Squeaky-clean, well-educated Catholic youth…
And homogenized cultural values.
“A new poll of Americans ages 18-34 has surveyed the faith, politics, and issue positions of young adults before the 2008 election. The poll claims about 60 percent of younger self-identified Catholics say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 44 percent reportedly support same-sex marriage, a number which rises to 64 percent when religious liberty protections are emphasized.
The claims come from the Faith in Public Life’s “The Faith and American Politics Survey,” which was conducted by Public Religion Research between August 28 and September 19. Polling 2,000 American adults and an over sample of 1,250 younger adults, its methods included both land line and cell phone interviews.
Overall, 44 percent of Catholics said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while 54 percent said it should not. About 61 percent of young Catholics reported it was not a very important voting issue, compared to 56 percent of Catholics 35 years and older.” - Catholic News Agency
Do you think this is really a pervasive attitude amongst Catholics? Because as Catholic bloggers, we all tend to be pretty orthodox and conservative - or traditional. And we limit our exposure to those who express attitudes we agree with. We usually go to church where the liturgy is celebrated correctly, and the parish is devout. In a sense we insulate ourselves, or remain aloof from more liberal Catholics - who really seem to be in the vast majority - at least in the United States. And of course, this is the demographic normally polled.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
“Do you think this is really a pervasive attitude amongst Catholics?”
Yep!
October 9th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
If anything, I think that the 18-24 age group is more pro-life than some of their elders. The only thing I really have to go by are my kids, nieces and nephews, and their friends who are Catholic or Christian; and I’m sure there is a lot of variation in this age group. But sometimes they seem to “get it” more than a lot of people who are supposedly more mature.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:10 am
my 25-year-old nephew believes everything that the media says about palin (being stupid, etc.), and he honestly believes that the abortion issue isn’t important enough to trump the others. he wants to vote for obama. and i want to puke.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Whee! New Springtime!
October 11th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Yep, I believe it. Last Sunday, our parish priest read a letter from our Bishop Martino. I couldn’t help but hear the comments from behind me about the Bishop’s letter and abortion. One woman was in her 50’s and her daughter is 20 something. The crosses on the parish lawn didn’t “do anything” for them and they both felt it best just to ignore the Bishop and the Church. Yet they didn’t mind presenting themselves for communion. The Church has quitely led the culture right to the front doors and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to keep it out. The Church has spent decades addressing abortion, however abortion is only a symptom of the problem—feminism.