{"id":14482,"date":"2014-03-27T07:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/u-s-catholics-mirror-general-public-on-views-of-inequality\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:22:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:22:35","slug":"u-s-catholics-mirror-general-public-on-views-of-inequality","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/03\/27\/u-s-catholics-mirror-general-public-on-views-of-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Catholics mirror general public on views of inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the White House announced in January that President Obama would travel to Rome this month, it said the president was looking forward to \u201cdiscussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty<\/a> and growing inequality.\u201d Both men have addressed a growing gap between rich and poor, and the meeting today was dubbed<\/a> the \u201cinequality summit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"FT_Catholics_Inequality\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

The two leaders are meeting at a time when more Americans say they have a very or mostly favorable view of the pontiff<\/a> (66%) than say the same about the president<\/a> (51%). And significantly fewer have an unfavorable view of Pope Francis (11%) than see Obama unfavorably (45%).<\/p>\n\n

U.S. Catholic bishops have said that<\/a> Catholic teaching on social justice issues is \u201ca central and essential element of our faith.\u201d A 2013 Pew Research survey<\/a> asked U.S. Catholics an open-ended question: What is the most important way the Catholic Church helps society today? More mentioned helping the poor or other charitable works (27%) than any other response.<\/p>\n\n

Since his election a year ago, the Vatican released an \u201capostolic exhortation<\/a>\u201d that laid out his vision of a world that is more socially inclusive of the poor, and derided \u201cthe gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Many U.S. Catholics are supportive of government action meant to address poverty and economic equality \u2013 including raising the minimum wage, according to a survey we conducted with USA TODAY in January<\/a>. But they are not necessarily more supportive of such action than the U.S. public as a whole, and are less supportive than the religiously unaffiliated.<\/p>\n\n

For example, when asked how much the government should do to reduce poverty, 47% of U.S. Catholics say \u201ca lot\u201d and an additional 31% say \u201csome.\u201d Among the general public, 53% say \u201ca lot\u201d and 29% say \u201csome.\u201d Religiously unaffiliated Americans are particularly likely to answer \u201ca lot\u201d (59%), while 26% say \u201csome.\u201d White evangelical Protestants (39%) and white mainline Protestants (41%) are somewhat less likely than the unaffiliated to say \u201ca lot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The results are similar on the question of how much the government should do to reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else. The share of Catholics (42%) saying \u201ca lot\u201d is roughly the same as the share of the general public (43%) that takes the same position on this question, while, again, religiously unaffiliated Americans are more likely to say \u201ca lot\u201d (56%) and white evangelicals (30%) and white mainline Protestants (28%) are less likely to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

As a group, Catholics are roughly similar to the general public on education and income, <\/span>according to aggregated data<\/a> from 2012 surveys in our \u201c<\/span>\u2019Nones\u2019 on the Rise<\/a>\u201d report. About three-in-ten Catholics have at least a college degree (29%), the same percentage as the general public overall. About 32% of Catholics have an annual family income of at least $75,000, compared with 29% of the general public.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Of course, partisan differences and overall views of government also affect answers to these questions. In fact, the partisan gap on many of these questions<\/a> is much larger than any differences by religious group. Among the general public, two-thirds of Democrats (67%) say the government should do a lot to reduce poverty, compared with 27% of Republicans.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Pope Francis and President Obama have highlighted the issue of income inequality. U.S. Catholics support government action on the issue, but not necessarily more than the general public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_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,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[180,239,174,432],"bylines":[825],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-14482","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-catholicism","category-economic-inequality","category-religious-demographics","category-us-religious-demographics","bylines-tim-townsend","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":518,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/03\/27\/u-s-catholics-mirror-general-public-on-views-of-inequality\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"U.S. Catholics mirror general public on views of inequality","description":"President Obama's meeting Thursday with Pope Francis has been dubbed the \"inequality summit.\" A look at U.S. Catholics' views on the issue.","og_title":"U.S. Catholics mirror general public on views of inequality","og_description":"Both Pope Francis and President Obama have highlighted the issue of income inequality. 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