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RELIGION BRIEFING

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Detroit Archbishop Named

Pope Benedict XVI has tapped Michigan native Bishop Allen Vigneron to succeed Cardinal Adam Maida as archbishop of Detroit, the Vatican announced this week.

Vigneron, 60, had been bishop of Oakland, Calif., since 2003, and has been a priest since 1975. He will be installed as archbishop in Detroit on Jan. 28.

Following Vatican rules, Maida, 78, who had led the Detroit area's 1.4 million Catholics for 18 years, submitted his resignation to Benedict in 2005 when he turned 75.

Maida, along with 12 other U.S. cardinals, is eligible to vote in papal elections until he turns 80. With the death last month of Cardinal Avery Dulles, there are now 16 U.S.-born cardinals.

-- Religion News Service

POLL ON RELIGION

Most in U.S. Say Influence Waning

Two-thirds of Americans think religion is losing its influence on U.S. life, a sharp jump from just three years ago when Americans were almost evenly split on the question, according to a new Gallup Poll.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans think religious influence is waning while 27 percent say it is increasing. That perspective demonstrates a continuing downward trend, Gallup said.

But the 27 percent figure is higher than the record low, set in a 1970 poll, when just 14 percent of Americans thought religion was increasing in influence.

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