From John Allen:

In reporting on American Catholics, the head of the Knights of Columbus today argued, media outlets should distinguish between “practicing” and “non-practicing” Catholics – because new polling data he presented shows these two groups are, in many ways, worlds apart.

Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, spoke this evening at a Rome news conference to release a new survey of Catholic voters, commissioned by the Knights and carried out by the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion in late September and early October.

Anderson is in Rome attending the Oct. 5-26 Synod of Bishops on the Bible. His news conference this evening was also beamed live via satellite to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The Marist College poll found that 65 percent of American Catholics are “practicing,” defined as attending Mass at least once or twice a month, while the 35 percent who don’t attend that often were defined as “non-practicing.”

In some ways, the most interesting results of the survey concern the differences between these two groups.

For example, according to the survey, 59 percent of practicing Catholics describe themselves as “pro-life,” as opposed to 44 percent of the general American population, while 65 percent of non-practicing Catholics say they are “pro-choice,” as opposed to 50 percent of the general population.

On same-sex marriage, 46 percent of non-practicing Catholics are in favor, as opposed to just 30 percent of all Americans, while 75 percent of practicing Catholics are opposed.

“Practicing Catholics hold traditional values at a rate equal to or higher than the American population at large, while non-practicing Catholics are less traditional,” Anderson said, summarizing the results.

“Catholics who are no longer practicing hold positions far outside the mainstream of Catholicism, and have significant disagreements with the moral teaching of the church," he said.

Anderson therefore called upon the media to distinguish between these two groups – practicing and non-practicing – rather than referring to Catholics as an “undifferentiated block.”

On abortion, Anderson said the new survey, in line with other recent polls, illustrates a "broad consensus" among Americans, Catholic and not, for the view that abortion should be limited beyond what was provided for in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Only eight percent of all Americans, Anderson said, and only 15 percent of those who say they’re “pro-choice,” actually support allowing abortion at any point during a pregnancy. Some 60 percent, according to the survey, believe abortion should be permitted only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother, and an additional 24 percent would limit abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy.

On that basis, Anderson argued that the label "pro-choice" has become outmoded in terms of describing actual attitudes.

Other findings include:
* Thirty percent of American Catholics live in the Northeast, while only 19 percent of all Americans are in that region.
* Latinos make up 25 percent of American Catholics but only 12 percent of the general population.
* Only 16 percent of practicing Catholics describe themselves as "liberal," as opposed to 26 percent of non-practicing Catholics. Forty percent of practicing Catholics say they're "conservative," but only 29 percent of non-practicing Catholics.
* Thirty-nine percent of all Catholics are Democrats, 30 percent Republicans, and 29 percent are independents.

These results are encouraging but beyond that, I think Anderson's insights are important: how do we apply the label "Catholic"? This is something I think we need to address.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the changes being made at L'Osservatore Romano by its current editor-in-chief.

The newspaper industry might be on the ropes, but one staid broadsheet is getting a makeover at the behest of a lofty patron: Pope Benedict XVI.

In its 147 years as the Vatican's newspaper of record, L'Osservatore Romano has rarely chased advertisers, or even news. Hard to find beyond the world's smallest state, the Vatican's daily paper largely dedicated its pages to theological monologues with headlines like "The Leprosy of Sin."

Those days are over. Now, the Vatican mouthpiece has orders to carry hard-hitting news, international stories and more articles by women.

"There was a really precise request from the paper's publisher," Giovanni Maria Vian, the paper's new editor in chief, said in a recent interview at his office within the medieval walls of Vatican City. "In this case, the publisher just happened to be the pope."

A church historian and longtime journalist, Mr. Vian was tapped by Pope Benedict a year ago to make the sleepy, parochial paper a bit more worldly. In recent weeks, the Vatican daily has been giving somber, blow-by-blow accounts of the international financial crisis.

Few topics are deemed too bizarre or mundane. In May, L'Osservatore ran an interview with the Vatican's top astronomer. "If we consider earthly creatures as 'brother' and 'sister,' why cannot we also speak of an 'extraterrestrial brother'?" mused Father José Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory. Pressed on whether heaven might be open to such beings, the Rev. Funes said: "Jesus has been incarnated once, for everyone."

A month later the paper counterattacked the international media for speculating that the pontiff's preferred ruby-red loafers were made by Prada, insinuating he had a taste for material goods. In an article, Spanish novelist Juan Mañuel de Prada -- no relation to the Italian fashion house -- wrote: "The pope does not wear Prada, but Christ."

Mr. Vian says Pope Benedict grants him considerable editorial independence, most of the time. Stories about countries that have troubled relations with the Vatican, such as China, are vetted by the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, says Mr. Vian.

Then there are the pontiff's personal requests.

During a meeting between Pope Benedict and Mr. Vian soon after the editor was hired, the conversation turned to layout.

"He looked at me and said, 'Perhaps the pages could use an extra photo or two,'" Mr. Vian recalls. "Well, we now have more photos."

The weekly edition of L'OR in English

Wikipedia Entry

The Globe has a story today about Audrey Santo, the comatose girl from Worcester, MA. A group has formed to begin investigations into a possible sainthood cause with the approval of the local bishop. The quotes from her doctors are an important part of this story:

Jeanie Scott had been to Linda Santo's house many times to talk or pray over the inert body of her friend's young daughter, kept alive by machines and unable to speak or move since nearly drowning at age 3. One day in 1993, Santo handed her a painting of the Virgin Mary to admire, and Scott stared at it, awestruck.

"I saw this tear come out of the Blessed Mother's right eye," she said. "I touched it, and it was wet, and I blessed myself and blessed Linda."

Over the next 14 years, the bed-ridden girl, Audrey, became an object of intense devotion for thousands who came to peer through a window cut into her bedroom and pray. Time and again, they reported seeing miracles in her presence: hosts bled, oil formed in a priest's cup, the sick were healed. In 1998, 10,000 people celebrated Mass in a stadium in Worcester with Audrey, who was brought there by ambulance.

In April 2007, she died quietly at home, at the age of 23. Now her supporters have launched a mission to make Audrey a saint. Last month, with permission from the Diocese of Worcester, they began gathering evidence of her life's work and miracles. The effort, which could take decades, is stirring passionate debate among Catholics, about what it means to be a saint and live a holy life.

Catholic scholars say the church is not inclined to canonize a woman who could not actively follow the teachings of Christ. They also say the Vatican looks skeptically at reports of weeping statues and bloody hosts. But a vast following of believers say Audrey changed their lives, and that is evidence enough of her sainthood.

"The fact that she was incapacitated, and yet she was able to achieve this ability to captivate people in her state is a miracle in itself," said Robert E. Keane, a Medford lawyer who is leading the effort to canonize Audrey. "It clearly shows that God is intending to make a statement that all life is important and is valued."

Dr. John W. Harding, Audrey's pediatrician for 12 years, said he regularly saw oil weeping from statues, and once saw "specks of blood" form on a host that was about to be consecrated by a priest. He examined the host under a magnifying glass, he said, and saw an image of Mary "holding the infant Jesus in her arms."

"I really do believe there are miracles associated with this little girl," said Harding, the former chief of pediatrics at Hahnemann Hospital in Worcester. "I think God is really upset with human beings taking control of life and death, and I think he's making a statement that there's value to human life, even if they're not going to pay taxes and have careers, and they're costing the state money."

Audrey was by all accounts a normal girl until she was found floating face down in a backyard pool in August 1987. Dr. Edward Kaye, who treated her for eight years after the accident, has said there was little evidence that she could respond to external stimuli and no evidence that she could process communication. Harding said she was "semi-comatose" when he began treating her but that she eventually would squeeze a hand and register displeasure by accelerating her heart rate and breathing.

Some scholars and clergy say it will be difficult to prove that someone like that lived the life of a saint.

"They might be hard pressed to prove that she had this will to embrace Christian virtues and to live them," said Monsignor F. Stephen Pedone, who is helping to review Audrey's case for the Worcester Diocese. "She probably didn't even know what they were."

...

In 1999, during the height of the pilgrimages, Pedone helped lead a 14-month investigation of the weeping statues and bloody hosts, concluding that they were "deep mysteries," but not definitive miracles. He said the movement to canonize Audrey is generating a mixed response among local Catholics.

"There is some support, but there are some people who are really skeptical," Pedone said. "The danger for some people is that it's not faith, it's more emotionalism, and that's the concern the bishop has, that people's hopes are raised about miraculous healings and there's no foundation for it."