Major New Poll Shows U.S. Catholics Overwhelmingly Reject Bishops' Effort

[struggle4progress]

... to Control Catholic Voters and Candidates

To: National Desk and Religion Reporter

Contact: Michelle Ringuette of the Catholics for a Free Choice, 202-986-6093 or 202-550-1321, Web: http://www.catholicsforchoice.org

WASHINGTON, June 17 /U.S. Newswire/ --
<snip>

-- Attempts by conservative Catholic organizations to pressure bishops to deny communion fails to reflect the position of rank- and-file Catholics: 76 percent disapprove of Catholic bishops denying communion to Catholics who support legal abortion and 78 percent believe that politicians who are Catholic and who support legal abortion SHOULD NOT be denied communion.

-- Just 16 percent believe that politicians who are Catholic have a religious obligation to vote on issues the way Catholic bishops recommend; 83 percent believe there is no religious obligation.

-- Three-fourths (74 percent) rejected the notion that Catholic voters have a religious obligation to vote against candidates who support legal abortion.

-- Finally, American Catholics indicated the extent to which the bishops have lost their moral authority with Catholics. When asked how important the views of the Catholic bishops in the US are in deciding whom to vote for, only seven percent indicated that the bishops' views were very important, 23 percent somewhat important, 30 percent not very important, and a full 40 percent stated the bishops' views were not important at all in deciding whom they would vote for.
<snip>
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=114-06172004

[0007]

1. Now just why am I not surprised?

Hope them Catholic bishops learn to catch a dummy from here on out.

[Born Free]

16. No bad news about molestation

Any one notice that once news came out the bishops were openly supporting the right wing's agenda , the daily barrage of news of child molestation by priests has ceased? Think about it, the right wing controlled media were beating up on the church on a daily basis, suddenly it all stops and the church openly promote republicans candidates. No connection?

[DeepModem Mom]

17. Interesting....

[Sandpiper]

2. Psssst. Don't tell the Bishops

Let them continue their slide into irrelevancy.

[patcox2]

7. Probably a greater majority of Bishops agree.

The media has been trumepting republican propaganda on this issue. Its only a handful of whacky bishops who have been saying that actholic politicians should be denied communion. The overwhelming majority of Bishops would strongly disagree.

[fdr_hst_fan]

3. Not to knock Catholicism.

but when it comes to real life, what do they know about it? From what I've been hearing, they've been too busy sexually initiating altar boys!

[judge_smales]

4. Is it time to split w/ Rome yet?

These old bastards are hopelessly out of touch.

[underpants]

5. I'm glad they didn't buy the RW created and fed "issue"

I have yet to hear the church say whether Republican-Catholic politicians who support the death penalty could receive communion but then I don't think the question was asked. Total BS.

[patcox2]

8. Forget the death penalty, how about divorce?

Where would the republicans be without divorce? They are the divorce party.

[lovedems]

6. As a Catholic, this poll is accurate to what other Catholics in my little

part of the world feel.

Bishops need to remember that congresmen and women represent their constituents, not the Catholic Church.

Hopefully the Bishops will take heed of this poll and do what is right.

[ElectroPrincess]

11. Well written ...

I mirror your sentiments as a fellow Catholic. It's a shame that the right wing was able to use these gullible Bishops at all. They need to "get a clue." :-)

[LostInAnomie]

9. As a practicing Catholic I have been saying for years...

... that the American Catholic's need to break away from the Roman catholic church, and from an American Catholic church.

The Roman Catholic church has became so far out of touch with American's that is bordering on irrelevancy.

[Book Lover]

10. Unfortunately

The Catholic Church is the last Eurpoean absolute monarchy. The laity has no official say; the bishops/cardinals are princes of their own domains. Polls mean nothing to those at the top.

</angry former Catholic rant>

[Justice]

12. Most Important - Will This Poll Be Widely Published?

My concern is that these poll results will not be widely published and thus Catholics will not realize that most of their fellow Catholics feel as they do.

These bishops in the Church fail to appreciate that the people who are most outraged by the abuse scandals are not lapsed Catholics - but faithful, devout Catholics who attend church, contribute money and follow the faith. The moral authority lost by these bishops is virtually complete. So to have the same bishops tell Catholics that they must not support Kerry is truly insulting.

Even pro-life Catholics can see that focusing only on abortion is not an honest discussion. How can a bishop purport to care about life, and then support Bush and Republicans who care little about the life of a baby once born - denying that child proper food, housing, education and healthcare if that baby is born into a poor family. If all life is important, then let's treat all life equally as important. Let's not rally around one very narrow issues and ignore the rest of the universe.

[Lefty48197]

13. "The Bishops" aren't the problem, it's the 'conservative Catholic

organizations' who go out and find a Bishop, or two who will support their right wing agenda, and publicly try to kick a Democrat out of the church, or at least publicly humiliate them.
I think that small number of Bishops who stick their noses into American politics should remember that Pope John Paul II gave communion to Italian legislators who were pro-choice.

[Raven]

14. Most Catholics have violated so many stupid rules that

they are not going to pay any attention to some Bishops' rantings about Catholic politicians...and most Catholics are going to wonder if these Bishops come to the table with "clean hands". After all, Bernard Cardinal Law ranted about Kennedy's position on abortion while he was hiding pedophile priests...this is not lost on most thinking Catholics. Not to worry...I think most Catholics can tell the difference between a madman and a sane, thoughtful, balanced candidate for President...at least I hope so!

[DeepModem Mom]

15. kick

[dusty64]

18. This is wonderful news.

I hope this blatantly political pushing of the extreme right agenda bites these jerks right in the ass.

[jamesinca]

19. A similar thread was up a few days back.

The right wing, namely Bush, has been courting the Catholic vote. Beliefnet.com has an entire sections devoted to Catholic issues and the churches stance on these issues.


One of the articles on beliefnet.com was why did Bush go to the Vatican before D-Day ceremonies, it was important to do in an attempt to lure the Catholic vote. In the post here on DU most other news sources reported that the Pope rebuked Bush, the American press reported nothing like that. I wonder why?