Survey: Strong Support Among Catholics for Marriage Equality
A survey of Catholics in the state of California shows that a significant percentage support marriage equality for gay and lesbian families, reported CatholicCulture.org on July 27.
The Public Religion Research Institute polled 3,000 Catholics in California on the question, and discovered that among Caucasian adherents of the faith, 37% were supportive of marriage rights for gays and lesbians, with Latino Catholics outstripping that number and weighing in at 44% in favor of full family parity. Conversely, 41% of Caucasian Catholics favored civil unions--while among Latinos, support fell to 28%.
"Only 22% of white Catholics and 23% of Latino Catholics oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions," the site reported, going on to note that opposition to marriage parity for gay and lesbian families was higher among Protestants.
"Protestants are much more likely to hear about homosexuality from their clergy than Catholics," the article quoted the report as noting, with less than a third (29%) of Catholic Caucasians and less than half (42%) of Catholic Latinos saying that their clergymen talked about the issue.
The site went on to quote a 2003 statement from the church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which declared, ""All Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions."
Church teaching holds that GLBTs are due the same respect and dignity as heterosexuals, and that they do not "choose" their sexuality. However, the church also teaches that GLBTs are "disordered" with respect to sexuality and relationships, and proclaims that sexual expressions of affection, commitment, and intimacy between consenting adults of the same gender are "inherently evil." The church believes that God "calls" gays to live celibate lives, and church officials have denounced gay and lesbian parents as inflicting "violence" onto their own children simply by raising them in loving homes with single-sex parents.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith went on to assert that, "Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity."
The Catholic church joined the Mormon church in supporting the successful 2008 effort to rescind the then-existing legal right of gay and lesbian California families to enter into wedlock. The revocation of that right took place with the passage of a ballot initiative, Proposition 8, which was approved by a narrow majority of voters after a harrowing and deeply divisive campaign.
The survey results were part of a broad overview of Californians’ beliefs and views regarding full family parity. The Public Religion Research Institute report "Religion and Same-sex Marriage in California: A New Look at Attitudes and Values Two Years After Proposition 8," which was released July 21, noted that individuals with a higher degree of education were more likely to support marriage parity for gay and lesbian families. The report also noted that, "A significant number of Californians who initially say the support civil unions but not same-sex marriage are willing to support marriage equality it the law addresses either of two basic concerns about religious marriage." One concern involved churches being compelled to perform marriages for same-sex couples; the report said that if the law were to guarantee that no such mandate were put into effect, and churches were free to refuse same-sex couples, full marriage parity would enjoy greater support.
The other point concerned "civil marriages," as opposed to "religious marriages," with the report noting that, "when Californians are presented with an assurance that the law ’only provided for civil marriages like you get at city hall,’ more than half of Californians who initially supported only civil unions are willing to support marriage equality."
More broadly, the report also found that, "More than two-thirds (67%) of Californians believe that gay and lesbian relationships should be accepted by society, compared to [30%] who disagree."
Next: Catholics and ’Confusion About Sexuality’
