full and active members of the Church?”
This treatment is not even in the “papal survey,” but you can see what these guys are doing.
Finally, there is an expectations game that is profoundly dangerous. Recall the great expectations leading up the Vatican commission’s report on contraception back in the 1960s. The world knew that the Church would allow the pill.
When Pope Paul VI bravely issued Humanae Vitae, there was a shock to the system that is still reverberating, in large measure due to thwarted expectations. One wonders what expectations are building over this “papal survey.”
Catholic Ping!
The Catholic Church is not now and will never be a democracy.
Catholics who don’t like this should become Lutherans.
Looking at the questions, they appear to be questions on how well the Church is teaching or being compassionate. This does not look like an attempt to turn the Church into a democracy.
Let me be clear: I'm less concerned here about the intentions of the Vatican and more about the way the questionnaire is being used by progressives.
But he goes on to complain about a question posed by the Vatican:
And then there are the questions that can only cause mischief. Under same-sex relations, the only questions are about “civil unions” and the pastoral attention to people in such unions. Nothing whatsoever about the Catholic understanding that same-sex marriage is never allowed or that same-sex adoption does “violence” to the child, as the Church teaches.
Has he considered there may be progressives in the Vatican behind this survey?
Dear Austin,
The Vatican said days ago that they are NOT polling the laity.
Get with the program.
this is just the pope trying to find out what Catholics really think. Also, it wasn’t to be asked of the laity, but of the priests and bishops (the teachers) to see what the laypeople were being taught.
Then why would the Vatican put a question like this on the survey?
Question 4f: Could a simplification of canonical practice in recognizing a declaration of nullity of the marriage bond provide a positive contribution to solving the problems of the persons involved? If yes, what form would it take?
PASTORAL CHALLENGES TO THE FAMILY IN THE CONTEXT OF EVANGELIZATION
Why does he have to do that?
Shouldn't he rather be telling Catholics what they need to think and believe? Is that not what the first Pope did? Were Saints Peter and Paul running around asking Jews and Gentiles what they thought about bigamy and homo unions?
“The always excitable National Catholic Reporter wrote, “The Vatican has asked national bishops’ conferences around the world to conduct a wide-ranging poll of Catholics asking for their opinion on church teachings on contraception, same-sex marriage, and divorce.” They went on to announce this was the first time the Church’s hierarchy has asked for such input from grassroots Catholics since at least the establishment of the synod system”
That is an absolute LIE. Below is the truth.
“Please keep in mind that the goal for this first stage of the synod process is to identify challenges related to living out the Gospel in marriages and family life. It is not about offering suggested solutions or criticizing present policies, and surely it is not about voting on what policies the Church should keep or change”.
http://www.dioceseofspokane.org/bjc_2013/bjc112113.htm
I think because he doesn’t want to get his information from the skewed polls of the press. He has to know what he’s up against in order to figure out the best approach.
Also, as I said, this was initially directed at the clergy. He wants to know, if his people are heretics, where they’re getting it from. It’s sort of like teacher accountability.
Do you not think his poll itself will be skewed? It's very subjective, requiring answers that demand more than a "yes" or "no". It's been made available to the public in England, California, Texas, etc. Some questions within the poll are already skewed towards a change in doctrine.
He wants to know, if his people are heretics, where they’re getting it from.
Nowhere in that survey is there a question of where the participant gets his heresy from. It actually asks if streamlining marriage annulments will make life better for all and if so how to do it.
It’s sort of like teacher accountability.
Like the teacher who asks his students how much homework they want to do for the next day?
ALL religions will be subverted as the Lord prepares to return and set thing right. The Bible tells us of the cesspool we will be in and that there will be a single world "religion". Religions, like the men who devised them, are fallible and subject to fail. I have heard Popes talk about the need to preserve the world from pollution/and other man-made destruction. I had to consider why a Pope would waste time on that since the Bible lets us know that our demise will not be from us destroying "Mother Earth" by polluting/drilling/cutting down forests. If one believes in the Bible, Man's damaging the environment is not a heavy topic - carrying The Word is the only topic worth taking on.
I would submit that God's humility, allowing us to make our own choices with open eyes, would be an asset to any religion if one must have a religion to follow instead of just following Christ.
Considering the intentions of the Vatican haven't brought about good fruits for over 50 years, I think concerns should be more about the intentions of the Vatican.
I was speaking of worldly affairs.
I was *not*
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