Most U.S. Catholics Support Choice of Pope

[Hat tip: Laura Ingraham]

Apparently, the mainstream media's "salt the ground" smear campaign against the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI has failed to produce any fruits among American Catholics. The Washington Post is reporting that, according to a recent Washington Post-ABCNews poll, "[a]n overwhelming majority of American Catholics approve of the selection of Pope Benedict XVI and predict that he will defend the traditional policies and beliefs of a church that many members say is out of touch with their views ..."

The survey found that more than eight in 10 Roman Catholics broadly supported the selection of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to replace Pope John Paul II.

Nearly as many, 73 percent, said they were "enthusiastic" about the new pontiff, though only one in four said they were strongly enthusiastic about the choice.

Those Catholics in favor of modernizing the church were less enthusiastic than traditionalists about the new pontiff, but a majority still gave Benedict their support.

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Half say they want the church to adhere to tradition, while almost exactly the same proportion believe the church must change its policies to reflect modern lifestyles and beliefs. The percentage supporting traditionalism rose nine percentage points over the past month in the wake of Benedict's selection as the church's new leader.

Those Catholics who reported the most regular church attendance were significantly more supportive of maintaining church traditions (58 percent favored) than those who attended less frequently (43 percent).

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Slightly more than half, 53 percent, said they would want their son to become a priest whereas 41 percent disagreed. This proportion rose to two in three among those who attend Mass weekly. (emphasis added)

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My Comments:
Notice how in that opening quote the Post writers just can't help themselves and have to throw in "that many members say is out of touch with their views" [this use of "many" smacks of Katie Couric's favorite use of "some" - "Some say that Pope Benedict is a Nazi who hates women and supports gay bashing"]. I'm sure the writers of this piece polled the "Catholic" members of the Post's editorial staff, such as E.J. Dionne, in order to come up with that line about the "many" disaffected members of the Church, because their own poll doesn't seem to bear this out.

For my part, I'm intrigued by the poll number suggesting that the number of Catholics supporting "traditionalism" (i.e. "adher[ing] to tradition" vs. "reflect[ing] modern lifestyles and beliefs") rose by 9 points over the last month when the ceremonies and traditions of the Church were on full display for the entire world to see. Based on these numbers, it would seem that the more people are exposed to the Church's traditions, the more they appear to support what the Post refers to as "traditionalism".