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Too much can be made of this dissent from official church teaching. Indeed, the Pope can and will find many signs of exceptional vitality in American Catholicism. Attendance at worship services is notably higher in the U.S. than in most other Western countries: 54% in the TIME poll report that they attend Mass weekly or nearly every week. Still, 38% say they attend less frequently than a decade ago, and 60% say they go to confession less often than they used to. The poll also finds that less than one-fifth of the laity is unhappy with the leadership of bishops and priests.
Catholic admiration for John Paul is not diminished by the questioning of his teaching authority. Large majorities of Americans polled for TIME see him as a "man of peace" and an "important leader on the world scene." But Catholics (and all Americans) are split down the middle on whether the Pope is "too conservative." Only 31% of Catholics (and 37% of Protestants) accept the characterization of the Pope as "out of touch with the modern world," while 43% of Catholics (and 41% of Protestants) agree that he is "out of touch with Catholics in the U.S."
But not on one major issue. An important theme of his papacy has been the danger of man becoming the "slave of things." He has frequently preached that in affluent nations, materialism, selfishness and consumerism close the "horizons of the spirit." According to the TIME poll, an impressive 76% of Catholics and 56% of Protestants think that "Americans in particular should pay attention" to the Pope's words on materialism. Some 56% of Catholics also say the Pope's warnings are relevant to their own lives, though only 33% of Protestants think so.
In 1979 the U.S. welcomed Pope John Paul as a dramatic new personality on the world stage. The inevitable excitement about the first papal tour of the U.S. overshadowed the stern admonitions that John Paul delivered on church teachings and discipline. Since then, the Pontiff and Vatican officials have taken a number of widely noted actions to apply those admonitions. Some of the most controversial: temporarily limiting the authority of Seattle's liberal Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, firing the Rev. Charles Curran from his professorship of moral theology at the Catholic University of America, threatening nuns with expulsion for declaring that pro-choice opinions on abortion are legitimate, and directing bishops to cut church ties to gay Catholic groups.
Liberal U.S. Catholics who favor more individual autonomy reacted angrily. In California, Dominican Father Matthew Fox, a theologian whose unconventional writings have been scrutinized by Vatican doctrinal overseers, snaps that the "church is committing suicide." Americans living in Rome who have been in the U.S. recently have been stunned by the general opposition among clergy.
Confronted by assertive lay Catholics, pastors are often disinclined to enforce official teachings. Chicago Priest John Carolan remarks, "We don't talk about birth control. Young couples appreciate the freedom to make those decisions on their own." Says Father Eli Bauwens, of his parishioners at St. Brigid's in Los Angeles: "I've told them that what you do in your bedroom is your decision." Many have been divorced and remarried, and despite church rules, he quietly allows them to receive Communion anyway.