Responses dealing with religious roles are similarly mixed. All significantly reject the notion of a hierarchical conception of the priesthood with special powers that lay persons lack, but laity are divided and do so only weakly. All accept the notion that all believers have charisma and vocation. We argue that the dominant American view is of a Church politically engaged in an open and pluralistic sense, rather than the Vatican being the spokesman and broker for all Catholics. Women religious and deacons seem most strongly attached to this view.
Progressive attitudes exist in each sample, but as unconnected attitudes about different things.
But we found the particular pattern of those relationships varied among samples and was neither consistent nor predictable. Yet the data also suggests considerable pluralism and diversity. It seems to be a symbiotic mixture of officially promoted traditionalism, residues from the Vatican II reforms, and themes and attitudes that relate to the American cultural environment. Hegy did not use the terms traditional and progressive, but his instrument included items that depict them, as I use those terms here. 4 Kevin Leicht, a Creighton graduate of 1981, now a member of the Department of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University.