Poll: American Roman Catholics

For what it's worth, there's a new poll out that professes to reflect the attitudes and preferences of today's American Catholics.

NEW YORK -- American Catholics said in a new survey they were pleased with the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, ahead of his first visit to the U.S. since he was elected. The study also found intense interest in faith among some young people.

Yet, few parishioners overall said they go to confession, and most believed they could be good Roman Catholics without going to Mass.

The poll, released Sunday, was commissioned by the nation's bishops and conducted in February by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, head of the bishops' communications committee, was encouraged by the openness to faith in the survey but said it highlighted the need for better religious instruction.

...Strengthening Catholic identity and observance are central themes of Benedict's papacy, and topics he is expected to address when he travels to Washington and New York starting Tuesday.

In the survey, eight of 10 Catholics said they were somewhat or very satisfied with his leadership.

...For Catholics who attend Mass at least once a month, an overwhelming majority of the young and older generation believe Christ is present in the Eucharist.

I would hope so. If you don't believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist than I don't think you'd consider yourself to be Catholic.

Even more, the younger, regular Mass-goers surpass their elders in observing Lent, with nearly all saying they abstain from meat on Fridays and receive ashes on Ash Wednesday. The young people are also more likely to consider devotion to saints very important to their faith.

It's possible that the reason younger Catholics surpass their elders in observing Lent is because Catholics older than 59 years of age aren't bound to fast and abstain during Lent.

However, the study found that only 36 percent of the younger Catholics attend Mass at least once a month, compared with 64 percent of the older generation.

...The poll, "Sacraments Today: Belief and Practice Among U.S. Catholics," found that nearly one-third of the nation's 64 million Catholics attend Mass in any given week. That figure has remained the same in the last five years, according to the report.

In spite of the upheaval caused by the Church's sexual abuse scandal, American Catholics haven't abandoned the Church. Attendance at Mass has stayed the same the past five years.

Secularists may not understand why Catholics have remained faithful. Some don't get that Catholics worship God, not priests or the Church hierarchy. Feelings of betrayal and anger over the scandal don't translate to a wholesale rejection of the Catholic faith.

It's especially encouraging to learn that there is "intense interest in faith among some young people."

They haven't rejected Catholicism because of the sins of a few.

I think this finding is sort of funny: "In the survey, eight of 10 Catholics said they were somewhat or very satisfied with [Pope Benedict's] leadership."

Measuring an approval rating for the Pope isn't the same as an approval rating for a politician. The Catholic Church isn't a democracy or a republic. Popes aren't elected by a popular vote. Catholics don't elect officials to represent them.

Still, an 80 percent approval rating for Pope Benedict means Americans do respond favorably to him.

The U.S. presidential hopefuls can only dream of such high approval numbers.