Bloodlust for Catholicism is far from satiated
CATHOLIC
ACTION LEAGUE CRITICIZES BOSTON GLOBE POLL OF CATHOLICS
"gloating triumphalism , based on
self-serving, heavily freighted polling data".
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE CRITICIZES
BOSTON GLOBE POLL OF CATHOLICS
The
Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized a survey of self-
identified Catholics by KRC/Communications Research conducted on behalf of The
Boston Globe.The poll results purport to show that overwhelming majorities of
Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston reject Catholic teaching on abortion,
contraception, and homosexual sodomy, and favor the ordination of women,
married men, and homosexuals to the priesthood. It also claims that 39% of
Catholics want a schismatic AmericanChurch . The survey findings were published
in yesterday's Boston Sunday Globe and today's Boston Globe.
The
Catholic Action League has characterized the survey as "gloating
triumphalism, based on self-serving, heavily freighted polling data".
Catholic
Action League Executive Director C.J. Doyle stated: "Beyond the biased and
pejorative language, the leading and loaded questions, and the obvious
omissions, the survey, by its own admission, does not represent the views of
practicing Catholics. Only 35% of respondents claimed to attend Mass weekly,
which means nearly two-thirds of those responding are either lapsed or
indifferent in the practice of their religion."
"Nor
does the survey have any way of telling us how many of these so-called
self-identified Catholics were in fact ex-Catholics, Catholics in irregular
marriages, or non-Catholics with an animus against the Church. Moreover, we
have no way of knowing how many faithful Catholics, acutely aware of the
Globe's history of Catholic bashing, simply hung up the phone when they heard
The Boston Globe mentioned, a common procedure when Globe telemarketers call.
Most importantly, such surveys invariably undercount all of the groups that
comprise the future of the Church in Boston, such as Hispanics, Haitians , Vietnamese,
Cape Verdeans, young Irish immigrants, and others who for reasons of language
or immigration status, do not participate."
"Nevertheless,
given the crisis in the Church, the hostility of the media, and the
pro-abortion voting patterns of nominal Catholics, we should not be surprised
that there are large numbers of marginal Catholics disaffected from the Church.
It is absolutely clear that a significant number of those who call themselves
Catholic, are in reality, assimilated bourgeosie cultural conformists who take
their values from society and their attitudes from the media."
"For
the Globe, this poll represents three things:
First
of all, it is a measurement of success and a proclamation of victory. For
decades, The Boston Globe has viewed the Catholic Church as an ideological
enemy, a cultural adversary, and until recently, a competitor for political
influence. The self-inflicted wounds of the homosexual molestation crisis in
the Church gave the Globe a once in a lifetime opportunity to discredit the
moral authority and destroy the public influence of an institution it has long
despised. Now, after a Cardinal has resigned, with an Archdiocese narrowly
avoiding bankruptcy, a Church besieged by lawsuits, media attacks, and
dissident demands, and parochial schools closing, the Globe wishes to savor its
triumph and humiliate Catholics by demonstrating that more Catholics embrace
the editorial opinions of the Globe rather than the moral teachings of the
Church."
"Secondly,
the poll is a warning shot fired by the Globe across the bow of the Vatican,
signaling that the Holy See ought to appoint as the next Archbishop of Boston,
an inoffensive, appeasement prone conciliator, rather than a doctrinal
conservative loyal to Rome .
Finally,
the poll reveals what the real agenda of The Boston Globe is toward the
Catholic Church. What the Globe wants is a broken, permanently defeated,
divided, dissent-ridden Catholicism ,with an American Church , separate from
Rome, and on moral issues, indistinguishable from Unitarianism, mainline
Protestantism, and Reform Judaism."
"
As we said in 2002, the removal of the Archbishop of Boston would not be the
end, but the beginning of a sustained media aggression against the Church.
Catholics are now being treated as a defeated enemy. As this survey indicates,
the Globe's bloodlust for Catholicism is far from
satiated."
.
CONTACT : C.J.
DOYLE (617) 524-6309
or
The following article from the Globe is an attempt to give the
people bread and circus.
We at FaithfulVoice.com are very happy that the Globe is not the
policy maker for The Roman Catholic Church.
Catholics want change, poll finds M Paulson, Globe 5/11/2003
Seek
archbishop open to new ideas.
Majorities
say they want the church to embrace more ''modern'' attitudes on social issues.
By
Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 5/11/2003
Boston-area
Catholics, increasingly alienated by the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked
the church, say the characteristic they would most like to see in a new
archbishop is openness to change, according to a new Boston Globe poll.
Overwhelming
majorities of Catholics living in the Archdiocese of Boston still have
favorable opinions of their own parish priests and of Pope John Paul II, and 41
percent say their faith is very important to their everyday lives.
But
nearly one in five Catholics say they have considered joining a non-Catholic
church over the past year, and 39 percent say they would support an American
Catholic church that is independent of the Vatican. Majorities say they want
the church to embrace more ''modern'' attitudes on social issues and they want
the next archbishop to be more collaborative with laypeople and priests.
The
poll found that despite a number of efforts by the archdiocese to address the
crisis, including the ouster of several dozen allegedly abusive priests, new
abuse prevention programs in all parishes, and a five-week Lenten healing and
reconciliation program, 62 percent of area Catholics now say the abuse crisis
has caused them to lose confidence in their church as an institution. That
number is actually higher than it was before the archdiocese began to respond
to the crisis, and it has grown steadily over the last 11 years, starting with
revelations that a Fall River priest, James R. Porter, was a serial pedophile,
and escalating since last year, when the Globe revealed details of the church's
mishandling of the case of the Rev. John J. Geoghan, another serial pedophile,
and dozens of other Boston-area priests.
The
poll points to a number of challenges facing the next archbishop of Boston, who
will be chosen by the pope to replace Cardinal Bernard F. Law. The archdiocese
is currently being managed by Bishop Richard G. Lennon, an interim
administrator named by the pope when Law resigned last December.
The
ranks of local Catholics who say the abuse crisis has caused them to donate
less money to the church continue to grow, with
44
percent putting themselves in that category now, up from 31 percent in an April
2002 Globe poll. Other indicators of alienation have also trended upward:
27
percent say the crisis has caused them to attend Mass less regularly;
18
percent say it has caused them to lose faith as a Christian; and
18
percent of those with children say they are now less likely to encourage their
children to practice Catholicism. Those numbers have been reflected in the pews
and the collection baskets: Church officials say attendance has dropped 14
percent, and the revenue from the church's annual fund-raising appeal dropped
47 percent, from 2001 to 2002.
Complete
results of this poll, along with results from previous surveys, will be
available online tomorrow. ''I used to give to the Cardinal's Appeal and to go
to his Garden Party [fund-raiser], but now I absolutely would not send money
and my husband would have a fit if I did,'' said Nancy Nee Hanifin, 41, of
Jamaica Plain, a title examiner who attends weekly Mass and teaches religious
education at Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence Church in Brookline. ''That's the only
way they're going to get the message,'' she said in a follow-up interview.
''They didn't care about the children, and this is the only way they're going
to change. I see a schism between us and the chancery.''
The
Boston Globe poll was conducted by telephone from May 4 through May 6 by
KRC/Communications Research, and involved 400 self-identified Catholics living
in the Archdiocese of Boston. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5
percentage points.
Although
it has been five months since Law's resignation and 16 months since the scandal
began, the poll suggests that alienation from the church is accelerating, and
not dissipating as many church officials had hoped. Fifty-three percent say
that ''modernizing church attitudes on social issues,'' an item that does not
appear on Lennon's agenda and is rarely discussed by bishops or cardinals,
would be the step most likely to bring them closer to the church.
''I
have two kids, and my daughter is asking me questions I can't answer, like why
can't a woman be a priest,'' said Jeff Bard, 45, a marketing consultant from
Rowley who says he attends Mass at St. Mary Church three of every four Sundays.
Bard cited ''openness to change'' as his top priority for the church, and
explained that by change he means ordaining women and married men, and dropping
the prohibition on the use of artificial birth control.
''The
Catholic Church for so long has relied upon dogma, and hasn't kept up with the
times, and as society has become more open and encompassing of all, the church
has stayed in its own staid pattern,'' Bard said. ''I used to accept that, but
when the crisis hit, it shook everybody up, and maybe now, instead of us always
answering to them, maybe they should answer to us.'' But a minority of those
polled say the church has already changed too much, and the crisis is proof.
''I
don't see any need for change, and as a matter of fact, I think there's been
too much change,'' said Muriel F. Finn of Quincy, who said she is in her
mid-80s and is a weekly communicant at St. John the Baptist Church. ''I don't
agree with these so-called liberal Catholics at all. The point is that the
priests who have done the molestation are homosexuals, and they pulled the wool
over the eyes of the priests in charge, and Cardinal Law didn't realize how
serious things were.''
A
plurality of local Catholics say the requirement of priestly celibacy is the
primary cause of clergy sexual abuse. An overwhelming 86 percent majority of
local Catholics -- the highest ever in a Globe poll -- say they would now
support allowing priests to marry, and 80 percent, another record in Globe
polling, say they would support the ordination of women as priests. The support
for the ordination of women and married men cuts across all demographic
categories -- even among weekly communicants and senior citizens.
Asked
to describe the ideal relationship between an archbishop and his flock, a
majority chose a middle ground, saying that the archbishop should not simply
lead or simply follow, but should respond to the views of priests and laypeople
to set a cooperative course.
An
explanation for the crisis often put forward by some conservative Catholics --
that there are too many gay men in the priesthood and those gay men have
molested adolescent boys -- finds little support from local Catholics. Only 9
percent say homosexuality in the priesthood is the primary cause of the abuse
crisis, 59 percent say they would oppose prohibiting gay men from the
priesthood, and 61 percent say they disagree with the church's position on
homosexuality.
Although
a significant plurality of local Catholics cited ''openness to change'' as the
most important quality they would like to see in their next archbishop, those
polled seem skeptical about the likelihood that the pope will choose someone
who meets their goals. Just 18 percent said they were very confident that the
pope will name an archbishop with the qualities they think are important.
But
most local Catholics surveyed also said they do not see the new archbishop as a
key factor in their faith.
And
of the 400 Catholics interviewed, 35 percent said they go to Mass at least once
a week, which, if true, means the Globe sample is more devout than the actual Catholic
population. The last archdiocesan census, taken in October, found fewer than
300,000 of 2.1 million Catholics in church on Sunday, making actual weekly
attendance less than 15 percent.
Michael
Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
This
story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 5/11/2003.
©
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper
Company.
Letters in response to The Globe Pole
Will
the Globe editors be "transparent' and reveal the sampling population that
was used in their survey? If Bishop lennon asked Catholics who attend
Mass faithfully what position they take regarding abortion, including
pre-marital sex, partial-birth abortion and abortion for sex-selection, their
position on the acts that are engaged in in homosexual sex acts and whether or
not these acts are healthy and good, whether those who engage in these acts
should be able to equate these same-sex sex acts with the complementarity
marriage act between a husband and his wife in marriage, whether human
beings in the embryonic stage of development should be used to try
to correct the problems of Parkinson disease, in fact whether or not it
is alright for a person to use another personb as an object in violation of
their personhood,among other questions, I suspect that the responses would be
far different than the responses that the Globe editors are claiming to be
representative of Catholics.
When
will the Globe editors assess the quality of the journalism work of
Michael Paulson? It appears to me that he is one of the laziest
staff members, along with former Globe staff member Jayson Blair. Paulson
always goes to the leaders of VOTF to interview them regarding Catholic issues.
It appears that that is the easiet, most convenient way for him to get his
information. He rarely ever asks really faithful Catholics who believe in the
teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for their responses to vital
issues of faith. That appears to be too much of an effort for him. In fact i
doubt that he ever even read the beliefs of the Catholic Church in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church!! It would take too much effort to get to know
the objective truth that he is pretends to be focusing on in his reports
his reports on the members ofthe Catholic Church and what they believe. How can
Paulson report on something that he has no real knowledge about? He has to be
either lazy or else is so determined to get preconceived responses in line with
his own beliefs, never tolerating anything but his own dissenting beliefs
that are the same as the VOTF leaders. His ability to be a thorough, objective
journalist is tragically skewed. All the awards in the world can't camouflage
the truth. ---Alice Slattery