Books in Brief: The American Catholic People

The American Catholic People: Their Beliefs, Practices, and Values, by George Gallup Jr. and Jim Castelli (Doubleday, 206 pp., $15.95)

The chief revelation, if you can call it that, in this peculiar survey on the religious and cultural attitudes of American Catholics is that they have, to a very considerable extent, taken on the coloration of the society in which they live. American Catholics—as distinct from Americans who are of the Roman Catholic faith and practice— are hardly distinguishable from their thoroughly secularized neighbors. The difference is that Roman Catholics take their teachings and guidelines from the Vatican rather than from, say, the United States Catholic Conference based in Washington, D.C. It may be all very interesting to learn from the pollsters what American Catholics, as such, may believe on this or that political, economic, or social issue; but, really, in the end, who cares? The Catholic Church (Roman or American) has long since lost its political—and, God knows, moral—clout in this country. The election of John F. Kennedy to the Presidency actually neutralized Catholic influence, instead of enhancing it as almost everyone at the time presumed it would. As for the questions in this survey that have to do with doctrine and moral theology, it is simply irrelevant whether, for instance, certain percentages of American Catholics accept abortion on demand, homosexual practices, women’s ordination, and the like. For the point is, of course, that the Roman Catholic Church is not an egalitarian society. It is hierarchical and it is authoritative. And yet the researchers for this survey have apparently labored under the delusion that American egalitarianism can be applied to the principles and teachings of the Church itself. George Gallup Jr. is at least doing his job as a professional pollster, but what’s Jim Castelli’s excuse? He has been known to many as a particularly biased journalist in the Church press, and this survey is yet another exercise in the feasibility of establishing the demotic phenomenon of an American Catholic Church.

TM

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Thomas P. McDonnell

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The American Catholic People: Their Beliefs, Practices, and Values, by George Gallup Jr. and Jim Castelli (Doubleday, 206 pp., $15.95)

The chief revelation, if you can call it that, in this peculiar survey on the religious and cultural attitudes of American Catholics is that they have, to a very considerable extent, taken on the coloration of the society in which they live. American Catholics—as distinct from Americans who are of the Roman Catholic faith and practice— are hardly distinguishable from their thoroughly secularized neighbors. The difference is that Roman Catholics take their teachings and guidelines from the Vatican rather than from, say, the United States Catholic Conference based in Washington, D.C. It may be all very interesting to learn from the pollsters what American Catholics, as such, may believe on this or that political, economic, or social issue; but, really, in the end, who cares? The Catholic Church (Roman or American) has long since lost its political—and, God knows, moral—clout in this country. The election of John F. Kennedy to the Presidency actually neutralized Catholic influence, instead of enhancing it as almost everyone at the time presumed it would. As for the questions in this survey that have to do with doctrine and moral theology, it is simply irrelevant whether, for instance, certain percentages of American Catholics accept abortion on demand, homosexual practices, women’s ordination, and the like. For the point is, of course, that the Roman Catholic Church is not an egalitarian society. It is hierarchical and it is authoritative. And yet the researchers for this survey have apparently labored under the delusion that American egalitarianism can be applied to the principles and teachings of the Church itself. George Gallup Jr. is at least doing his job as a professional pollster, but what’s Jim Castelli’s excuse? He has been known to many as a particularly biased journalist in the Church press, and this survey is yet another exercise in the feasibility of establishing the demotic phenomenon of an American Catholic Church.