Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

AP poll: Next pope should pursue change
AP ^ | 4/4/5 | WILL LESTER

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: appoll; next; pope
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260 ... 301-302 next last
To: AntiGuv

So are your relatives Catholic or Protestant?


221 posted on 04/04/2005 10:08:53 AM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 212 | View Replies]

To: Heatseeker
I doubt he wants the job, but it would be fun to see the conclave pick the "Panzerkardinal", just to see the liberals' brains explode.

Yeah, that would be as sweet as Tom DeLay getting the Presidential nomination in 08.... The Hammer @ 1600, Panzerkardinal become Panzerpope at the Vatican, now we just need to find a new Tory in Britian to make the Trimuvirate complete....

222 posted on 04/04/2005 10:10:47 AM PDT by Schwaeky (Sede Vacante.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: AntiGuv

We're all catholics, but 1.1 billion people rightfully claim to be Catholic, which includes the Eastern Orthodox.


223 posted on 04/04/2005 10:10:55 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper ("Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it" - Pope John Paul II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 206 | View Replies]

To: kellynla

They are schismatics, and I'm the token heretic. :p


224 posted on 04/04/2005 10:11:29 AM PDT by AntiGuv (™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 221 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper

No, it does not!


225 posted on 04/04/2005 10:12:35 AM PDT by Parzival
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 223 | View Replies]

To: AntiGuv

Are you aware of The Great Schism? Just because there was a divide within the Church that came about the Great Schism, doesn't mean that the Eastern Orthodox Church suddenly lost their claim to their Catholic roots.


226 posted on 04/04/2005 10:13:36 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper ("Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it" - Pope John Paul II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 206 | View Replies]

To: Carpe Cerevisi
So, in the first place, the Church objects to contraception because it refuses to let God perform His creative act in the arena in which He chose to do it.

I like Mrs. Smith and her piece: "Contraception, Why Not?", but theologically, I object to the above statement specifically: it refuses to let God. The objection should read like this: "The Church prohibits contraception because contraception militates against the blessings of God's creative act." Sometimes God blesses the unjust in spite of their rebellion. More often, God curses the unjust in accord with their rebellion.

Galatians 6:7
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

227 posted on 04/04/2005 10:14:22 AM PDT by Theophilus (Save Little Democrats, Stop Abortion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: Ingtar
I personally hope to see a new pope willing to crack down on the American and other bishops that are not following the dictates of the church.

I do too. The problem is, there seems to be no mechanism for doing so, short of de-bishoping the bishop, which I've never heard of.

228 posted on 04/04/2005 10:15:19 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper

If you're going to add them together, then it's 1.4 billion. I'll leave it up to you to figure out why you keep hearing over and over that there are 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide.


229 posted on 04/04/2005 10:15:19 AM PDT by AntiGuv (™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 223 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur

Well, yes and no. The fact that the Synod of Trullo saw a need to legislate permission for married men to be ordained while still requiring their abstinence when "handling sacred things" indicates that the practice was well established. That the bishop of Rome refused to ratify the change in discipline also indicates that it was deeply engrained. (Rejection of Trullo was a major element in growing divergence between East and West, exacerbated in the 700s by the Iconoclasm controversy.)

One must beware of concluding from efforts to crack down on violators of a law that violations are widespread. At various times and various places between the 300s and the 1000s (you are referring to Gregory VII), married priests, concubinate priests were more or less common and efforts to enforce celibacy varied as well.

Since the attack on clerical celibacy in the Protestant Reformation, a powerful motive to exaggerate the degree of clerical concubinage has existed for Western Enlightenment/Protestant historians, who have dominated the universities in northern Europe for centuries. I do not wish to underestimate the degree to which the ancient expectation that even married priests must abstain was flouted, but the fact that it persisted over the first 1000 years speaks for its having been deeply embedded.

It's not entirely unlike the priest homosexual scandals: if you read the MSM you have the impression that at least half the priests molest little girls when in fact its a small percent molesting boys. I'm _not_ justifying these actions at all, but do notice how people with axes to grind (MSM today; Enlightenment polemicists or Reformation polemicists of the past) tend to exaggerate how widespread is the practice they are criticizing.


230 posted on 04/04/2005 10:17:13 AM PDT by Dionysiusdecordealcis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 211 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Absolutely agree.

I want a pope.

Not another politician.

We have enough d&%@*#&mn politicians already.


231 posted on 04/04/2005 10:17:40 AM PDT by djf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Heatseeker
OTOH, if they pick Ratzinger it would be safe for me to join the Church - by the time I get out of RCIA class, all the liberals will have long since drunk the purple koolaid. ;)

LOL...no kidding. I like Cdl. Ratzinger.

232 posted on 04/04/2005 10:18:11 AM PDT by B Knotts (Iohannes Paulus II, Requiescat in Pacem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 216 | View Replies]

To: BaBaStooey

JPII may be gone now, but I think the Beard is on borrowed time....


233 posted on 04/04/2005 10:18:49 AM PDT by Schwaeky (Sede Vacante.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 163 | View Replies]

To: AntiGuv
I'm not one to count beans, but you're the one who said that "...the Eastern Orthodox is NOT Catholic"
234 posted on 04/04/2005 10:19:26 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper ("Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it" - Pope John Paul II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 229 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper

I am aware of the Great Schism which is precisely the reason why Orthodox are not Catholic. They are catholic, like Catholics are orthodox though.

Eeastern Rite Catholics, such as Syrian Catholic Church, are Catholics. Orthodox Chruches, such as Russian Orthodox Church, are not. Two completely different things.


235 posted on 04/04/2005 10:19:39 AM PDT by Parzival
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 226 | View Replies]

To: kellynla
I neither Roman nor Eastern but:

I believe in the Father almighty,...the holy catholic Church... ;-)

236 posted on 04/04/2005 10:20:19 AM PDT by Theophilus (Save Little Democrats, Stop Abortion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 208 | View Replies]

To: Schwaeky

OK with me. Throw in Sabine Herold as President of France and Angela Merkel as German Chancellor and you've got a winning hand.


237 posted on 04/04/2005 10:21:51 AM PDT by Heatseeker ("I sort of like liberals now. They’re kind of cute when they’re shivering and afraid." - Ann Coulter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 222 | View Replies]

To: AntiGuv

Schismatic?
So they are Catholic!

you might try reading and understanding the links you reference


238 posted on 04/04/2005 10:23:52 AM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 224 | View Replies]

To: Loyalist
I love acid tests. Any others? There's one that begins with Credo in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem....

I grew up post VCII and I know that one..

We believe in one God, the father almighty . . .

239 posted on 04/04/2005 10:24:26 AM PDT by Schwaeky (Sede Vacante.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 186 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper
Uhh, yeah, but you're the one who said: "We're all catholics, but 1.1 billion people rightfully claim to be Catholic, which includes the Eastern Orthodox."

And there are 1.4 billion Catholics and Orthodox combined.

240 posted on 04/04/2005 10:24:49 AM PDT by AntiGuv (™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 234 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260 ... 301-302 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson