Kirche and Chiesa: What European Catholics Think

The cliches are worn but enduring: Italian Catholics seldom go to church but worship the Pope. German Catholics are fond enough of church, but mostly in terms of the family and the home: the good German hausfrau is supposed to dedicate herself with equal concern to Kinder, Kuche and Kirche--children, kitchen and church. Now two new polls--a major study of Catholics in Rome and a massive poll of West German Catholics--challenge the validity of the old cliches. Germans show a deeper spiritual sensitivity and more concern for their fellow man than they are generally given credit for. The Romans among Roman Catholics are pretty fair Massgoers, but they are not particularly overwhelmed by the Pope.

In a survey of 2,400 baptized Catholics in 31 quarters of Rome, Jesuit Sociologist Emil Pin and lay Sociologist Dr. Cesare Cavallin, both of the Pontifical Gregorian University, tested, among other things, the acceptance of eleven Catholic dogmas. They found that papal infallibility ran a poor last: only 38.7% of the Romans accepted it. Belief in the existence of a hell for unrepentant sinners fared better (53.7%). Belief in the divinity of Christ was high (79.9%) and in the existence of God highest (92.2%).

Apparently some Romans who do not believe in God still believe in the familial usefulness of the church: 96.4% of those interviewed have their children baptized and 94.1% send their ch'ldren to First Communion. Mass attendance --between 35% and 40% every Sunday, 62% at least once a month--is much higher than tourists might expect, Pin and Cavallin noted, because tourists see only the churches in central Rome, while most Romans worship in the peripheral areas of the city. But attendance at Mass is often not highly motivated. "One gets the impression," concluded the sociologists, "that the church is often a meetingplace where, while you absolve a duty, you also have a chance to greet friends . . . Rare is the church where the congregation responds to the prayers, participates in the chants or listens attentively to the sermon."

Encounter. The German survey was far more extensive. Twenty-one million questionnaires were issued to German Catholics (21% replied), to gather information for a January synod called by the German bishops. The Germans showed a remarkable spiritual interest in the Mass; 60.9% attend church regularly every Sunday, another 15.5% "nearly" every Sunday. Asked what helps their faith as Christians, 60.1% of the respondents named "holy services" as the most important (a desperate 6% named "nothing at all"). The importance of the Mass, declared 54.9%, is as an "encounter with God." For nearly as many, it is "a chance to draw new spiritual strength." The preoccupation with the Mass spilled over into respondents' definitions of the "essential tasks" of today's priests: 66% feel that a priest's most important task is "saying Mass and administering the sacraments."

The Germans recommended that their bishops discuss both priestly problems and the crisis of faith at their synod, but neither was their main worry as human beings. "A chance to live without war" was the topmost concern (60.9%), followed closely by "hunger and poverty in the world." Offered nine choices to underscore as the "most essential reason for the church's existence," 69.9% felt that the task of "highest importance" was that "the church admonishes and reminds the world's leading statesmen to do justice and promote peace."

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