Priests’ gender and marital status priority, survey reveals

MOST Americans - Catholics and non-Catholics alike - would like to see the next pope willing to institute far-reaching changes: allowing priests to marry and women to join the priesthood.

John Paul II opposed those breaks with Church tradition during his 26 years as pontiff, and the Vatican is unlikely to move quickly to alter the rules. Yet many Americans surveyed in an Associated Press poll say it is time for the Roman Catholic Church to embrace the modern era.

Professor of sociology at Catholic University Dean Hoge said: “There is unfinished business for the Church to address. Priest shortage and ordination. John Paul II didn’t want to touch it.” The sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church has left many Catholics and other Americans convinced the next pope must do more about predatory clergy. Eighty-six percent of all Americans and 82% of Catholics surveyed said greater steps were imperative.

Perhaps partly as an outgrowth of the abuse by priests, some also are calling for a larger Church role for lay people, a notion Rome has rejected. In the AP-Ipsos survey, 62% of Americans and 63% of American Catholics favour a greater say for lay people.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans and 60% of US Catholics said the next pope should change church policies to allow priests to marry, while 25% of all Americans and 36% of Catholics said they preferred no change. Most Americans, 64%, said women should be allowed to become priests, and 60% of the surveyed Catholics agreed.