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Poll Shows American Catholics Go With Their Faith Over Their Religion

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This tendency to try and separate faith from the church is not biblical and not Catholic. Criticizing moral failings of church leaders is not new to Catholicism and is a good thing, but using the moral failings of church leaders to disparage Catholic teaching authority is a Protestant idea. Jesus created the Church, he declared that Christians should avoid divisions, gave his apostles ( the first priests) the power to forgive sins and teach in his name. Catholics believe that the Church, though led by flawed people teaches the truth on issues of faith and morality and is protected from the holy spirit from error in its teachings. The church approved the bible, it approved the doctrine of the Trinity, wrote down and taught everything we know about Jesus for centuries. To suggest that you believe in all these stories and have faith in them, but reject the authority of the church ( as a teacher) is illogical. It is like accepting everything written in a science textbook but rejecting the authors as having no authority on the subject. Reject both or Accept Both.

Joshua of CA 10:15PM September 08, 2009

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soma cod line soma of OH 8:04AM July 04, 2009

"If you want to be a real Catholic, you need to learn to submit to the authority of the hierarchy". Wow, and this from a real Catholic. No wonder the religion is waning in the Western world, where people are now allowed to think for themselves, and growing rapidly amongst poor, undeducated peoples of the world. The 'doctrine' of the Church does not forgo the word of Jesus himself, and those words are now freely available to anyone who is literate. There is little if any scripture to back up most of what the Catholic Church mandates - so - you can have your religion that is woefully out of date and try to live with it, or you can follow it blindy as I am certain Jesus himself would urge you not to do. By the way - I'm sure it was ok for 2 thousand years to rape little boys, so maybe it's time to progress a little eh? The Church has not done enough to remedy this situation.

James 12:07AM June 22, 2009

As a practicing Catholic I am disappointed and outraged at the prospects of Notre Dame bestowing any type of honor or degree on Obama. His stand on abortion,embryonic stem cell research, and limits on charitable donations is against Catholic doctrine. And when Georgetown covered the Greek name for Christ to accommodate Obama's wishes, I truly felt Satan has entered the sanctuary and the Church is standing still for it!What next?What would Jesus do about this? Truly we must pray for our church leaders to come out of their stupor and take a formal,loud denunciation of these actions.

Patricia Sellers of PA 2:39PM April 19, 2009

That most Catholics are not myopic, judgmental, robotic nutjobs who become apoplectic at the first whiff of dissent. The church, at its core, is lovely, as is the faith and most believers, but it does have billions of members and it is not possible for billions of people to agree on everything. The Vatican may mean well but it is a bit removed from the practicalities of every day life. And most sane, thinking Americans are incapable of blind obedience when the rules make no rational sense. That's not really such a bad thing. That does not mean they don't believe, have faith or love their church, or still have some respect for a clergy that has been disgraced by scandal. They can hope for change but be grateful for what they have in the church, the mass, the Eucharist. That does not make them evil or anti-Catholic, it just makes them thinking people who -- maybe -- need better leadership, leadership they relate to and can respect. Maybe they want to be quietly pro-life, or even unsure, without feeling pressured to picket abortion clinics or carry signs reading "Baby Killer!" when Obama is in town. But they still love Jesus and the church, they're just unsure, or, at any rate, not all fired up about abortion. That's just how it is when you're dealing with billions of people. Some people will have different ideas or thoughts about an issue, but that does not mean they hate the church, Vatican or the pope. It means their experience or conscience is telling them something different. If these people are drummed out of the church, Catholicism will look a lot like the Phelps family. You know, the ones who picket funerals? It will become about 15 very angry people shoving a rigid, absolutist theology down everyone's throat, led by one very disillusioned pope who is living in the projects because the Vatican's been repo'ed. (Where the people go, so goes the dough.) So it would make a lot more sense to just can it and let your faith be between you and God, and let the person next to you's faith be between her and God. That's what will matter in the end anyway.

Michelle of OH 1:15AM April 18, 2009

I think you have this all wrong. For me and for many "true Catholics", our faith IS our religion. There is no separation. If you separate your faith from your religion (if your religion is Catholicism), then you have no real understanding of what it means to be Catholic. To truly be a Catholic, is to follow the teachings of the Church. If you pick and choose what to believe in and so on, this guy and that girl and on and on, soon there will be no Catholicism. I'm glad Catholicism doesn't rely on what you think it should be. As far as being out of touch or too conservative, you do realize that the Church has been around 2000 yrs and has not changed any doctrine, don't you? The pope CAN allow priests to marry as it is a displine, but he cannot give approval of practicing homosexuality, or allow women priests, or allow abortion, adultery, pre-marital sex, racism, euthanasia or anything of the sort as these are doctines. Either be a Catholic or don't. I have never understood why someone wants to be a part of something, but hate everything about it. It's like saying, you want to be in union with all the world, but hate blacks, Jews, hispanics, whites or whatever. Or say, I am a staunch supporter and member of the NRA, but I don't like guns and I hate the second amendment. So if you don't like the "real Church" find another religion that suits your beliefs. If you want to be Catholic, you need to learn to submit to the authority of the hierarchy.

Mick of Dallas of TX 12:05AM April 11, 2009

This article predictably spreads the liberal Talking Point that "organized" religion is bad, and "faith" or "spirituality" is good. Yippee! We can all now jettison organized religion, the pope, the sacraments, hell, purgatory, and all of that, because of the results of some push poll relied upon by this author. Wonderful! All that stuff in Matthew about Jesus establishing his Church on earth on St. Peter can now be safely ignored.
Have to love them polls!

Jack of CT 6:28PM April 01, 2009

This article predictably spreads the liberal Talking Point that "organized" religion is bad, and "faith" or "spirituality" is good. Yippee! We can all now jettison organized religion, the pope, the sacraments, hell, purgatory, and all of that, because of the results of some push poll relied upon by this author. Wonderful! All that stuff in Matthew about Jesus establishing his Church on earth on St. Peter can now be safely ignored.
Have to love them polls!

Jack of CT 6:28PM April 01, 2009