Trenton diocese poll seeks ‘sheep’ who’ve strayed

NEW JERSEY
Times of Trenton

By Erin Duffy/The Times

Pamela Thoresen first left the Catholic Church in the early ’90s, when she was still living in California. Asked to sign her name to a prewritten statement opposing a right-to-die voter referendum after listening to a long recording by Pope John Paul II on the sanctity of life, Thoresen felt her personal opinions weren’t welcome or appreciated.

“The Church uses the term ‘flock’ for its members, and it isn’t just a euphemism — they treat their congregants, in my opinion, like sheep,” she said. …

“Eliminate the extreme conservative haranguing,” one respondent wrote.

Some survey respondents pointed fingers at church leadership, blaming the Church for its response to the clergy sex-abuse crisis and characterizing some pastors as haughty and unapproachable, “with a holier-than-thou bearing.” In one of the most striking responses, one woman said a priest refused to attend her 9-year-old son’s burial because it wasn’t at a Catholic cemetery.

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