Catholics in US overwhelmingly support homosexual unions
October 08, 2010
Catholics form a relatively low percentage of participants the Tea Party movement, have similar views to most Americans on abortion, and overwhelmingly support the legal recognition of homosexual unions, according to a survey published by the Public Religion Research Institute.
The survey found that 14% of Tea Party participants are white Catholics, and another 4% are Latino Catholics-- a lower percentage total than the 22% of Americans who are Catholic.
The survey also found that 26% of white Catholics, and 18% of Latino Catholics, say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports abortion, while 38% of white Catholics, and 26% of Latino Catholics, are less likely to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. Overall, 30% of Americans are more likely, and 35% are less likely, to vote for a pro-abortion candidate.
In addition, the survey found that Catholics overwhelmingly support legal recognition of homosexual unions. 41% of white Catholics, and 46% of Latino Catholics, support same-sex marriage, while an additional 36% of white Catholics, and 22% of Latino Catholics, support same-sex civil unions. Only 19% of white Catholics, and 30% of Latino Catholics, are faithful to Catholic teaching, which opposes the legal recognition of homosexual unions. Overall, 37% of Americans support same-sex marriage, 27% support civil unions, and 33% oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions. In 2006, only 26% of Americans supported same-sex marriage.
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Further information:
- Religion and the Tea Party in the 2010 Election (Public Religion Research Institute)
- Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2003)
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Posted by: rfwilliams2938 -
Oct. 12, 2010 8:09 AM ET USA
Many (most?) US Catholics are like US Jews, i.e. it's a cultural identify, not a statement of faith. Whose fault is it? Probably of lot of blame to go around. Maybe the new Pontifical Council for New Evangelization will help.
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Posted by: -
Oct. 09, 2010 3:02 PM ET USA
Another issue that is destroying the Catholic family is the dismal acceptance of divorce/remarriage. If the Catholic guy next to you at Mass is with a new girlfriend, you are supposed to welcome her and be tolerant. Any question about how his behavior is affecting his children/grandchildren will be called uncharitable. However, there isn't a Cathoic alive who has not heard that the Church condemns abortion, homosexual unions, divorce/dating/remarriage. . . . They know; they don't like.
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Posted by: bnewman -
Oct. 09, 2010 1:37 PM ET USA
Desert_rat is correct and mainline Protestant churches are in even a worse state. But still, many parents (including myself) were not on the ball with this,and let things pass. I do not think we can get away with just pointing at bishops, priests, CCD teachers etc.
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Posted by: desert_rat114345 -
Oct. 09, 2010 10:45 AM ET USA
This is what happens when those who teach the faith try to hard to accommodate the world.
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Posted by: bnewman -
Oct. 08, 2010 10:34 PM ET USA
Some people were baptised Catholic years ago, but have rarely seen the inside of a Catholic church since, and others learnt nothing about the Church even if they went occasionally. Baptism is no longer given without any some qualification but this is a recent development. There needs even more attention given to the sacrament and more, much more, follow up and insistence on catechesis.Our generation has failed to pass along the faith to our children mostly.
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Posted by: impossible -
Oct. 08, 2010 9:23 PM ET USA
Poor catechesis and feel-good homilies are certainly culprits. I think a lot of the trouble can be traced to the USCCB and too many Bishops sitting back and "letting the USCCB handle it." In that regard, an excellent read is Bishop Robert Vasa: http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/the-bishop-and-the-conference.html
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Posted by: semperficatholic -
Oct. 08, 2010 8:44 PM ET USA
When Pope Benedict was a Cardinal I remember reading in one of his books these words, "The Church will get smaller." He was right, it may not be smaller in the numbers but it is smaller in the number of those Catholics that are actually faithful to all that Holy Mother Church teaches.
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Posted by: unum -
Oct. 08, 2010 8:28 PM ET USA
This survey proves two things. One, a significant percentage of Americans who say they are Catholic are not, but don't know it. Two, the example of the many bishops who are more interested in "social justice" and politics than catechesis has had its effect. Many American "Catholics" have bought into the secular progressive notion of "social justice" because of the political activities of many of the bishops and their lip service to the teachings of the Church.
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Posted by: Justin8110 -
Oct. 08, 2010 4:14 PM ET USA
If this is true it shows that the Church in America has failed dismally at catechesis. One cannot be a Catholic in good standing and support homosexual unions. Proper catechesis is more important than the this world "social justice" so often preached about because heresy puts one outside the Church and as we all know "outside the Church there is no salvation."
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Posted by: Gil125 -
Oct. 08, 2010 3:07 PM ET USA
garedawg is probably right, but the figures might also improve if homilists ever mentioned any of these things.
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Posted by: pannw -
Oct. 08, 2010 11:07 AM ET USA
Saint Paul explained all of this in the letter to the Romans. He could have been writing it last year directly to us. Of course, most of these 'Catholics' have probably never read it. After the 2008 election results and polling, I knew there were far fewer actual Catholics in this country than statistics showed.
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Posted by: garedawg -
Oct. 08, 2010 10:44 AM ET USA
Now, let's see the poll results for those Catholics who attend Mass every Sunday.
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Posted by: -
Oct. 08, 2010 10:02 AM ET USA
Please take this survey with a heavy dose of salt. Simply being a baptized Catholic does not mean much in terms of the knowledge and practice of faith. What if in the next such survey we find that that the majority of Catholics support civil unions between humans and their pets and accept consensual bestiality?
