Archive for November 2013

A Blessing in Disguise?

Posted on: 29/11/13 | Posted By: Simon Reader | Category: Blog

The Pilling Report is all about distinctions, and distinctions matter. The commission which produced it offers eighteen “findings and recommendations”. Points two through eighteen read as recommendations, articulating what “should,” “needs” or “can” be done, or what the Church is to be encouraged or called to do or demonstrate. But point one is described as…
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Surveys reveal widening gulf between Catholics and Church teaching

Posted on: 18/11/13 | Posted By: Linda Woodhead | Category: Blog

As the Vatican surveys the opinions of Catholics in dioceses and parishes around the world, three large polls I carried out this year with YouGov for the Westminster Faith Debates reveal a profile of British Catholics adrift from Vatican-style Catholicism, and significant disparities between older and younger believers. If we measure “faithful Catholics” by the…
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What Catholics really think about sex

Posted on: 08/11/13 | Posted By: Linda Woodhead | Category: Blog

A survey of Catholic opinion is to be undertaken to inform the Synod of Bishops which will meet in 2014 to discuss “the pastoral challenges of the family.” As it happens, I recently carried out extensive surveys of Catholic opinion in Britain, so can supply some of the information the Church is seeking. I carried…
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