In the World and of the World, Part II

Today’s Los Angeles Times echoes the survey from Faith in Public Life , but mentions a small exception to the general trend:

What we’re seeing in these three swing states is the end of the Catholic vote, as conventional political strategists traditionally have expected it to behave—in part because it’s now so large it pretty much looks like the rest of America; in part because of its own internal changes. National polls have shown for some time that, although Catholics are personally opposed to abortion, they believe it ought to be legal in nearly identical percentages to the rest of America. Moreover, as a survey by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found earlier this year, only 18% of Catholics “strongly” agree with the statement: “In deciding what is morally acceptable, I look to the church teachings and statements by the pope and bishops to form my conscience.” . . .

What all this suggests is that, in this and coming election cycles, we may see a new model for the Catholic vote, one whose participation more closely resembles that of Jews, 75% of whom are overwhelmingly pro-Democratic, while a devout minority, the Orthodox, tends more strongly Republican. If you break the Catholic vote down in roughly the same pattern, you get something that looks like the current national spread. According to most reliable data, slightly less than one in four Catholics now assist at weekly Mass and are more open to GOP policies, while the overwhelming majority of their co-religionists have cast their lot with the Democrats’ domestic and foreign policies.

So Catholicism is comprised of a small body of especially devout and conservative believers and a larger body that are less devout in church attendance and doctrinal adherence, and are also politically more liberal. The picture is more complex than that, of course, but it’s another analysis to file away.

(Via Real Clear Politics )