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.
The image of Cardinal Ratzinger or Arinze in a campaign hat....ROTF!
It was infallibly taught in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. This was confirmed by the Curia.
Women's Ordination: It's Infallible
Game over.
************
I think you're right.
That is what I get for listening to the MSM about the bishop and his stand.
Correct.
(And you made some huge leaps to incorrect conclusions)
There's one that begins with Credo in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem....
Thank God no American Cardinal has a chance of being elected Pope.
My latin is rusty. Interpret please.
Are you saying that a person that rejects the infallibly taught doctrines and dogmas of the Church, in full knowledge, is still a Catholic in good standing?
But it's not a teaching that would or should get someone kicked out of the Church, or even avoid the Eucharist over.
Where did I say that?
I've obviously been using Catholic in the typical sense of Roman Catholic, and not in the sense of claiming universality. If that wasn't clear, now it is.
I should add that my point in this is not some kind of triumphalism, but merely to point out the utter invalidity of this poll. What "self-identified Catholics" think about the teaching of the Church is not really very useful to know.
Please enlighten me. Simply stating that a person is jumping to incorrect conclusions without even stating why you believe so is most pretentious. I read your previous post as meaning that, while the Church should not allow itself to be completely ruled by the petty opinions of American Catholics, it should still lend those opinions credence by paying serious attention to them in deciding its positions.
And, might I add, the debate was over whether the Eastern Orthodox were Eastern Rite Catholics. At the point when I used "Catholic" alone, I was clearly doing so as shorthand for "Eastern Rite Catholic"...
Quite the oposite. Eastern Orthodox would be outraged to be accused of being Catholic. At least with a capital c.
Catholic with a lower-case c is a completely different thing!
Same with Catholics. They say they are orthodox, but they are definitely not Orthodox.
Only after it was made clear to you that there is a difference.
It is useful to know insofar as to determine how effective or ineffective those who charged with imparting the teaching of the Church have been.
But the creed says more about being a Christian than a Roman Catholic.
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