New poll confirms widespread dissent from Church moral teachings among US Catholics
September 02, 2015
Dissent from Church teachings on contentious moral issues is widespread among Catholic Americans, a new Pew Research survey has confirmed.
A majority of Catholics believe that the use of contraceptives, extra-marital sex, and remarriage after divorce are not sinful, according to the poll. More than a third of American Catholics (39%) do not believe that homosexual acts are sinful.
The Pew poll found that substantial minorities of self-identified Catholics think it is acceptable for children to be raised by unmarried couples (48%) or by same-sex couples (43%). A large majority (79%) think it acceptable for married couples to choose not to have children.
Not surprisingly, the Pew survey found that Catholics who attend Mass regularly are more likely to support the teachings of the Church. However, even among churchgoing Catholics there is substantial support for positions opposed to Church moral teachings. The Pew poll also provides new evidence that American Catholics are leaving the Church in large numbers. More than half of all Americans who were raised as Catholics have stopped practicing the faith at some point in their lives, the survey shows. Among those who say they have broken permanently with the Catholic Church, 77% report that they cannot imagine returning.
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Posted by: nix898049 -
Sep. 03, 2015 10:34 PM ET USA
It may come down to a choice. The American Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Church. And the dilemma is this first pope of the New World who seems to be okay with lax practice occupies the throne of St. Peter and 'where Peter is there is the Church'. What course it will take is unclear to me, anyway, at present.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Sep. 03, 2015 4:53 PM ET USA
"Contentious moral issues" are contentious only in the minds of dissenters, the press, and other anti-Catholics. Have you noticed that the most contentious moral issues invoke the 1st and 6th Commandments? I wonder if Pope Francis still considers them non-issues that need to be downplayed in favor of "real" social issues. No matter how much he desires to suppress a Catholic public focus on these sexual issues, they have a way of raising their troublesome heads when one least wants or expects it.
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Posted by: brenda22890 -
Sep. 03, 2015 10:04 AM ET USA
I wish someone would share this with Pope Francis before his visit to the U.S. Maybe we could talk more about living what the Church teaches and less about people who are too focused on the rules.
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Posted by: unum -
Sep. 03, 2015 8:21 AM ET USA
The American Church is dying, as pastors refuse to preach and teach on "contentious moral issues" to avoid critical letters from the diocese in response to these irate parishioners (read donors). The demise is being hastened by the importation of foreign priests who do not understand the American culture and can't communicate effectively on today's moral issues. Pew has correctly identified the trend in the U.S. Church, a trend populated by uneducated and uninspired Catholics.
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Posted by: jalsardl5053 -
Sep. 02, 2015 10:24 PM ET USA
Looks like Pope Benedict was spot on: the Church will become more quality and less quantity. And, unfortunately, Christ may also be spot on: "I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?" Douay-Rheims Bible, Luke 18:8
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Posted by: Minnesota Mary -
Sep. 02, 2015 8:31 PM ET USA
"Many are called, but few are chosen." Or as M. Scott Peck interprets that line, "Many are called, but few choose to follow the call."
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Posted by: filioque -
Sep. 02, 2015 6:42 PM ET USA
It has taken 100 years, starting with Cardinal Gibbons teaming up with President Wilson to go to war, but the destruction of the Catholic Church in the U.S. is very nearly complete. Most of it is just a shell waiting to collapse. These people are not really Catholics because they are not catechized. Joseph Ratzinger's church of small, isolated communities already exists, many of them thriving on the Extraordinary Form. We should consider ourselves in mission territory and under persecution.
