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Canada's Roman Catholics differ with many basic tenets of the church
Episcopal News Service
Issue:
Section:
2002-188-5
Posted: Thursday, August 08, 2002
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A poll conducted among Canada's Roman Catholics shortly before the arrival of Pope John Paul II for July's World Youth Day in Toronto reveals some deep disagreements over many of the basic tenets of the church.
A poll by the National Post newspaper shows that 82 percent believe that priests should be allowed to marry and 80 percent think women should be ordained to the priesthood. About 70 percent said that divorced persons should be permitted to remarry and a similar percentage favored abandoning the church's ban on birth control.
'While close to one in two Canadians viewed themselves as Roman Catholic, a majority were exhibiting a pick-and-choose style that was readily evident in declining attendance, the selective adoption of beliefs, practices and values, and the widespread ignoring of church teachings in the area of sexuality--including sex outside of marriage, birth control, abortion and homosexuality,' said Prof. Reginald Bibby, a leading expert on religious trends in Canada.
'What we find is that the majority of Catholics across the board are not holding to the teachings of the Catholic Church,' he said, 'but there are important differences between those who are actively involved and those who are not.'
Bishop Peter Schoenbach, general secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that the poll results were not surprising, given the strength of secular influences everywhere in the nation. On the issue of priestly celibacy, he said that 'there have been interesting situations where Anglican priests who are married have been accepted into the church. It isn't by any means a completely closed subject. We are part of a universal church and what might seem to fit in one country may not necessarily fit elsewhere.'
'The demand for reforms since the Second Vatican Council [1962-65] cannot be stopped despite all attempts of the Roman Curia and conservative groups within the church,' said Tobias Raschke of We Are Church Youth, part of a worldwide Catholic reform movement. 'The survey shows clearly that Canadian Catholics are dissatisfied with the present fundamentalist policy of the Roman hierarchy. If the church wants to be relevant in the future it has got to listen to real people--and the real people are the young people,' he said.
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