COMMENTARY: Catholic pollsters find consensus on state of laity

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(AT)aol.com.) UNDATED _ In recent months, conservative Roman Catholic groups, often critical of other polling, […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(AT)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ In recent months, conservative Roman Catholic groups, often critical of other polling, have commissioned surveys of their own to determine the state of Catholicism in the United States.


Not trusting either the integrity or the honesty of the rest of us who have been studying U.S. Catholics for the last couple of decades, they have decided to do their own research.

In doing so, these groups, to some extent, violate their own principles because they have been among the most outspoken in arguing that it doesn’t matter what people think about a particular doctrine. They accuse Catholics pollsters like me of trying to arrive at matters of doctrine by counting noses, no matter how often we say surveys only tell us where people are, not where they should be.

Apparently, these conservative groups are so convinced of their own immunity from such bias that they feel they won’t fall into the same trap.

Both the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in New York and the Ignatius Press in San Francisco recently hired professional survey firms to conduct research on Catholics, conceding that surveys are a valid method to determine the minds of the laity.

As I look at their results, I find they affirm in many ways the results we have found over the years.

The Ignatius Press survey was primarily concerned with the use of”inclusive”language in the liturgy, and concluded it is not a major issue with the majority of U.S. Catholic women. Such a finding is not surprising.”Inclusive language”is not a matter that preoccupies most Catholic laity _ even if they know what the phrase means. It is an elite issue.

It does not follow, however, that the issue itself is invalid. As religious conservatives have been shouting for years, what is right and wrong is not decided by majority vote.


Beyond that issue, however, both conservative surveys present an American Catholicism that does not differ materially from that found by secular scholars or by those of us called liberal by conservatives: The vast majority of American Catholics see nothing wrong with birth control, believe under some circumstances abortion should be legal, think women can and should be ordained to the priesthood, and do not believe premarital sex is always wrong.

It is also worth noting that on such key doctrinal issues, such as the incarnation, the resurrection, and the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, most Catholics are solidly orthodox.

Sex and gender issues are the problem.

To repeat the point so it won’t be missed: It does not follow that because a majority believes something it should not make it the moral norm. All that follows is that the majority is in disagreement with church authority on these issues, and nearly 30 years of condemnation by those in authority have had no effect in changing the attitude of the majority.

Church leaders may deny that such is the situation, but to do so they must now reject the findings of the conservative-commissioned surveys as well.

Or, church leaders may privately accept the scholarly results, but feel publicly they still cannot acknowledge American Catholics so systematically reject official teachings in the areas of sex and gender.

Unfortunately, that means they cannot do the only thing possible in such a situation _ listen to how the laity and the parish clergy explain their dissent and listen to the reasons they give for disagreeing.


Pope John Paul II, in his recent statement on marriage (Familiaris Consortio), said the laity have a unique and indispensable contribution to make to the understanding of sexual matters by the church because of the gift of the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Alas, they have not had a chance to make that contribution. And it seems unlikely they ever will. Therefore, the current alienation between the teaching authority and the faithful is likely to continue.

That is most unfortunate. No progress will be made within Catholicism on matters of sex and gender until the celibate leadership of the church is willing to admit that perhaps married laity know a little more about the meaning of sex in marriage than they do.

At any rate, there now seems to be a consensus between both liberal and conservative pollsters of the actual situation of the laity.

MJP END GREELEY

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!