From NCR:
Three-quarters of U.S. Catholics view Pope Francis favorably, but that figure is down 8 percentage points from 2021 and reflects growing polarization between Catholics who identify as Republicans and Democrats, a new Pew Research Center survey finds.
According to the new survey, about nine in 10 Catholics who are Democrats or lean progressive in their politics have positive attitudes toward the pope, compared with 63% of Republican or conservative-leaning Catholics.
“The partisan gap in views of Pope Francis is as large as it’s ever been in our surveys,” the Pew Research Center writes in its April 12 report, “Majority of U.S. Catholics Express Favorable View of Pope Francis.”
Based on a Feb. 13-25 survey of 12,693 individuals — 2,019 of whom were Catholics — the Pew Research Center’s findings provide a new data point to illustrate how conservative U.S. Catholics, once ardent defenders of the papacy, have become increasingly critical of Francis, an Argentine Jesuit who in March 2013 became the first pope from Latin America.
Alienated by Francis’ pointed criticisms of capitalism, advocacy for climate change awareness, overtures to the LGBTQ community, and moves to permit civilly remarried Catholics in some cases to receive the Eucharist without an annulment, 35% of Republican or Republican-leaning Catholics in the United States now say they have an unfavorable view of the pope.
“This survey marks the first time that more than 28% of Catholic Republicans have expressed unfavorable views of Francis in roughly a dozen times we have asked this question since his papacy began in 2013,” the Pew Research Center said.
Buried deeper in the story, you find evidence of a gulf between the Church and the people in the pews:
Large majorities of Catholics in the United States believe the church should lift its ban on birth control, allow unmarried cohabitating Catholics to receive Communion, permit priests to marry and ordain women to the ministerial priesthood, according to the Pew Research Center.
A little more than half of U.S. Catholics — 54% — say the church should recognize the civil marriages of same-sex couples, the survey said.
On abortion, the Pew Research Center survey indicates more evidence of a disconnect between U.S. Catholics and the hierarchy.
In November 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to reaffirm the “threat of abortion” as the prelates’ “preeminent priority” for their political guidance to Catholic voters in the year leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
But despite the bishops’ decades of outspoken advocacy against abortion, the Pew Research Center’s latest survey finds that about six in 10 Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases….
… While Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly are more likely to oppose changing church teachings than those who seldom or never go to church, the survey still found that more than half of the Catholics in both groups support married priests, contraception and allowing unmarried cohabitating Catholics to receive Communion.
