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.
Do you think they polled Catholics? Or should we all vote on Church doctrine and direction?
That, or, stay the course JPII set the Church upon, with minor course changes to keep the Catholic Church from straying too far off the path.
No, he doesn't. I was watching video of his visit to Cuba a few years back. John Paul II basically told the massive crowd something along the lines of "Do not be afraid. Jesus wants all human beings to be free."
Castro (who was in attendance) pretty much had to sit there and take it.
thanks for laying that out, it is very confusing. i was baptized in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, which is eastern rite. my mom was roman catholic, but my dad had to actually convert to Roman catholic so that my brother and i could attend catholic school, back in the 60s.
Well, you know Kerry is determined not to return to the obscurity of his 20 years in the Senate. He had an op-ed today in the Boston Herald, "Stem-cell research is pro-life," a badly conceived and badly executed congeries of genial generalities and puffy platitudes, utterly devoid of fact, logic and style. The Herald is a pay site, so I can't link, but I can't imagine anyone would want to read it anyway.
Yup -- sounds like what the MSM would like in a Pope!
Oh, yeah, and the Catholics polled also want Terri Schiavo dead too. Kill her! Kill her!
Yeah, I remember watching the Pope speak in Cuba, and Castro looked like he had been punched in the kidneys.
You still haven't documented that the Eastern Orthodox are not Catholic. I'm sure the Eastern Orthodox would be outraged to be accused of NOT being Catholic!
Perhaps parishes should be given a choice: if you want a married priest to serve you, you will have to pony up for his support. The six priests in our diocese seem to have no problems, though three of them have grown children. One, pastor of the largest parish in our diocese, has three teenage daughters. He has a celibate associate pastor.
I understand .. I don't know them and you may be correct
And using your source:
"all these Eastern-Rite Catholics of course agrees in the same Catholic Faith"
Class dismissed!
Eastern Orthodox are Catholic; they are not Roman Catholic.
I've summoned one of our brothers to address the issue.
"Eastern Orthodox are Catholic; they are not Roman Catholic."
correctomundo!
Yes I have. The link I gave you clearly states so.
I'm sure the Eastern Orthodox would be outraged to be accused of NOT being Catholic!
Pure nonsense.
We can certainly agree that anyone who attempts to ordain women is not Catholic, since they incur a latae sententiae excommunication.
I'm just getting cranky from all the liberal media whining about the Pope not ordaining women. It's a settled matter, and they ought to just shut up about it, already.
Again, your own source says different!
you might try reading your own links for a change! LOL
1. Orthodox
The first of the Eastern Churches in size and importance is the great Orthodox Church. This is, after that of the Catholics, considerably the largest body in Christendom.
****************
Classed dismissed, and you flunked.
The problem of course is that the AP writer, like most in the MSM, are completely without God and hence cannot comprehend the idea that the cardinals' decisions might be made on the basis of prayer. I suspect they think as soon as the doors of the Sistine are sealed shut, the cardinals all break out campaign signs and silly hats and have rallies and then break up into focus groups.
They're Catholic, they're just not Roman Catholic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.