{"id":13767,"date":"2015-01-09T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/5-facts-about-catholicism-in-the-philippines\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:20:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:20:24","slug":"5-facts-about-catholicism-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/01\/09\/5-facts-about-catholicism-in-the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about Catholicism in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Catholic<\/a>
Catholic faithfuls in pose in front of a cardboard stand-up photograph of Pope Francis in suburban Manila, 2014. (AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Next weekend, Pope Francis will make his first visit to the home of Asia\u2019s largest Catholic population, the Philippines<\/a>. The pontiff, who also will be making a stop in Sri Lanka, is very popular in the Philippines and should expect an enthusiastic welcome during his five-day visit.<\/p>\n\n

The Philippines\u2019 Catholic majority has its origins in the islands\u2019 long period as a Spanish colony, and popes have made the more than 6,000-mile trip<\/a> from the Vatican a few times before. Pope Paul VI visited the country<\/a> in 1970, and St. John Paul II traveled to the Philippines twice<\/a> as pope (in 1981 and 1995).<\/p>\n\n

Here are five facts about Filipinos and their attitudes toward religion:<\/p>\n\n

1Very few countries are home to more Catholics than the Philippines.<\/strong> As of 2010, there were about 76 million Catholics living in the Philippines \u2013 roughly the same as the number living in the United States<\/a>. The two countries have the world\u2019s third- and fourth-largest Catholic populations, behind Brazil and Mexico. About eight-in-ten Filipinos (81%) are Catholic<\/a>; a somewhat smaller share of Filipino Americans<\/a> (65%) identify as Catholic.<\/p>\n\n

2\u00a0Pope Francis is extremely popular in the Philippines<\/strong>. Nearly nine-in-ten Filipinos overall (88%) \u2013 including 95% of Filipino Catholics \u2013 say they view the pope favorably<\/a>. In fact, more than half of the country\u2019s people (56%) view Francis very<\/em> favorably.<\/p>\n\n

3\u00a0Pope Francis plans to visit Tacloban, a city devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Later this year, Francis will reportedly focus on environmental issues and publish a papal encyclical urging action on climate change<\/a>. About a third of Filipinos (34%) see pollution and environmental problems as the <\/strong>greatest threat to the world<\/strong><\/a>; no other problem mentioned in the survey (including religious and ethnic hatred and nuclear weapons) is viewed with such alarm by as many people in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n

4\u00a0Many Filipinos have conservative views on social issues<\/a>, some of which are strongly in line with Catholic Church teachings. For example, two-thirds (67%) say that getting a divorce is morally unacceptable \u2013 three times the share of Americans who say this (22%). Filipinos overwhelmingly view having an abortion as immoral (93%)<\/strong>; no country among the 40 surveyed is more universally opposed to abortion on moral grounds.<\/p>\n\n

5Throughout several years of Pew Research studies on global restrictions on religion<\/a>, the Philippines consistently has displayed a \u201clow\u201d level of government restrictions on religion<\/strong>. In 2012, the most recent year for which data are available, the country had a \u201cmoderate\u201d level of social hostilities involving religion, although the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf has been active in recent years<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next weekend, Pope Francis will make his first visit to the home of Asia\u2019s largest Catholic population, the Philippines. The pontiff, who also will be making a stop in Sri Lanka, is very popular in the Philippines and should expect an enthusiastic welcome during his five-day visit. The Philippines\u2019 Catholic majority has its origins in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"8501f648822e97159d40e0da1c94a68e","termId":854}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[180,173,168,170],"bylines":[854],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13767","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-catholicism","category-international-religious-freedom-restrictions","category-religious-freedom-restrictions","category-religious-leaders-institutions","bylines-michael-lipka","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":429,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/01\/09\/5-facts-about-catholicism-in-the-philippines\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":25420,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":25420,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":25420,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":25420,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":25420,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":25420,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/01\/FT_15_01_08_popePhilippinesPhoto-jpg.webp?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"5 facts about Catholicism in the Philippines","description":"Catholic faithfuls in pose in front of a cardboard stand-up photograph of Pope Francis in suburban Manila, 2014. 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