NEWS STORY: Americans Want New Pope to Hear Their Voices

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) American Catholics say they want female and married clergy. They want divorced and remarried Catholics to be able to receive Communion without getting annulments. And they want some say in picking their priests. After 27 years of the papacy of John Paul II, who closed off discussion on many […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) American Catholics say they want female and married clergy. They want divorced and remarried Catholics to be able to receive Communion without getting annulments. And they want some say in picking their priests.

After 27 years of the papacy of John Paul II, who closed off discussion on many of these issues, the election of a new pope raises hopes for the possibility of change.


The nation’s 67 million Catholics do not expect major changes all at once, but they want their voices and experiences to be taken seriously by Catholic leaders, observers say.

“I think we’re approaching a tipping point in the United States; the laity are poised at the edge,” said the Rev. Donald Cozzens, author of “Faith That Dares to Speak” and former president of St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio. “If there is no ray of hope … we’re going to be like the church in Europe,” where attendance has dropped significantly.

Not everyone wants the same changes, however.

American churchgoers fall along a wide continuum of activism, even as opinion polls show that most Catholics want more liberal church polices on issues such as divorce or optional celibacy for clergy. There are also church conservatives who would like to see greater discipline exercised against dissenting priests and theologians.

“Everybody in general wants a pope to be faithful,” said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, publisher of Catholic World Report and chancellor of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla. In delivering a message from God, he said, “The role of the messenger is not to change it, or disfigure it, but to deliver it.”

There are no guarantees in a papal election. Since John Paul selected all but three of the 117 eligible cardinal electors, 115 of whom are in Rome and will be voting, one might expect little substantive change on many church policies.

But in the 1960 election, hardly anyone expected that Pope John XXIII _ considered a caretaker pontiff when he was elected _ would set in motion the sweeping changes of the Second Vatican Council. Those changes left behind the Latin Mass and priests celebrating the Eucharist with their backs to the people. Today, parish councils are the norm, altar girls assist clergy and lay men and women distribute Communion.

As the world’s cardinals prepare to pick the next pontiff, there are signs of strength in the Catholic Church in the United States. The Catholic population has grown from 49 million in 1975 to 67 million, representing about a quarter of the U.S. population.


Despite the scandal of clergy sexual abuse of minors, research shows the loyalty of Catholics remains strong. More than four in five Catholics said in a recent national study that the Catholic Church is very important to them and that being Catholic “is a very important part of who I am.” More than seven in 10 said they would never leave the Catholic Church.

There is widespread agreement that Catholics would like to see many of the qualities of the late Pope John Paul II in his successor.

Nearly universally admired are John Paul’s charismatic presence, his worldwide travels, his groundbreaking advances in interfaith and ecumenical relations and his moral voice that contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

However, there are concerns in the church John Paul left behind. Foremost in the United States is lingering anger toward and distrust of the hierarchy over the sexual abuse scandal.

A new pope will have to address whether to approve the zero-tolerance policy adopted by U.S. bishops that prohibits the return to ministry of any priest who has abused a minor. Vatican officials are concerned that the U.S. policy may be too restrictive and could violate clergy rights. But changes that would return abusive clergy to parishes “would be catastrophic,” Cozzens said.

Another practical concern is a deepening clergy shortage that limits pastoral services and creates tremendous workloads for an aging priesthood. From 1975 to 2004, the number of priests declined from 59,000 to 43,000 and the number of parishes without a resident priest more than quadrupled to 3,157, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington.


Policy changes that many believe would address the problem _ such as allowing married or women clergy _ are not expected soon.

Ordination of women priests seems a faraway goal, said Doris Donnelly, director of the Cardinal Suenens Program in Theology and Church Life at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

Her more modest hope is that the new pope would have sisters who range from professional women to single women to stay-at-home moms. Then he would have an understanding of the daily issues women face, Donnelly said.

She said Catholic women want to know, “Is somebody listening? Is somebody interested in my life?”

Others hope that women may be ordained as deacons, if not as priests, in the near future. And that under the next pope, the Holy See will be receptive to requests by U.S. church officials for greater use of gender-neutral language in church documents.

At the least, several observers said, it is essential for the church to adopt a more collaborative style of leadership.


“What we can hope for is a change in style, a pope who will encourage bishops to listen to their people, not just talk to them,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of America magazine and author of “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.”

“Right now, they (the laity) don’t feel they’re being listened to, or even treated as adults.”

Sociologist Dean Hoge of Catholic University of America in Washington said particularly at risk are young Catholics _ the most educated, most cosmopolitan group of young people in the church’s history. They have been taught to think for themselves, and an authoritative approach does not work, Hoge said.

“I have been amazed at how alienated people feel,” he said.

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Still, liberals, conservatives and most Catholics in between agree that they want the next pope to be a holy person.

“There is nothing more compelling and inspiring than authentic witness. If he uses his own gifts and talent and personality, then he will be inviting and inspirational to the next generation of church leaders and members,” said the Rev. Robert Stec, vocations director for the Diocese of Cleveland.

“You don’t know where the wind comes from and you don’t know where the wind goes,” Stec said. “If there’s a genuine openness to the spirit of God … the next pope will bring a fresh heart to all the issues and concerns that face the church.”


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(David Briggs is religion reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at dbriggs(at)plaind.com.)

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