UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches
BY PATRICIA MILLER SEPTEMBER 21, 2015
Nearly two and one-half times as many current Catholics think Francis is “more liberal” than they are on “the environment, immigration and distribution of wealth” than those who think he is more liberal on “birth control, abortion and divorce.” – From a New York Times/CBS News poll, release on September 20, 2015
The last time there was this much excitement about a pope’s inaugural visit to the United States, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” topped the Billboard charts, Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and cell phones were the size of a brick.
But those aren’t the only differences between Pope John Paul II’s historic 1979 visit and Pope Francis’ virgin trip to the US this week. Pope Francis will find a church that is markedly different in a number of significant ways; so different, in fact, that it calls into question whether we can still refer to the Catholic Church in the US.
When JPII made his first visit US, he found a church that was in transition but largely intact. Some 40 percent of Catholics went to mass in any given week and there were nearly 60,000 Catholic priests and 135,000 nuns, with the nation’s 18,800 parishes boasting an average of two priests each. The sacraments were still a major part of most Catholics’ lives: there were nearly 1 million baptisms and 350,000 Catholic marriages.
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