No one should be surprised by one of the recent Pew Study’s major findings, namely that “there are large divides between Catholics who attend Mass weekly and those who don’t.”
Traditional, orthodox Roman Catholic believers ought to be extremely grateful that American Catholics do not vote on Catholic doctrine, moral teaching, and ecclesiology. Because if they did, and if they got their way, much of the historic Roman Catholic Church would be swept away into the dustbin of history. This conclusion screams from the pages of a recent Pew Research Center survey report, “Most U.S. Catholics Say They Want the Church To Be ‘More Inclusive.’” Pew conducted the survey from February 3 through 9 with “1,787 Catholic respondents.”
Few of us would be surprised by one of the report’s major findings, namely that “there are large divides between Catholics who attend Mass weekly and those who don’t.” That is, the latter are astronomically more liberal. Nor would we be surprised that Catholic Democrats are far more liberal than Republican ones (Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi versus J.D. Vance, anyone?).
Some might not have expected that Catholic women are more liberal than Catholic men, though this sex difference is something we see in national politics as well. Here, women were more progressive in the following areas: whether the Church should be more “inclusive,” the use of birth control, blessings for same-sex couples (66 percent, versus 54 percent for men), marriage for same-sex couples (55 percent, versus 45 percent for men), and allowing women to be deacons.
Unfortunately, Pew did not explore the impact of marital status on women’s stances. My guess is that this would show that marital status, along with having or not having children, would matter a lot—with married women, especially those with children, being more conservative, as they are politically. We can infer this by the above-mentioned finding regarding the doctrinal differences between Catholic Democrats and Republicans, since single women are far more likely to vote Democrat.
Age mattered, but in surprising ways. Respondents who were 18 to 34 were often more conservative, in some cases by very hefty margins, than those ages 65 and older. This was true on the ordination of women as priests and deacons, whether priests should be allowed to marry, Communion for cohabiting Catholics, the use of IVF, and wanting the Church to be more “inclusive.” (I ignored findings where differences were only a few or less percentage points.)
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