Northwestern University Newsfeed

February 25, 2005

McClory: Anywhere from 60 to 90% of married Catholics say they have no problem with artificial contraception and do in fact practice it. A lot of people have left the church on that account. The Bishops are not allowed the freedom to make decisions on their own about their own people. The most antagonistic group are Catholic women, who simply do not understand why they are excluded basically from the one position of the church that has the decision making authority and that is the Priesthood.

McClory says there will likely be differing views on the Pope’s legacy…

McClory: He has had a profound influence for good in his role in helping to bring down the Soviet Union, through his support of the Polish Solidarity Movement. He will be remembered for his apology to the Jews, a very public and very profound apology. He will be remembered also in that connection of his refusal to indulge in any kind of dialogue of such issues as sexual morality, homosexuality, the possibility of women priests.

McClory explains the process of choosing a new leader for Catholics…

McClory: The College of Cardinals who will meet after his, after John Paul has passed away, in what they call a conclave . And the tradition is they kind of go in hiding in Rome and they talk it out and sort of like a great big jury room where the arguments are made and people defend various candidates and nobody really knows how it goes on because they don’t allow the press or anybody other than Cardinals in that room.

McClory speculates that John Paul II’s successor may lead the Church in a different direction…

McClory: The tradition pretty much in the church that a very very conservative pope is followed by a liberal pope. If we got a slightly more liberal pope, my thought is that the bishops, though they be conservative by nature, they are first and foremost company men. They follow the leader. If the leader gets a little bit liberal, all of a sudden a lot of that conservatism they expressed under John Paul will be muted. They’re going to do what the pope says.