Spain, Ireland Favor Priesthood Change Poll Finds Strong Endorsement Of Married And Women Priests

People in the once-staunchly conservative countries of Spain and Ireland overwhelmingly support women and marriage in the Catholic priesthood, poll results released Friday said.

A five-nation survey, which began last year in the United States, indicates Roman Catholics favor significant reforms by whoever succeeds Pope John Paul II.

Ireland and Spain emerged as the strongest advocates of reversals in the bans on married clergy and women priests - both of which John Paul has ruled out as contrary to church teachings.

In Spain, 84 percent of respondents favored allowing priests to marry, and 70 percent approved of women priests.

In Ireland, the responses were 82 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

In a U.S. Gallup Poll of 770 Roman Catholics, 69 percent of respondents endorsed married priests and 65 percent backed women in the clergy. That poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Similar methods were applied by different polling groups in the other nations, which included Italy and the Philippines.

Sixty percent of Italian respondents and only 20 percent of Filipinos favored married priests. Fifty-two percent of Italians and 17 percent of Filipinos backed the ordination of women.

The poll was commissioned by the Rev. Andrew Greeley, a Catholic priest who is a sociologist at the University of Chicago.