By Ryan FoleyChristian Post Reporter Tuesday, April 16, 2024

A majority of American Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, although support for legal abortion is much lower among Catholics who regularly attend Mass, according to a survey.

The Pew Research Center published a blog titled “9 Facts about American Catholics” on Friday. One fact included in the list, based on research conducted from March 27 to April 2, 2023, found that 61% of Catholics living in the United States believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases . This is a slightly smaller percentage than the number of American adults who said the same (62%).

Support for abortion differs among subgroups within the sample of Catholic adults surveyed. A slightly higher share of Hispanic Catholics (63%) favor keeping abortion legal in all or most cases than their white Catholic counterparts (59%).

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Conversely, the difference in support for abortion between Catholics who attend Mass every week and those who go less often is much starker. Only 34% of Catholics who go to mass every week believe that abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. Meanwhile, 68% of Catholics who attend Mass once a month or less or not at all support legal abortion in all or most cases.

Michael New, a scholar for life at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, reacted to this particular finding of the survey about X friday “Church attendance tells us a lot more about abortion attitudes than denomination,” he said.

Carol Swainconservative commentator and former Vanderbilt University professor, cited the report's findings as evidence that “Pope Francis and progressive public Catholics like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democratic President Joe Biden have been disastrous for Orthodox Christians of all denominations.”

Swain's comments suggest that Pelosi and Biden, self-professed practicing Catholics who support abortion despite its direct contradiction to the teachings of their faith, are causing many of their fellow Catholics to stray from church teaching on the issue.

The report measured the share of American Catholics who attend Mass weekly at 28%, and found that 10% of American Catholics go to church once a month, and the remaining 62% attend Mass a few times a year or less. Catholic Church teachingas laid out in the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, states that “direct abortion, that is, abortion at will or as an end or means, is seriously contrary to the moral law” and that “formal cooperation in abortion constitutes a serious offense.”

Additional results from the Pew Research Center show that party affiliation also plays a role in Catholics' level of support for abortion. Forty-three percent of Catholic Republicans favor legal abortion in all or most circumstances compared to 78% of Catholic Democrats.

The partisan divide within the Roman Catholic Church as it relates to abortion mirrors the divisions among the American public as a whole. Among all American adults, 40% of Republicans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 84% of Democrats said the same.

Pew Research Center also released data examining the views of American Catholics about Pope Francis. The pope has drawn the ire of some conservative Catholics for his restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass and the recent Vatican document allowing priests to give blessings to same-sex couples. While a majority of American Catholics (75%) have a favorable opinion of the pope, opinions of Francis vary based on party affiliation.

Specifically, 89% of Catholic Democrats have a favorable view of the Pope compared to 63% of Catholic Republicans. The opinion poll measuring the opinions of Catholics about Francis is based on responses collected from February 13-25.

Pew Research Center Associate Director of Research Greg Smith shared his thoughts on his organization's findings in an appearance on “EWTN News Nightly” on Friday. He noted that “those favorability ratings for Pope Francis have declined slightly in recent years,” explaining that when the research organization asked a question about the religious leader in the past, the pope's favorability rating among the American public “tended to be north.” of 80%.”