Almost 70% of British Catholics expect the Pope’s visit to help the Catholic Church in the UK, a poll commissioned by the BBC suggests.
But the survey suggests they are less keen about some of his teaching.
Half of those questioned felt priests should no longer have to be celibate.
And 52% of the 500 Catholics surveyed ahead of the Pope’s visit on Thursday said the sex abuse scandal had shaken their faith in the Church’s leadership.
Nice. The BBC uses the survey as an excuse to rehash old news.
[blockquote]The poll, conducted by ComRes – a member of the British Polling Council – surveyed a random sample of 500 Roman Catholics across the UK between 6 and 9 September 2010.[/blockquote]
Five hundred Catholics randomly selected… Are they regular Mass-goers or just ‘cultural’ Catholics who self-identify? That’s the real question.