"On the L&E thread I posted some statistics (polls) showing the RC Church in disagreement with a majority of the laity on issues such as contraception (overwhelmingly), marriage dissolution, and (I think) clerical celibacy."
I am very surprised at the last two.
IN the contraception matter it may be relevant to point out that what those laity who want to use ABC want is a CHANGE of doctrine. And we're still recovering from about 2-3 decades of lousy "Spirit of Vatican II" catechesis.
I am very surprised at the last two.
Rats. I remember finding two separate, seemingly credible enough polls before, but after a half hour of looking now, I cannot find them. What I did find now were several polls supporting my contention, but they are so old they are not worth citing. (Plus, they used small sample sizes.) They were from the NYT, Time, and USA Today. The basic idea was that around 60% of Catholics favor marriage for priests and around 70% favor remarriage for divorced Catholics. Based solely on my own personal experiences with lay Catholics, these numbers seem positively tame. However, it should be noted that my personal experiences, for whatever reason, have not included contact with especially devout AND learned Catholics. This is wholly unlike my experiences here with my FR Catholic friends.