{"id":19179,"date":"2013-09-19T17:49:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T22:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/majority-of-u-s-catholics-opinions-run-counter-to-church-on-contraception-homosexuality\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T23:52:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:52:54","slug":"majority-of-u-s-catholics-opinions-run-counter-to-church-on-contraception-homosexuality","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/09\/19\/majority-of-u-s-catholics-opinions-run-counter-to-church-on-contraception-homosexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority of U.S. Catholics\u2019 opinions run counter to church on contraception, homosexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/FT_13.07.11_PopeFrancis.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"300\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pope Francis already has <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2013\/09\/02\/pope-never-again-war\/\">made<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/World\/Latest-News-Wires\/2013\/0326\/Pope-Francis-chooses-guest-room-over-luxurious-papal-apartments\">headlines<\/a> for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/30\/world\/europe\/pope-francis-gay-priests.html?pagewanted=all\">several<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/10\/world\/europe\/the-popes-on-the-line-and-everyones-talking.html\">reasons<\/a> in his six months as pontiff, but an <a href=\"http:\/\/americamagazine.org\/pope-interview\">interview that became public Thursday<\/a> may contain some of his most attention-grabbing comments.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pope said that the Roman Catholic church cannot be \u201cobsessed\u201d with imposing certain doctrines and that he wants to \u201cfind a new balance.\u201d Although he did not directly mention abortion, gay marriage and contraception in that immediate context, he had referred specifically to those three issues earlier.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible,\u201d Francis told Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of La Civilt\u00e0 Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The church teaches that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/holy_father\/paul_vi\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html\">abortion, artificial contraception<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/roman_curia\/congregations\/cfaith\/documents\/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html\">homosexual activity<\/a> are wrong. However, majorities of American Catholics have opinions on contraception and homosexuality that run counter to church doctrine.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more--><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2013\/03\/18\/us-catholics-happy-with-selection-of-pope-francis\/\">A Pew Research poll conducted in March<\/a>, just after Francis\u2019 election, found that three-quarters of U.S. Catholics (76%) say the church should permit birth control. About half (54%) of U.S. Catholics favor same-sex marriage, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/features.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/same-sex-marriage-attitudes\/slide3.php\">aggregated Pew Research data from this year<\/a>, and just a third (33%) say homosexual behavior is a sin, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2013\/06\/06\/section-3-religious-belief-and-views-of-homosexuality\/\">May survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Views on abortion are more mixed, with <a href=\"http:\/\/features.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/abortion-slideshow\/slide3.php\">combined surveys from 2011 through 2013<\/a> showing opinion is split among U.S. Catholics.\u00a0About half (53%) of white Catholics say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 41% say it should be illegal in all or most cases; among Hispanic Catholics, 43% say it should be legal in all or most cases, while 52% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2013\/09\/pope-favorability-2.png\" width=\"405\" height=\"231\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2013\/09\/12\/six-months-into-papacy-large-majority-of-catholics-continue-to-express-favorable-view-of-pope-francis\/\">Pew Research Center survey<\/a> \u2013 conducted before these comments were published \u2013 shows that most U.S. Catholics view Pope Francis favorably. About eight-in-ten (79%) say they have a favorable view of Francis, while just 4% view him unfavorably. That\u2019s roughly equivalent to the high water mark for Pope Benedict XVI, who was rated favorably by 83% of U.S. Catholics in April 2008 following his visit to the U.S. About three-quarters of U.S. Catholics (74%) rated Benedict favorably in February 2013 immediately following the announcement of his resignation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three-quarters of U.S. Catholics say the church should permit birth control, about half favor same-sex marriage and just a third (33%) say homosexual behavior is a sin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,180,164,167,220,226],"bylines":[854],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"class_list":["post-19179","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-abortion","category-catholicism","category-religion-abortion","category-religion-lgbtq-acceptance","category-same-sex-marriage-1","category-same-sex-marriage-2","bylines-michael-lipka","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short 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