Most American Catholics Ignore the Pope and Vatican on Moral Guidance

A new Pew Research Center survey contains more bad news for the Vatican and Pope Francis - most Catholics look to their own conscience rather than the Pope and/or Church dogma for moral Guidance.  Thus, one has to wonder why the media is so breathlessly reporting Church synods on the families or Pope Francis' recent blather about divorced Catholics and gays which did nothing to change long standing Church misogyny.  Here are some sample findings:

About three-quarters of U.S. Catholics (73%) say they look to their own conscience “a great deal” for guidance on difficult moral questions. Far fewer Catholics say they rely a great deal on the Catholic Church’s teachings (21%), the Bible (15%) or the pope (11%) for such guidance.

Catholics who are highly religious are more likely than less religious Catholics to turn to church teachings, the Bible or the pope for guidance on difficult moral questions. Still, far fewer highly religious Catholics say they rely a great deal on any of these three sources for guidance on tough moral questions than say they rely on their own conscience.

Among those who identify as "Nones" church attendance and/or holding religious belief is viewed as having little bearing on whether or no one is a moral person.  Indeed, honesty is one of the aspects that is seen as something that is essential to being a moral person.  Ironically, among Christofascists, honesty holds little value given the incessant lies that they disseminate about others.  Here is some of what Pew found in this regard:

Relatively few religious “nones,” who make up 78% of the non-Christians surveyed, say religious beliefs or behaviors are central to what it means to be a moral person. For example, only about three-in-ten respondents without any religious affiliation say believing in God is either essential (13%) or important but not essential (18%) to what being a “moral person” means to them. And only about one-in-ten religious “nones” say attending religious services is essential (2%) or important but not essential (10%) to what it means to be a moral person. By contrast, about half or more of the unaffiliated say honesty and gratitude are essential to being a moral person.

Bruni: On Same-Sex Marriage, Catholics Are Leading the Way

Despite the efforts of the bitter old men in dresses - a significant number of whom are likely self-loathing closet cases - the Catholic laity is leading the way in advanced nations in supporting same sex marriage.  It goes without saying that I find a delicious irony in this.  I also see it as a result of the Church hierarchy's own doing through the protection of sexual predator priests, to meddling in matters sexual that they know nothing about, to the continued subordination of women to men.  The official Church position may still hold sway in ignorant, backward parts of the world but it simply doesn't sell in modern parts of the world where Catholics look to their consciences first and increasingly ignore Vatican fiats.  A column in the New York Times looks at the phenomenon.  Here are some highlights:

Take a look at this list of countries: Belgium, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, France, Uruguay, Luxembourg and Ireland. Name two things that they have in common.

They don’t share a continent, obviously. Or a language. But in all of them, the Roman Catholic Church has more adherents, at least nominally, than any other religious denomination does.

And all of them belong to the vanguard of 20 nations that have decided to make same-sex marriage legal.

Ireland, obviously, is the freshest addition to the list. It’s also, in some ways, the most remarkable one. It’s the first country to approve same-sex marriage by a popular referendum. The margin wasn’t even close. About 62 percent of voters embraced marriage equality.

Irish voters nonetheless rejected the church’s formal opposition to same-sex marriage. This act of defiance was described, accurately, as an illustration of church leaders’ loosening grip on the country.

But in falling out of line with the Vatican, Irish people are actually falling in line with their Catholic counterparts in other Western countries, including the United States.

They aren’t sloughing off their Catholicism — not exactly, not entirely. An overwhelming majority of them still identify as Catholic. But they’re incorporating religion into their lives in a manner less rooted in Rome.

We journalists too often use “the Catholic Church” as a synonym for the pope, the cardinals and teachings that have the Vatican’s stamp of approval.

But in Europe and the Americas in particular, the church is much more fluid than that. It harbors spiritually inclined people paying primary obeisance to their own consciences, their own senses of social justice. That impulse and tradition are as Catholic as any others.

Catholics in the United States appear to be more, not less, progressive about gay rights than Americans in general are. . . . about 60 percent of Americans who called themselves Catholic said that they approved of same-sex marriage, versus about 30 percent who didn’t.

And yet, interestingly, the qualms that certain public figures have about same-sex marriage are routinely explained — by the media, and sometimes by those people themselves — as ineluctable consequences of their Catholicism.

But seldom does anyone point out that this explanation puts these men in the minority, not majority, of Catholics in the United States. Their stances win them more political favor among Baptists than among Catholics.

For this large and diverse group in the United States and other Western countries, same-sex marriage has rapidly gained favor and Catholic leaders’ expressions of protest, such as firing employees who marry same-sex partners or speak up for marriage equality, are becoming untenable.

I wonder, especially in light of comments by Diarmuid Martin, the archbishop of Dublin, after the Irish referendum. He noted “a growing gap between the culture of Ireland” and the church, which, he said, “needs to take a reality check.” He meant that its leaders do, and they can turn not just to Ireland but to many other densely Roman Catholic countries to gauge the hearts and souls of Catholics today.

U.S. Muslims and Hindus More Accepting of Gay Marriage that Evangelicals

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While homophobia and anti-gay laws (and violence) remain significant problems in the Middle East and India, a new Public Religion Research Institute study reveals that American Muslims and Hindus are more accepting of gays and same sex marriage than the "godly" evangelical Christian crowd.  These findings underscore just how extreme evangelical Christians are and show that "non-American religions" from the perspective of the Republican Party are more assimilated into main stream American culture than the Bible thumpers and their sycophants in the GOP.  Leading the pack in the knuckle dragger set are the Jehovah's Witness (16% support) followed by the evangelical Baptists (23%) and Mormons (27%).  

On the modernity embracing side, 61% of Catholics support same sex marriage signally the reality that Pope Francis and the bitter old men in dresses at the Vatican have lost the anti-gay jihad still pushed by Rome.   Among Muslims, 42% support marriage equality and among Hindus, support is at 55%.  Here are highlights of other findings:

The most supportive major religious groups are Buddhists (84 percent), Jews (77 percent), and Americans who select “Other religion” (75 percent); additionally, more than three-quarters (77 percent) of the religiously unaffiliated also support same-sex marriage.

More than six in ten (62 percent) white mainline Protestants support same-sex marriage. Among white mainline Protestant denominations, support ranges from 69 percent support among white mainline Presbyterians and 68 percent among both white Episcopalians and white Congregationalists/United Church of Christ members, to lower support among white mainline Baptists (53 percent) and white mainline Church of Christ/Disciples (50 percent).

And while the Catholic Church officially opposes the legalization of same-sex marriage, about six in ten white (61 percent), Hispanic (60 percent), and other non-white Catholics (60 percent) support allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally. A majority of orthodox Christians (56 percent) also support same-sex marriage.

The study findings further confirm that the GOP is pandering to a shrinking ignorance embracing demographic.

The Pope and American Catholics See Climate Change as a Crisis

In yet another bad sign for the ignorance embracing Republican Party, the Pope is preparing to release an encyclical—or "papal letter"—that will be sent to churches worldwide which calls for call for action on climate change.  Surveys show that a majority of American Catholics agree with the Pope's assessment of the crisis. No doubt Fox News, GOP Senator James Inhofe, and American fundamentalist Christians will describe all of this as part of an international conspiracy to further the climate change "hoax" as they call it.  Mother Jones looks at the Pope's planned action and Catholic support for it.  Here are excerpts:

Pope Francis, the leader the Catholic Church, is closing out 2014 in his typically headline-grabbing fashion. . . . Next on his list? Climate change.

Over the weekend, the Guardian reported that the pope will issue the first-ever comprehensive set of Vatican teachings on climate change, in the form of an encyclical—or "papal letter"—sent to churches worldwide. He will also personally lobby for climate action action in a series of high profile meetings ahead of the all-important UN global warming negotiations in Paris next year. From the Guardian:

Following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated…by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world's 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners. According to Vatican insiders, Francis will meet other faith leaders and lobby politicians at the general assembly in New York in September, when countries will sign up to new anti-poverty and environmental goals.

Mobilizing believers to embrace climate action could be a very big deal, given the sheer number of people who identify as Catholic in the US—around 75 million—he said. "If we had just a fraction of those acting on climate change, it would be bigger than the networks of some of the biggest environmental groups in the US," he said. "That could help change the way we live our lives, and impact our views on public policy."

The impact would be felt beyond Catholicism too, said Mary Evelyn Tucker, director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University. She called the forthcoming letter "one of the most important documents on the moral implications of what we are doing to our planet." 

[W]ould America's Catholics welcome climate advocacy from the pope? Recent polling by the Public Religion Research Institute and the American Academy of Religion suggests that many would.

** Nearly three-quarters of Hispanic Catholics surveyed agree that climate change constitutes a "crisis" or a "major problem." The same is true for a majority (53 percent) of white Catholic respondents.

** Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of Catholics surveyed said climate change is the "most pressing" environmental issue we face.

** Majorities of all groups surveyed—including 69 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 63 percent of white Catholics—agree that dealing with global warming now will help prevent economic calamities in the future.

Pew Study: Influence of Religion is Waning; 1/3 Of Republicans Oppose GOP Gay Marriage Stance

It's no secret that I believe religion is a toxic element in society - both here in America and across the globe.  While some try to point to charity work done by religious bodies to argue that religion is no a source of evil, if one totals up the deaths world wide from religious strife, especially over the centuries, and the hate and division that religion breeds, those "good works" pale in comparison to the carnage.  And not surprisingly, the Abrahamic religions seem to lead the way in their toxicity.   In the political realm, the GOP's opposition to marriage equality is seeing more Republicans complain that the GOP is too conservative.  And Catholic support for gay marriage suggests that the issue is a loser for the GOP, especially among Hispanic Catholics (the Vatican hopefully is paying attention) Commonweal looks at some of the new findings.  Here are highlights:

Yesterday Pew Research released the results of a new survey of public attitudes on the place of religion in political life. The major finding, as you may have seen, is that nearly three-quarters of Americans now say the influence of religion is waning. That figure is up more than twenty points--from 51 percent to 71--since 2001, when Pew first began measuring the trend.

Pew's research turned up a bunch of interesting findings related to same-sex marriage. Some of that data may surprise you, as it may prove frustrating to leading opponents of gay marriage.

The new survey shows a slight drop in support for gay marriage: 49 percent of Americans support it--that's down five points from February's survey. That may mean nothing. (Just as the finding that a five-point rise in the percentage of Americans who believe homosexuality is sinful may hold little meaning.) The year-over-year trend in support of gay marriage remains clear.

Less clear, however, is how the GOP will negotiate its positions on gay marriage, given how many self-identified Republicans are unhappy with the way their party handles that issue.

Pew Research asked Republican respondents how well the GOP was representing their own views. When it comes to gay marriage, just 34 percent of Republicans agree that the GOP is doing a good job. Of the 53 percent who think the Republican Party is doing a bad job, nearly one-third say it's because the party is too conservative on the issue. Just 22 percent say it's because the GOP is too liberal.

While most white Evangelicals are unhappy with the GOP's handling of gay marriage--no surprise there--among non-Evangelical Republicans, more say the party is too conservative than say it's too liberal.

Just 44 percent of all Catholics believe "homosexual behavior" is a sin, while 49 percent say it's not. For white Catholics, those numbers are just about reversed, but not for Hispanic Catholics. Fifty-six percent say homosexual behavior is not a sin--just 38 percent say it is.

Fifty-two percent of all Catholics support gay marriage, while 35 percent oppose it. Among whites, just 32 percent oppose gay marriage, while half support it. Hispanic Catholics favor same-sex marriage by 55 percent--29 percent are against it.

[P]erhaps leaders of the anti-gay-marriage movement might consider what this data means for the way the people they're trying to persuade receive their message.

American Catholics Lead in Support for Gay Marriage

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Having been raised Catholic I am well aware of the reality that many Catholics - perhaps most, in fact - simply ignore the attempted dictates from the Vatican and its enforcers in bishoprics around the country.  These Catholics put their conscience and modern knowledge ahead of the pronouncements of bitter old men in dresses who rarely have a clue about living in the real world, much less the modern world.  A new survey shows that American Catholics are particularly independent when it comes to supporting gay marriage.  It also shows that for the most part around the world areas with higher levels of education likewise are supportive of marriage equality.  While Europe may appear an exception to this rule, one must remember that likely a majority of those raised in the Church no longer even go to Church and that the numbers are skewed towards the small flock of Catholics who still remain in the Church.  Here are highlights from a piece in the Washington Post:

A new poll of Catholics worldwide by Spanish-language network Univision confirms something we have known for a while now. Despite the thunder from the Vatican against same-sex marriage, a majority of American Catholics support marriage equality.

Given the horrible treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Africa, it’s no surprise that 99 percent of Catholics on that continent are against same-sex marriage. Catholics in the Philippines (84 percent), Latin America (57 percent) and Europe (56 percent) also oppose marriage equality. But in the United States, 54 percent of Catholics surveyed “support marriage between two persons of the same sex.”

If you’re surprised by this then you’ll be surprised to know that Catholics in this country have been at the forefront of acceptance of same-sex relationships for years now. In June 2010, I wrote about how they (and men) were the best friends of the gays. According to a Gallup poll then, 62 percent called same-sex relationships “morally acceptable.”

In March 2011, The Post-ABC News poll asked about support of same-sex marriage. An astounding 63 percent of white Catholics thought it should be legal. That same month a poll from Public Religion Research Institute revealed that Catholics were more supportive of LGBT issues than the general population.

In short, the Univision poll shows once again that Catholics lead the way on same-sex marriage. Well, at least here in the United States.

It is also possible that the size of the sex abuse scandal in the American Church and the reality that there are literally daily disclosures of more crimes against children in which American bishops have been complicit has fueled the realization by American Catholics that the Church hierarchy has no legitimacy when it comes to morality.   The Church's idiotic opposition to contraception has likewise fueled the practice of ignoring most of what the Vatican has to say.

Catholic Archbispop: Catholics Who Support Gay Marriage Not Welcome at Communion

With new stories about sexually abusive priests emerging almost daily, more priest being belatedly removed for past abuse and government investigations of the Church occurring in countries like Australia, what does Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron (pictured at left) worry about?  Gay marriage and punishing members of the Catholic laity who support gay marriage.  Detroit's horrific economic problems and the many citizens in need of assistance apparently isn't even on the radar in comparison.  Would that all the Catholics whom Vigneron has dis-invited from receiving communion would walk away and no longer the doorways of their parishes.  The Detroit Free Press looks at this latest round in the Church hierarchy's increasingly shrill anti-gay jihad.  Here are excerpts:

A Detroit professor and legal adviser to the Vatican says Catholics who promote gay marriage should not try to receive holy Communion, a key part of Catholic identity.  And the archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, told the Free Press Sunday that Catholics who receive Communion while advocating gay marriage would "logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury."

The comments of Vigneron and Edward Peters, who teaches Catholic canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, are part of a polarizing discussion about gay marriage that echoes debate over whether politicians who advocate abortion rights should receive Communion.

In a post on his blog last week, Peters said that Catholic teachings make it clear that marriage is between one man and one woman. And so, "Catholics who promote 'same-sex marriage' act contrary to" Catholic law "and should not approach for holy Communion," he wrote. "They also risk having holy Communion withheld from them ... being rebuked and/or being sanctioned."

Peters didn't specify a Catholic politician or public figure in his post. But he told the Free Press that a person's "public efforts to change society's definition of marriage ... amount to committing objectively wrong actions."

Peters has said before that liberal Catholic Democrats, such as U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, should be denied Communion because of their statements and positions.

In 2011, Peters said that Cuomo should not receive Communion because he is an outspoken proponent of gay marriage. Last month, Peters said, "Pelosi suffers from one of the most malformed consciences in the annals of American Catholic politics or ... she is simply hell-bent on using her Catholic identity to attack Catholic values at pretty much every opportunity."

Given the Church's history of being wrong on scientific knowledge, previous support for slavery, support for brutal repressive regimes, one would think these  homophobes would be a tad more circumspect in their pronouncements.  The sooner they and the views they endorse are thrown on the trash heap of history, the better off the world will be.

Catholics Lead Americans in Acceptance of Gay Marriage

Public Religion Research Institute will release a major new research report of Catholic attitudes on gay and lesbian issues. The news for those who support marriage equality is good but not so good if one is a self-loath closet case in the Church hierarchy or self-enriching political whore Maggie Gallagher. Benedict XVI's anti-gay jihad is clearly not working in the USA. he report indicates that American Catholics increasingly ignore the Church leadership's rampant homophobia and efforts to keep LGBT citizens second or third class citizens. Catholic scholar Michele Dillon, professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, is among the national experts who will discuss the new research during a teleconference that can be joined as follows: CALL-IN INFORMATION: 877-760-6922, Call Title: “Catholic Attitudes on LGBT Issues.” Please RSVP to Shannon Craig Straw at sstraw@publicreligion.org to reserve your spot and to receive the conference code. Here are highlights of the research findings:
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* Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall.
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* Defining same-sex marriage as a civil marriage dramatically increases support among Catholics.
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* Beyond same-sex marriage, Catholic support for rights for gays and lesbian people is strong and slightly higher than the general public.
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* Compared to the general church-going public, Catholics are significantly less likely to hear about the issue of homosexuality from their clergy, but those who do are much more likely to hear negative messages.
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* Compared to other religious groups, Catholics are significantly more likely to give their church poor marks on how it is handling the issue of homosexuality.
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Again, not good news for the bitter old queens in dresses at the Vatican.

Bogus Claim of War Against Catholics

I'm not sure where he is getting his information from, but Michael Gerson has a whiny column in the Washington Post alleging that Barack Obama has "declared war" on Catholics. It seems that Gerson must be listening too much to nutcase William Donohue of the Catholic League and members of the morally bankrupt Church hierarchy rather than rank and file Catholics who, according to a new Gallup survey do not support the Vatican's take on many issues to the extent some would have you believe. Much of the noise seems to derive from Obama's scheduled visit to Notre Dame to give the commencement address. It would seem to me that the outrage - both real and feigned - would be better directed towards demanding mass resignations of the bishops, cardinals and the Pope who enabled or covered up for sexual predator priests. But that would require independent thinking - something that is abhorrent to traditionalist Catholics. First some highlights from Gerson's column:
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Some friends who are loyal alumni of Notre Dame are distressed that God's alma mater is hosting a pro-choice president at commencement. For decades, they argue, Notre Dame has accommodated, legitimated and enabled pro-choice views, compromising its identity as a Catholic institution. They question the wisdom of the Obama invitation, which they believe adds to that confusion. But some critics go further, calling President Obama's appearance "an outrage and a scandal." And that goes too far.
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A number of Catholic thinkers set out a "pro-life, pro-Obama" position -- disagreeing with Obama's pro-choice views but trusting in his moderate instincts and conciliatory temperament.So far, Obama has done little to justify this faith. His initial actions on life issues -- funding overseas abortion providers, removing restrictions from federally funded medical experimentation on human embryos, revisiting conscience protections for pro-life health-care professionals -- have ranged from conventional to radical.
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Catholics are having second thoughts, but it could get much worse. If the president and Congress are not careful on several issues, these concerns could open a major rift between the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party. First, Obama has raised deep concerns among Catholic leaders by signaling that he will overturn Bush's executive order protecting health workers from firing and discrimination if they refuse to perform actions they consider morally objectionable.
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I think the key words in Gerson's column is "Catholic leaders" which most likely means the hierarchy and the William Donohue style of Catholics who seem to think they are always being persecuted even when they are the ones doing the persecution. I suspect that Gerson needs to stop listening to the same Church officials who claimed they knew nothing about the rampant sex abuse problem within the church. They lied about that and they are lying now. Here are some findings from Gallup:
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PRINCETON, NJ -- Despite the Roman Catholic Church's official opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, a Gallup analysis finds almost no difference between rank-and-file American Catholics and American non-Catholics in terms of finding the two issues morally acceptable.
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The argument of those who protest the extension of the invitation to Obama [to speak at Notre Dame] is that Catholics have a distinctly conservative position on these moral issues. That is certainly the case as far as official church doctrine is concerned, but not when it comes to average American Catholics. The new Gallup analysis, based on aggregated data from Gallup's 2006-2008 Values and Beliefs surveys, indicates that Catholics in the United States today are actually more liberal than the non-Catholic population on a number of moral issues, and on others, Catholics have generally the same attitudes.
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Catholics are at least slightly more liberal than non-Catholics on the issues of gambling (an issue to which the Catholic church is not totally opposed), sex between an unmarried man and woman, homosexual relations, and having a baby out of wedlock. Catholics are essentially tied with non-Catholics on the moral acceptability of abortion, divorce, and stem-cell research using human embryos.

What the Pope [Did Not] Accomplished

With Benedict XVI's trip to the U.S. completed, a number of media outlets are running fluff stories like this one in Newsweek about "what the Pope accomplished." In my cynical view, other than receiving brown nosing from disingenous wingnut politicians (e.g., think of the Chimperator) and tossing out insincere apologies for the massive sex abbuse scandal within the American Catholic Church, Benedict XVI accomplished nothing of substance. Yes, he received cheers from choreographed crowds Catholic school children - who are still not adequately protected from predators within the Church - and aging nuns and employees of Catholic Schools. And he proved that there are still many Kool-Aid drinkers in the Church who refuse to see the Church hierarchy for the bunch of pompous, insincere phonies that they are. But nothing of true importance has changed. No thorough house cleaning of bishops and cardinals who covered up sex abuse was promised nor was any promise made that the Church would stop opposing legitimate claims by abuse victims and engaging in legal manuevers worthy of Maifia Dons. As the saying goes, talk is cheap and all Benedict XVI did was talk. No action. Here are a few highlights:

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"I will do all possible to be a real successor to Peter, who also was a man with all his faults and sins but who remains finally the rock for the church," the pontiff said in his thick German accent, speaking slowly and deliberately. The moment seemed to catch everyone off guard, including the row of journalists seated next to the altar.

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The words were an addendum to the pontiff's homily, in which for the fifth time during his five-day tour of America Benedict addressed the issue most prominent during his trip: the sexual abuse scandals that shook the American church six years ago and have cost it more than $2 billion in settlements, not to mention moral authority in the minds of many.

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But even if Benedict's messages were well received, the fruits of his work in America won't be seen overnight. (Victims of pedophile priests, in particular, are waiting to see if there are changes in church law that deal more harshly with abusive priests and the bishops who may have covered up for them.)

The Sinking Catholic Ship - On The Titanic's Deck

I missed this column in last week's Washington Post by Susan Jacoby - a former Catholic like me - which gives what I believe is a good perspective on the Catholic Church in America. As she points out, but for the influx of hispanic Catholics into the country, the number of U.S. Catholics would be declining, something the Church leadership and the news media both fail to acknowledge. Personally, I hold out little hope for any change in direction of the Church because Benedict XVI and the rest of the current leadership continues to appoint fellow reactionaries to the College of Cardinals thereby insuring that the next Pope will be as equally out of touch with reality as Benedict XVI who stirkes me as thinking of himself as a modern day Augustus Caesar. Here are some column highlights:

The most significant fact about modern American Catholicism appears in a recent report on the changing U.S. religious landscape by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Although 31 percent of Americans were raised as Roman Catholics, only 24 percent consider themselves Catholics today. One in ten adult Americans--a stunning figure--have left the church for another religion or have abandoned organized religion altogether. The saying, "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic," a favorite maxim of the nuns in the parochial schools I attended, is no longer true.

In 1960, 5.4 million children attended American Catholic schools. Today, the figure is down to 2.4 million and falling. More Catholic schools close every day. Two-thirds of Catholic seminaries have closed since 1965; during the same period, the number of young men training for the priesthood dropped from 49,00 to 4,700. There were nearly 180,000 nuns in 1965; today, there are fewer than 67,000.

There is absolutely nothing that Pope Benedict can do to reverse the decline of his church's authority over American Catholics. Don't be deceived by the television coverage of the pope's visit, which will surely emphasize the positive--the crowd that will show up at Yankee Stadium for the pope's public mass, the platitudes about religious pluralism that will emerge from everyone's mouth as this man who considers himself infallible in matters of faith and morals pretends to be open-minded and tolerant.

During the early 60s, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, under Pope John XXIII, aroused the hopes of many Catholics who wanted the church to abandon its strictures against contraception and divorce, who wanted priests to be able to marry, and who later wanted women admitted to the priesthood. When John died, and was replaced by increasingly conservative successors, it became clear that those hopes for liberalization and reform would not be realized.

Nearly three decades later, the scandal of priestly pedophilia finished the work that the disappointments of the sixties had begun. The church tried to stonewall at first. When that failed, and an angry laity took its case to the press (both Catholic and secular), the church began to try to hush the victims of sexual abuse with financial settlements. What the church did not do was acknowledge its moral culpability as an institution and try to repair the lives that its priests, in many cases with the full knowledge of their ecclesiastical superiors, had devastated. I don't think anything that Benedict could possibly say, at this late date, could restore the kind of faith that makes even many former Catholics say, with nostalgia, "It was the only THE church."

Papal Disconnect

Dan Barry has a column in the New York Times that describes much of the felling I had before I finally gave up and left the Roman Catholic Church - or it left me. In some ways, I believe it was the latter. My faith and beliefs have actually changed very little and my moral standards likewise remain pretty much the same. What changed was that I could no longer quell my impatience and disgust with a senile, morally bankrupt, aloof and utterly discontected Church leadership that (1) knows little - and cares even less - about the actual lives of their flock, (2) has no concept whatsoever of what it is to be a spouse or parent, and (3) cares more about appearances and the equivalent of ritualistic bellybutton contemplation than doing what is morally right - e.g., truly punishing and/or removing those who allowed sex abuse of children to occur and then did all they could to cover it up. Here are some highlights from Barry's column:

Let me say at the outset that I am your classic stumbling, grumbling, trying-to-sort-it-all-out American Catholic. I consider myself a practicing Catholic because I dearly need the practice. My family and I attend Sunday Mass with some regularity, though not always at the same parish — in case anyone is taking attendance.

Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the United States this week, a tour that will include touchstones in my own life — ground zero, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Yankee Stadium — and will attract throngs of American Catholics. Still, beyond the fact that I’m not much of a throng guy, I will not be among those craning their necks for a glimpse. I feel a palpable papal disconnect.

The disconnection I feel may be rooted in the good old American distrust of monarchs and frippery. And, unlike American Catholics of 150 years ago, I do not feel the sting of prejudice that would cause me to embrace the pope in defiant declaration of my faith. Since the day my in-laws first displayed their papal blessing nearly 50 years ago, much has happened to wear away at the authority of the pope. For stumbling, grumbling worshipers like me, though, obedience to the pope has morphed into a respectful taking of his pronouncements under advisement — a cafeteria-like approach that drives more rigid Catholics to the brink of saying the Lord’s name in vain.

As Peter Steinfels, the Beliefs columnist for The New York Times, recently noted, there is nothing particularly new in this tension. He wrote that many American Catholics “honor the pope yet disagree with papal positions, whether about using contraception, restricting legal access to abortion, ordaining married men or women to the priesthood or recognizing same-sex relationships.” I would add to that list disgust, more than mere disagreement, with the way the church has handled the priest scandals of the last decade.

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.