On my way to work on Wednesday morning I heard a story on the radio that almost made me drive off the road. Apparently the majority of American Catholics want a younger, hipper, more liberal Pope. As you can imagine this was news to me. According to the story…
54 percent – would like the next pope to espouse more liberal teachings going forward. Only 19 percent hoped for a continuation of Benedict’s teachings, and 18 percent cited a desire for someone with more conservative ideas.
This caused me to do something I very rarely do, I called into the radio show. When it was my turn to be on air I asked the show’s host “what were the demographics of the survey?” The show host admitted that he did not know the answer to that question. In response I told him that as a young Catholic in the Diocese of Austin, neither I nor any of my Catholic friends wanted to see Pope Benedict go. I also told him that we would happily have someone sit in the Chair of Peter who was of the same mind as he was. After that I was kindly dismissed and they went along with their show.
After I was able to find the survey for myself, which is linked above. I was able to dig into the participants data.
Would You Like the Next Pope to…?
(Among Catholic Americans)
| 1/week+ | Less often | ||
| Change to more liberal teachings | 54% | 40% | 67% |
| Continue Pope Benedict’s teachings | 19 | 31 | 9% |
| Change to more conservative teachings | 18 | 32 | 14 |
Not exactly great numbers but all throughout the survey you see that Catholics who go to Mass “less often then 1/week” were more inclined to want more radical changes.
So what does all this have to do with Austin Catholic New Media and our mission? Everything! We have taken it upon ourselves to be a public voice in the Diocese of Austin. When Catholics are looking for the truth and need to cut through the clutter of the mainstream media we are here to provide that service. We need to be the ones who call into the radio shows and write blog articles challenging those in the media who want to tell our story their way. As faithful Catholics, it’s our story to tell, it’s our faith to share. So we continue to ask for your prayers and support as we move forward in our mission.
