Almost nine in 10 Catholics in Ireland want priests to be allowed to marry

IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

[the survey]

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 April 2012

An overwhelming majority of Catholics in Ireland want priests to be allowed to marry, according to a survey conducted on behalf of the Irish priesthood’s unofficial representative association.

The Association of Catholic Priests’ opinion poll, released on Thursday, found that 87% of Irish Catholics said priests should be allowed to marry.

The survey of 1,000 Catholics questioned over a fortnight in February by Amarach Consulting also discovered that 77% of believers said women should be ordained.

And 60% of Irish Catholics disagreed with the hierarchy’s hardline on homosexuality. Only 9% of those polled “agreed strongly” with Catholic traditional teaching that homosexuality was immoral.

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