For whatever it's worth, here's another poll that shows that the 'plummeting' numbers as late as two weeks ago were obviously influenced by the latest news headlines on the 'sex abuse scandal' at the time the polls were taken. The headline is more rosy than the actual numbers show, but since the Pope's trip to Malta, no one has managed to come up with a stink bomb to hog the headlines, knock on wood...
Zogby: US Catholics
strongly back Pope Benedict
Wednesday, 05 May 2010
Results of a new Zogby Interactive survey show mixed results among American Catholics' evaluations of Catholic Church leaders.
Both Pope Benedict XVI and American Catholic Bishops receive
largely negative ratings in their handling of the sexual abuse situation with the church.
[From the numbers cited below, the writer of this article apparently considers a 'fair' rating negative, in a choice from excellent, good, fair and poor.]
However, pluralities approve of the overall job performance of both the Pope and Bishops. In addition, a clear majority of American Catholics believe Pope Benedict XVI should continue to serve as Pope.
Fifty-six percent of American Catholics approve of the overall job that Pope Benedict XVI is doing, with 32 percent disapproving. Approval of U.S. Bishops is somewhat lower, with 45 percent approving of their overall job, and 44 percent disapproving.
When asked specifically about how Pope Benedict XVI has dealt with the sexual abuse situation within the Catholic Church, a plurality of American Catholics give
negative ratings to both the Pope and American Catholic Bishops.
Only 15 percent believe that Pope Benedict XVI has done an "excellent" job addressing the sexual abuse situation within the Church, with 23 percent believing he has done a good job, 26 percent believing he has done a fair job and 30 percent believing he has done a poor job.
[How does 15(excellent) + 23(good) + 26(fair) = 64%, vs 30%(poor), qualify as negative???]
Ratings for American Bishops are lower, with 8 percent rating the Bishops' efforts to address the sexual abuse situation within the Church as excellent, 12 percent rating their efforts as good, 29 percent rating their efforts as fair and 43 percent rating their efforts as poor.
Finally, though a plurality give Pope Benedict XVI a "poor" rating on addressing sexual abuse within the Church, a clear majority of American Catholics believe Pope Benedict XVI should remain Pope. Only 16 percent believe the Pope should resign as a result of sexual abuse within the Church, while 64 percent believe he should continue as Pope, and 20 percent are unsure.
Additional results from this survey will be formally released by John Zogby in a speech to the National Catholic Reporter on May 6, 2010. This interactive survey, conducted by Zogby International Apr. 30 through May 3, 2010, has a sample size of 705 Catholics nationwide.
A sampling of Zogby International's online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the U.S., was invited to participate. Slight weights were added to region, age, race, gender and education to more accurately reflect the Catholic population. The margin of error is +/- 3.8 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.
And what are we to make of the following article? HK woke up on the right side of the bed, for a change?
And after setting fires,
'second thoughts' from Hans Kueng?
by Jonathan Luxmoore
May 4, 2010
Vatican critic Hans Küng has warned against "condemning the Church and its priests wholesale" for the current spate of sex abuse allegations.
"It would be a bad generalisation to place the whole clergy and Catholic Church under suspicion," the Roman Catholic priest was quoted as saying in an interview with
The European, a Berlin-based online news service, published on April 27.
Mr Küng also said he still agrees with Pope Benedict XVI on some key issues.
The 83-year-old Swiss-born theologian was speaking two weeks after criticising the Pope in an "open letter" to Roman Catholic bishops worldwide in which he said Benedict's papacy had "failed".
In the letter, Mr Küng said there had been a "worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes" by clergy by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
However, in his interview with
The European, Mr Küng described as "complete nonsense" claims that the present Pope is the "the worst for centuries". [COLORE=#1216FF
[Well, Sir, you have certainly done your best to make it appear so!]
He said, "In the course of its five years,
this pontificate has seen many breakdowns, as well as many wasted chances, above all in its approach to Protestant churches."
The theologian added, "But
we still need a Petrine [papal] office to serve the unity of Christians,
though not a Roman papacy as it developed in the 11th century."
Mr Kung, whose works include
Infallible?, which questioned papal authority, served as an expert advisor at the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which introduced reforms into the life of the Catholic Church.
He also taught alongside Ratzinger at the University of Tübingen in the 1960s. In 1979 his licence to teach Catholic theology was withdrawn by the Vatican after it ruled he could "no longer be considered a Catholic theologian".
In his interview, Mr Küng said
he believed the Pope had missed an opportunity to consolidate links with Jews and Muslims, but added that it would be "totally inadmissible" to compare Benedict XVI with "immoral and criminal" popes in history.
[And we should say 'Thank you' for that?]
"The Pope and I are united on the relationship between reason and science, the necessity of dialogue between religions and the need for worldwide ethics, even if my hopes of a reformist course have not been fulfilled," Mr Küng said.
:: Interview in The European (in German): www.theeuropean.de/kueng-hans/2950-papst-benedikt-in-der-kritik
I've read the interview. The above news item based on it omits two important statements - one at the very start, the other at the every end.
In the beginning, Kueng says:
It is false to say that in the letter [to the bishops of the world!], I called on the bishops to break up with the Pope. On the contrary, they must be loyal to the Pope but at the same time they must speak out their criticisms openly. [As if outspoken dissident bishops needed Kueng to tell them that!] That was my first appeal to the bishops...
In the end, he reproaches the interviewer:
It is always astounding to me, that even someone as well-informed as you are, could think that I am no longer a priest. [Probably because his behavior during all the decades that he has been in the limelight was never particularly priestly. And although everyone calls him a theologian, MSM has more or less treated him as a secular figure, not a religious or spiritual one!]
I am a priest now as I was before, with all the rights imposed on me by ordination. But I see my criticism of the institution as a service to the Church, and thus I have been a critical Christian and Catholic.
And somewhere in the middle, he reveals that he and Joseph Ratzinger have never addressed each other with the second person familiar form ('du' in German) because 'that was not the practice in German universities'.
[Whereas we have read that after he became Pope, Benedict XVI specifically said to at least two German cardinal friends - Lehmann and Meisner - that they must continue to use 'du' with him. Too bad the interviewer did not ask the obvious question, how did they address each other in Castel Gandolfo? Did Kueng say "Heilige Vater" and did the Pope call him 'Pater Hans' or 'Herr Professor'??? [Sorry for the trivia!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/05/2010 22:14]