Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 7, 1995 TAG: 9510090004
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BRIGGS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Tens of thousands of youths from across the country flocked to Denver two years ago to join him in celebrating World Youth Day. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, designed by the pontiff to serve as a compendium of church teaching, has sold millions of copies, and the pope's own book - ``Crossing the Threshold of Hope'' - was a best seller.
But if the pope is beloved personally, new research indicates that his vision of the church sharply contrasts with the vision of American Catholics, and that the gulf has increased rather than diminished during his papacy.
In a summer 1995 survey directed by Purdue University, only about four in 10 U.S. Catholics born after 1941 said it is important for people to obey the Catholic Church's teachings even if they don't understand them.
And in a new book due out in December, four prominent Catholic researchers report that American Catholics from the most to the least committed, from old to young adults, desire a greater say in church affairs.
In a 1993 Gallup survey, three-quarters of American Catholics said they should have a say in selecting parish priests, and six in 10 said they should have the right to participate in setting church policy on birth control, divorce and the ordination of women.
Less than a quarter of U.S. Catholics said church leaders alone should have the final moral authority on issues from sex outside of marriage to divorce and remarriage. That figure represented a substantial drop from a 1987 survey, when as many as 34 percent would accede final moral authority to the hierarchy, according to the upcoming book ``American Catholic Laity: Transforming the Church.''
Despite the desire of U.S. Catholics for a more democratic church, many observers see in John Paul's papacy an attempt to restore more central control over the church here.
Examples include his decision to discipline liberal Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and former Catholic University of America theologian Charles Curran. The Vatican also has attempted to impose stricter guidelines on Catholic universities and, in a rebuff to U.S. bishops, held up the English-language version of the new catechism until masculine language could be restored throughout.
On two issues that American Catholics clearly favor, lifting the ban on women and married priests, the pope has declared the discussion closed and allowed no further debate.
In interviewing a random sample of American Catholics, the Purdue researchers encountered divided opinions about the papacy: Many U.S. Catholics love John Paul and believe in the office of pope, but most have decided to follow their own consciences on a range of issues where the Vatican claims the church has spoken authoritatively.
On the positive side, more than seven in 10 Catholics in the Purdue study said the pope is the vicar of Christ on Earth, and more than six in 10 said the church should put more emphasis on traditional teachings.
The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, director of the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York City, said the pope is no longer dismissed as reactionary and that priests and theologians are listening to his eloquent appeals on behalf of the freedom and dignity of all human beings.
Historically, when his achievements are reviewed, it is very likely that the grandchildren of U.S. Catholics will call him ``John Paul the Great,'' Neuhaus said.
Still, being well-liked has not meant the pope has been able to lead U.S. Catholics around to the hierarchy's way of thinking on issues from sexuality to church governance, surveys indicate.
The church's refusal to ordain women priests and the ban on birth control has contributed to a significant lessening of commitment among people in the pew, according to a 1993 Gallup survey.
Even a majority of the most committed Catholics, those who go to church at least once a week and say the church is one of the most important influences in their life, want to participate in picking their priests and developing church policy on divorce, birth control and women priests, said William D'Antonio of the Catholic University of America, one of four researchers who put together ``American Catholic Laity: Transforming the Church.''
Any attempt by Vatican officials to restore the image of the church as a pyramid with the pope on top is doomed to failure, said the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at Notre Dame and editor of ``The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism.''
``Whether they like it or not, it's going to change,'' he said. ``It has to change.''
Catholics look at the pope and admire his strength of will, McBrien said, but ``They really say to themselves, if not their neighbors and friends ... `He's an old and sick man. The pope will change.' ''
James Davidson of Purdue, one of D'Antonio's co-authors, said that in their interviews, U.S. Catholics have made it clear the pope does not walk in their shoes and that they are deciding moral issues on their own.
According to Davidson, Catholics basically said to the researchers: ``That does not diminish my belief that the pope is a good, moral man, that he is the vicar of Christ on Earth. But that has nothing or little to do with my life here.''
by CNB