Germans Want a More Liberal Pope
April 9, 2005
About 78 percent of those surveyed said they were in favor of the Catholic Church ending its ban on contraception, and 76 percent wanted the next pope to authorize the use of condoms as part of the fight against the spread of AIDS, the poll said.
In addition, 77 percent of respondents said they wanted to see the ordination of women as priests and 74 percent think that imposing celibacy and chastity on priests is no longer expedient.
The poll was conducted April 4-6 by the Polis Institute and surveyed 1,010 people aged 14 and older. Another poll, taken in February well before the pope's death on April 2, showed that Germans give growing importance to religion, which is particularly significant in the east of the country, part of the former Communist bloc.
East-west differences
That poll found that 23 percent of respondents in eastern Germany think their faith is "very important in their life" compared with 14 percent in 1993, four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the west of the country, 27 percent of those surveyed shared the same view compared with 24 percent in 1993. At the same time, 47 percent of Germans in the east and 23 percent in the west say they never go to church.
The second poll of 1,000 people was taken by the Polis Institute on February 11-23.
No "clear favorite"
Separately, the head of the German bishops' conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann (photo), said there was "no clear favorite" to succeed John Paul II, in an interview published Saturday.
He told the Allgemeine Zeitung in the western city of Mainz, where he is cardinal, that there did not appear to be any
"well-established alliances" among the 116 cardinals who are in the conclave that will select the next pope.
"Through our polls, our contacts and our discussions, we will have to reach a consensus," he said, adding that the cardinals had until April 18 -- the start of the conclave -- to get to know each other better.
Lehmann, a prominent Church liberal who occasionally clashed with the pope, said his successor would have to approach the stature of the late pontiff "but not in the sense of being a copy" of the John Paul II, who died April 2.