c. 2003 Religion News Service

Gallup Index Reveals New Low in Public View of Organized Religion

(RNS) The Gallup Index of Leading Religious Indicators has reached its lowest level ever, demonstrating the public’s most negative overall rating for organized religion since the index began in 1940.

The index, a broad assessment of the religiosity of Americans, is based on eight measurements of religious beliefs and practices. A “perfect score” would be 1,000. The 2002 figure is 641, a 30-point drop from the 2001 figure of 671, the Gallup Organization announced Tuesday (Jan. 7).

Researchers attribute the decrease to the influence of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal. In 2002, 52 percent of Americans gave very high or high ratings to ethical standards of clergy, compared to 64 percent in 2001.

Confidence in organized religion also declined sharply. In 2002, 45 percent of Americans said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in organized religion, compared to 60 percent in 2001.

The index reached its peak of 746 in 1956. From that date, there was a gradual trend downward until 1989, when the figure reached 651. The score began a slow climb to 678 in 1998.

The index is compiled from nationwide surveys of American adults conducted throughout the year.

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Gallup Index of Leading Religious Indicators

2002: 641

2001: 671

Eight measurements on which the index is based (numbers represent percentages of those responding affirmatively in 2002 and 2001, respectively):

Belief in God, 95, 95

State religious preference, 90, 92

Member of a church, 65, 66

Attended church last 7 days, 43, 41

Religion very important in life, 60, 58

Religion answers problems, 62, 62

Great deal or quite a lot of confidence in organized religion, 45, 60

Give very high or high ratings to ethical standards of clergy, 52, 64

Source: The Gallup Organization

_ Adelle M. Banks

Americans Concerned About Poverty Despite Lower Giving

WASHINGTON (RNS) Half of Americans are afraid of becoming poor, yet the percentage of people who give to charitable organizations has dropped significantly in the past year, according to a new poll by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops.

The portion of Americans who gave to charities that help the poor fell from 41 percent to 32 percent in 2002, according to the third annual “Poverty Pulse” poll sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the bishops’ anti-poverty office.

The country also underestimates the size and scope of poverty, according to the survey. Two-thirds of respondents said poverty affects just 5 million Americans, even though 33 million people are poor, up 1.3 million from 2001.

And while a quarter of Americans said being poor meant being homeless, the reality is that only one in five poor Americans are homeless, while 29 percent of working families cannot afford basic necessities.

“Many people, because they are fearful themselves about poverty, tend to deny its existence,” said the Rev. Robert Vitillo, the CCHD’s executive director. “We tend to want to put aside those problems that disturb us and then cover them over and deny them.”

Vitillo said, however, that Americans have a more realistic idea than government leaders about how much it costs to raise a family. Respondents said it takes an average $40,000 for a family of four, while the federal government says the same family can get by on only $18,000. Vitillo noted that a single breadwinner who works a minimum wage job doesn’t even make the $18,000 figure.

The number of people who are concerned about poverty or touched by it remained stable in the past three years. Yet, when asked what is the biggest problem facing the country, only 3 percent said poverty, compared to 23 percent who cited the economy, and 22 percent who said terrorism.

The causes of poverty cited also remained mostly unchanged _ lack of education continued to top the list at 29 percent, followed by personal laziness (26 percent), lack of jobs (21 percent) and lack of good-paying jobs (15 percent).

Poor people also ranked lack of education as the top problem, but placed a lack of a living wage, unjust laws, few jobs and racial discrimination ahead of personal laziness.

When asked who should respond to the needs of the poor, 43 percent of people said the government, followed by the general public (41 percent), the poor themselves (18 percent) and churches (5 percent). The government also was cited as having done the most to help the poor, followed by charities in second place, and then churches and religious organizations.

The poll of 1,015 Americans was conducted by the Market Research Bureau and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Vitillo’s office is also running a multimedia ad campaign featuring the voices of the poor themselves and what it means to be poor in America.

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Asked what are the main causes of poverty, Americans said (top five answers):

_ Lack of education: 29 percent

_ Personal laziness: 26 percent

_ Lack of jobs: 21 percent

_ Lack of good-paying jobs: 15 percent

_ Availability of welfare: 9 percent

Asked who is responsible for helping the poor, Americans said (top five answers):

_ The government: 43 percent

_ The general public: 41 percent

_ The poor themselves: 18 percent

_ Churches: 5 percent

_ Other charities: 3 percent

Asked the best way to permanently break the cycle of poverty, Americans said (top five answers):

_ Better education for children: 20 percent

_ More education for adults: 11 percent

_ More jobs: 9 percent

_ Paying living wages to low-income workers: 4 percent

_ A better economy: 4 percent

Source: 2002 Poverty Pulse Survey/Catholic Campaign for Human Development

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Russia Marks Orthodox Christmas With Alexy Appearance

MOSCOW (RNS) Russia, the world’s most populous Orthodox Christian country, celebrated Christmas on Tuesday (Jan. 7) as leader Patriarch Alexy II made his first extended public appearance since being hospitalized in October with circulatory problems.

As a nationwide state-run television channel broadcast the elaborate midnight Christmas service live, the 73-year-old patriarch spoke clearly and moved somewhat stiffly before an estimated 5,000 worshippers in Moscow’s cavernous Christ the Savior Cathedral.

Hours later, on Christmas morning, Alexy urged viewers of government-run television “to make peace with those who you’ve offended, to remember those who you’ve forgotten in the course of everyday life” and to “share Christmas happiness with those around you and to remember that the path to God lies through those close to you.”

Although a majority of Russia’s 148 million citizens identify themselves as members of the Russian Orthodox Church, only a fraction actually attend church on Christmas, which ranks second after Easter in significance.

Last year, Moscow police estimated that 200,000 people attended Christmas services in the Russian capital, a city of 11 million residents. This year, the figure was almost certainly lower as nighttime temperatures plunged to -13 degrees Fahrenheit on the snow-covered streets.

The Russian Orthodox Church, like those in Serbia and Bulgaria, observes Christmas on Jan. 7 because it still uses the Julian calendar that lags 13 days behind and was discarded by the Western world in the 16th century. Dec. 25 is known in Russia as “Catholic Christmas” and is an ordinary working day.

Partly because of a 70-year Communist ban on Christmas celebrations in Russia, New Year’s is the country’s most important holiday, a time for exchanging gifts, gathering families and drinking even more than usual.

After nearly two months of treatment in a Kremlin hospital and at an elite sanatorium outside Moscow, the patriarch gave a series of newspaper and television interviews, perhaps to put to rest questions about his mental acuity following rumors that he had suffered a stroke rather than the hypertension the church described.

In a Jan. 4 interview with the Moscow daily Trud, Alexy spoke about the spiritual dividends of illness and confinement.

“In sickness the Lord often shows a person the way in which he should go,” he said.

_ Frank Brown

Vatican Reports Pope Saw More Than 2.8 Million Pilgrims in 2002

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In a year-end report, papal aides say more than 2.8 million pilgrims attended Pope John Paul II’s audiences, liturgical services and midday prayers at the Vatican during 2002.

The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household said that a total of 2,823,500 people gathered at the Vatican to hear the pope pray, preach and talk about religion and current events.

The number of people who turned out to see and hear the ailing 82-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff during his trips this year to Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Guatemala and Mexico has been estimated unofficially at 5 million.

The Vatican report said 410,300 people attended the pope’s 46 weekly general audiences during 2002, and he received another 11,700 at audiences for smaller groups and individuals.

A total of 1,051,000 pilgrims were present at liturgical services, including crowds of some 300,000 for the Masses at which the pope conferred sainthood on Padre Pio and Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer.

Another 1,012,000 flocked to St. Peter’s Square on Sundays and holidays to hear the pope recite midday prayers and greet them from his study window overlooking the square.

_ Peggy Polk

Vandal Rampages Through Historic Waltham Abbey

LONDON (RNS) A “mammoth task” of reconstruction faces Britain’s historic Waltham Abbey after a berserk vandal wielding a pair of hatchets rampaged through it, beheading religious statues, shattering a stained glass window and smashing a pulpit and its organ.

Damage to the abbey, reputed to be the burial site of England’s 11th century King Harold, was estimated at more than $300,000. A 47-year-old man identified as Martin Miles was charged with 11 counts ranging from assault on two men he injured to criminal damage and possession of an ax.

Canon Martin Webster said there were about a half-dozen worshippers and staff inside Waltham Abbey when the attacker, fresh from battering cars and people in the streets and inside a pub in the town, burst into the building and “ran amok.”

The man hacked away at a 19th century Nativity redodos designed by William Burges, beheading the figures of Joseph, Mary and the Three Wise Men and smashing the face of the infant Christ.

Webster said the attacker then demolished the pulpit and a lectern, wrecked the church’s organ, destroyed a funeral urn and smashed a stained glass window. “Virtually no part of the church was left undamaged,” the canon said.

The rampage “lasted five or six minutes,” Webster said. “It was not a long attack, but it caused a huge amount of damage. He got into the sanctuary and really had a go at the heart of our church. He was shouting, but it was hard to hear over the noise of him hitting things.”

Church warden Rita Blake said, “It’s going to take months, if not years, before we can get everything back to normal. This is a mammoth task we’ve got ahead of us.”

No reason for the attack could be determined immediately by authorities. “He was clearly in an agitated state, but quite determined,” Webster said. “It was upsetting, but at the time we were more concerned with making sure staff and members of the public had left the building.”

He said others, including a mother and her child, fled into the church’s crypt, where they hid in terror as the attacker chopped away. When he was finally subdued by police hurling tear gas grenades, the man said simply, “I’m sorry about that.”

_ Al Webb

Arthur H. Matthews, Longtime Religion Journalist, Dead at 69

(RNS) Arthur H. Matthews, a longtime journalist and former senior editor of World magazine, has died, the magazine announced. He was 69.

Matthews, who lived near Asheville, N.C., died early in the week of Dec. 29.

A supporter of the conservative movement within Presbyterianism, Matthews served as senior editor of the national Christian news journal from 1988 to 1994, when he retired. He previously was news officer for the Presbyterian Church in America and editor of its magazine.

A native of Louisiana, Matthews also worked as a chief press representative for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and an associate editor of Christianity Today magazine.

He was the author of “Standing Up, Standing Together,” the official history of the National Association of Evangelicals published in 1992.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Roman Catholic Bishop Wilton Gregory

(RNS) “I hope I did matter. They give a title, and we hope that we live up to the title. I hope that the contribution that I made was helpful.”

_ Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, after Time magazine named him one of 15 “People Who Mattered” in 2002 for his role in implementing new rules on sex abuse. He was quoted by the Belleville News-Democrat.

DEA END RNS