Benedict XVI Will Find a Less Than Unified Church

As an AP story from last weekend indicated, Benedict XVI will not find a problem free American Church. While the article cites two-thirds of American Catholics having a favorable view of Benedict, I have to wonder who they surveyed. Of the moderate Catholics I know, none of them like him. As for my family - which once was fairly hard core Catholic - only one of my siblings still goes to mass regularly. Even my 80 year old mother, while still going to mass routinely, ignores Benedict's pronouncements. As for my children and my college age neices and nephews, most rarely go to mass regularly and some refuse to attend Catholic services at all because they view the Church leadership as corrupt hypocrites who are not in touch with reality. In addition, the Church's anti-gay statements have alienated my children even further.

As regular leaders know, I left the Catholic Church even before I came out because the sex abuse scandal and cover up by the Church hierarchy utterly disgusted me (perhaps being a parent made it all the more upsetting and disgusting). My personal view is that at some point the Roman Catholic Church will have to come into the 21st century and accept modern science and mental health advances and knowledge. Otherwise, more and more Americans will be Catholic in name only and perhaps attend mass on Christmas and Easter. Ultimately, the Chuch will die which, given it's current hypocrital and morally bankrupt leadership, would likely be a good thing. and Here are some story highlights (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080405/ap_on_re/pope_american_church):

NEW YORK - In his visit this month to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI will find an American flock wrestling with what it means to be Roman Catholic. The younger generation considers religion important, but doesn't equate faith with going to church. Many lay people want a greater say in how their parishes operate, yet today's seminarians hope to restore the traditional role and authority of priests.

Immigrants are filling the pews, while whites are leaving them. Nearly one-third of U.S. adult Catholics are now Hispanic, and they worry about being considered a separate, ethnic church. About one-third of the more than 64 million U.S. Catholics never attend Mass, and about one-quarter attend only a few times a year, according to a 2007 study by the Center for Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. A majority never go to confession or go less than once a year. The generational split is stark: About half of Catholics born before the 1960s say they attend Mass at least once a week, compared to only 10 percent of those born since the 1980s.

The priesthood has been shrinking for decades. More than 3,200 of the 18,600 U.S. parishes don't have resident priests. Some dioceses are now hiring recruiters to travel overseas to find clergy candidates. The number of priests from other countries is growing so steadily that Seton Hall and other seminaries have been adding English classes, hiring accent reduction tutors and developing courses explaining U.S. culture — inside and outside the church.

Church buildings are aging and are badly in need of maintenance. As the Catholic population grows in the South and West, new parishes are needed. Many dioceses still haven't adjusted to the loss of free labor from nuns and priests, and are paying such low wages that turnover in schools and for other church work is high, Zech said. The Lay Faculty Association, a teachers' union, recently authorized a strike at 10 New York-area Catholic schools during Benedict's visit.
Beyond the daily expenses, dioceses have been paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in claims since the clerical sex abuse crisis erupted in 2002. Abuse-related costs for the church since 1950 have surpassed $2 billion.