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	Catholics Upbeat about Church, Le Moyne/zogby Poll Finds By Renee K. Gadoua Post Standard April 9, 2009 http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/catholics_upbeat_about_church.html A new poll being released today found that 73 percent of American Roman Catholics are optimistic about the future of the Catholic Church. The finding, from the first interactive poll of the Le Moyne College/Zogby International Contemporary Catholic Trends survey, suggests that issues such as widespread church closures do not dampen enthusiasm for the institution, said Matthew Loveland, a sociologist of religion at Le Moyne who is the study's principal investigator. "What it suggests is that what is most important is what is happening at the parish," Loveland said. "Most people, whether they are optimistic or not, they think about their parish." Most people do not spend their time thinking about the institutional nature of the church, Loveland said. "More likely they're thinking about the church fundraiser," he said. Loveland acknowledged that many Catholics are angry about church closures and mergers - the Syracuse Diocese expects to close about 40 churches when its reconfiguration plan is fully implemented and some decisions have sparked protests and appeals. But he said the majority continue to like their pastor and enjoy activities at their own congregations. "All religion is local," he said. The poll allowed respondents to identify their level of religiosity with terms such as progressive, orthodox and fundamentalist. The majority of poll respondents - 20 percent - described themselves as progressive Catholics. In the poll, 11 percent identified themselves as orthodox. 7 percent as evangelical, 4 percent as fundamentalist and 3 percent as born again. "Progressives were less optimistic," Loveland said. "The folks who have been most involved in the restructuring may be the least happy." Asked whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the church, 36 percent said they were very optimistic and 37 percent said they were somewhat optimistic. Eighteen percent said theyt were somewhat pessimistic and 5 percent were very pessimistic about the church's future. Thirty-nine Catholics said they were somewhat or very pessimistic. Among self-described orthodox Catholics, 6 percent are somewhat pessimistic and 1 percent are very pessimistic. The partnership between Zogby, the Utica-based polling organization, and Le Moyne, began in 2001. Since then, the partners have done more than a dozen phone surveys to self-identified Catholics. The original intent was to create long-range data to study attitudes about the Catholic Church. This was the first interactive Le Moyne/Zogby Web survey. It polled polled 3,812 randomly sampled members of the Zogby Interactive Panel between February 23 and 25. The panel, which volunteered to participate, included 767 Catholics. The survey also found: While 63 percent of progressive Catholics attend Mass less than once per month, 80 percent of orthodox Catholics attend Mass at least once a month. Nineteen percent of the progressives attend Mass weekly or more, while 65 percent of orthodox Catholics attend at least weekly. Twenty-four percent say it is very important and 12 percent say it is somewhat important to their faith that the priesthood remain all male. Thirty-two percent say it is important that priests remain celibate. Forty-six percent of Catholics have Facebook accounts. Of those, 11 percent have 150 or more friends on Facebook. Renee K. Gadoua can be reached at 470-2203 or rgadoua@syracuse.com.
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