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Edit: because a large number of non-subscribers participated in a US "Catholic" poll about Vatican II, the results were not quite what the editors were looking for, we think. The difference was striking. It seems that several popular Catholic blogs encouraged their readers to vote, and US Catholic decided not to include some 1650 votes in their final analysis as to whether or not Vatican II was a success. Of course, according to the 350 readers who were formed by US Catholic, the Church was in great shape and, ironically, a lot bigger than it would have been otherwise. (No small thanks to US Catholic)
It didn't take long to figure out who at least one conservative blog was.
It reminds one of accounts of how the Japanese high command would use wargames to plan out their military exercises during WW II not so much as objective attempts to assess the relative capabilities of both sides, including logistics problems, but was primarily conceived of as a propaganda tool to build consensus among the naval commanders. High Command aimed to skew results in the course of play even, to reflect the most hopeful outcome.
US Catholic skews its own poll results to obtain an unrealistic appraisal of Vatican II by chopping non-subscribers out of the results.
Interestingly, US Catholic's results show that most of its readers were born before 1950, since most of them were attending High School when Vatican II took place in 1962 - 1965.
Obviously, there is a lot more enthusiasm for Vatican II among the older readership of the moribund US Catholic than there is among the presumably younger, conservative 1650 or so blog readers who participated in the poll with humorous results.
Which points to another thing. It seems that conservative Catholics are not only more fervent and certain of victory, but more numerous as well.
While US Catholic faithfully acknowledged the participation of non-subscribers and the polarity which exists in the Church, it continued its article considering the results only of its readers as if the poll numbers reflected the overall perception of Catholic participants who took the poll in the first place. It was somewhat confusing if not blatantly dishonest.
Actually, what we assume are the subscriber poll numbers show a blissful ignorance of the actual situation of the Church after Vatican II, as well as a buoyant expectation of the future, despite all indicators to the contrary.
Another significant change since 2005 is the way U.S. Catholic conducts its reader surveys. Once collected only through questionnaires mailed to subscribers, the admittedly unscientific survey is now open to anyone who wishes to respond at uscatholic.org. More than 2,000 Catholics took the survey, about 350 of whom are subscribers to the magazine. Many responses, however, came after conservative Catholic bloggers encouraged their readers to complete the survey.
When non-subscribers are included, the number who think Vatican II is “the best thing that’s happened to the church in centuries” dips from 74 percent to 37 percent. Among subscribers, 81 percent think the church needs to go farther or get back on track with the reforms. But among all respondents, 52 percent say the church went too far.
The divide among respondents reflects a growing polarity in the church—one that was predicted and feared by U.S. Catholic readers in 2005. But both groups share a knowledge of and passion for the church. Eighty-six percent of subscribers and website visitors have read at least one document from Vatican II. Only a handful of respondents said Vatican II was “ancient history” or had no opinion of it.
Link to US Catholic....
