Pope Found To Be Catholic

I tried really hard to write about this the other day, but couldn't nail it down. Christopher S. Johnson, however, hit it out of the park with this post on his blog, Midwest Conservative Journal.

Granted, it's impossible to do right now but sometimes I wish the media would ignore religion Then I wouldn't have had to read this:

Most Americans - Catholics and non-Catholics alike - want the next pope to allow priests to marry and women to join the priesthood, a major break from church rules and the judgment of Pope John Paul II, according to an Associated Press poll.

The sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church has left many Catholics and other Americans convinced that the next pope must do more about predatory clergy. Eighty-six percent of Americans and 82 percent of the 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 that Rome has rejected. In the AP-Ipsos survey, 62 percent of Americans and 63 percent of American Catholics favor a greater say for lay people.

Don't forget universal health care. What's the point of having a new pope at all without universal health care?

Sixty-nine percent of Americans and 60 percent of U.S. Catholics said the next pope should change church policies to allow priests to marry, while 25 percent of all Americans and 36 percent of Catholics said they preferred no change.

The new pope should also come up with an anti-steroid plan for major league baseball with some teeth.

Most Americans, 64 percent, said women should be allowed to become priests, and 60 percent of the surveyed American Catholics agreed in the poll. Thirty-two percent of Americans in general disagreed, 38 percent of Catholics.

And Social Security. The new pope should have a plan to fix Social Security.

"Celibacy of priests is an issue that should be gone, priests should be able to marry,’’ said Joseph Riess, a self-employed businessman and Catholic from Vienna, Va. Riess said he had mixed emotions about women priests.

Join the club, Joe. Some of us on the Anglican side can tell you some stories.

In the survey, 37 percent of Americans and 41 percent of U.S. Catholics said the next pope should come from Europe while 36 percent of Americans and 43 percent of Catholics said the cardinals should choose a pontiff from Africa or Latin America, the fastest growing areas for Catholics.

A solid majority of Americans also felt that the new pope should pick a vice-pope from the South in order to balance the ticket.

Again, this post was written by Christopher S. Johnson.