Your comments: N.J. Catholics give Trenton Diocese a piece of their minds Staff By Staff The Star-Ledger
on March 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM, updated March 23, 2012 at 9:44 AM
0323catholicchurch.jpgBishop David O'Connell is pictured in his office in this 2010 file photo. A study that asked Trenton Diocese Catholics who don't attend Mass what they would say to O'Connell if they had the chance revealed that many of them want less political talk and more explanations for rules.

Bishop David O'Connell has gotten an earful from Catholics in the Trenton Diocese. The diocese asked a few hundred people what issues they would raise if they could talk to him for five minutes. It was part of a survey to determine why they stopped attending Mass.

Their reasons ranged from the personal to the political to the doctrinal. In addition they said they didn’t like the church’s handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal and were upset that divorced and remarried Catholics are unwelcome at Mass. users are discussing the survey and its results. user peterpeffle writes:

The Catholic Church will soon be a thing of the past. They did it to themselves. I was Catholic and am now Episcopalian. They are a lot more normal and our priest is a married women with three kids. They don't have the holier-than-thou attitude we had in our old church. Why would you take your kid to a place where you don't feel safe with the priests? It is too late to fix it and more will close. This is happening all over the country. user RobertCalifornia writes:

The Catholic Church is just behind the times. In religion that means a couple of centuries. I look forward to significant modernization once we have the first pope not from the WWII generation. Seventeen years of Catholic school for me, and the idea of getting back into it is comical to me. But in my case it's about organized religion in general, not so much Catholicism. To me it's all equally absurd. If it's created by, written by, and run by human beings I have a problem with it. Any time I hear someone who acts like they have an idea of what God wants from us, I turn and walk away.

What would you say to the bishop if given the chance? Respond to these and other comments by jumping directly to the comments section of the article.