Abstract
The basic premise with which the Catholic Church has related to empirical social research in the last four decades can be stated quite simply: Who needs it? The Church (by which I mean here bishops and priests) assumes that it has a monopoly on truth. Not only does it not make mistakes; it also knows everything that it needs to know about every possible subject. It understands whatever needs to be understood about human social behavior because of the revelations of God through Jesus to the Church and especially to the Pope. Thus the Church can really learn nothing important from empirical research. At best, such research is a minor help; at worst, it is an obstacle to the Church's work. No one could possibly adopt such an approach to reality, you say? Read, for example, the writings of the current Archbishop of Cincinnati, the vice president of the American bishops, and see if I'm making it up. This basic premise underlies the four major assumptions about sociology that I have encountered in the last forty years:
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