Pew: Latin American Catholics support birth control, married and female priests and Pope Francis

Many Catholics in Latin America and the United States favor allowing women to become priests, while some also support marriage for priests, birth control, recognition of same-sex marriage and holy communion for unmarried couples living together, a new poll shows.

In addition, Pope Francis’ approval remains high and he is seen as the source of major change in the church, although his positive ratings have fallen in the last decade of his papacy.

The findings were released Sept. 26 by Pew Research as part of its Spring 2024 Global Attitude Survey, an initiative of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project that assesses religious change and its social impact around the world.

Pew surveyed a total of 3,655 Catholics for six Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) and conducted face-to-face interviews in Spanish and, in the case of Brazil, Portuguese.

Pew also surveyed 2,021 Catholics in the United States through self-administered online surveys in English and Spanish. Internet-connected tablets were provided to participants who did not have internet access at home.

According to the Vatican’s 2021 Church Statistics Yearbook, the Catholic population in all countries selected for research by Pew is in the top quartile of Catholics worldwide; Brazil, Mexico and the USA rank first, second and fourth, respectively. The six Latin American countries surveyed are home to about 75 percent of Catholics in that region.

The data helps provide dimension in understanding Latin American Catholics in various nations, Pew senior fellow Jonathan Evans told OSV News.

“There are things where there is a lot of potential agreement” among the six countries studied, but “there is no single consensus on all of these issues,” Evans said. “There are differences.”

“The majority of Catholics surveyed say Pope Francis represents a change in the direction of the church,” Evans told OSV News. “And among those who say Pope Francis is a change, the most likely answer is that it’s a big change rather than a small change.”

Colombian Catholics gave Pope Francis the highest rating; 88 percent described their views of Pope Francis as somewhat (34 percent) or very (54 percent) positive. Catholics in Brazil (84 percent), Mexico (80 percent) and Peru (78 percent) also showed high levels of approval; Those in the United States (75 percent) and those in the pope’s native Argentina (74 percent) were close behind.

The lowest ranking was seen in Chile (64 percent); Here – although not mentioned in the Pew report – clergy abuse scandals in recent years have corresponded with a marked decline in trust in the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis’ ratings in six Latin American countries and the United States have declined over the past 10 years, especially in Argentina; It has fallen from 98 percent at the beginning of his papacy to 74 percent now.

Still, Evans cautioned that the overall decline “is not a decline towards negative, inclusive views.” … Of course, there is a generally positive view of the pope among Catholics.”

Pew data also points to significant gaps in support for church teaching on a variety of issues; but Catholics who pray daily are less likely to agree with the church’s position, as are older Catholics in general.

In contrast, younger Catholics in Latin America were more likely to say the church should take steps to change its teaching; 65 percent of Colombian Catholics ages 18 to 39 supported the ordination of women, compared with 49 percent of Catholics ages 40 and over. .

When asked whether the Catholic Church should allow women to become priests, 83 percent of Catholics in Brazil said yes, followed by 71 percent of those in the pope’s native Argentina. Catholics in Chile (69 percent), Peru (65 percent) and the United States (64 percent) also largely support the idea, while the figure is slightly lower in Colombia (56 percent) and Mexico (47 percent). remained above or below.

Those numbers have increased among Latin American Catholics since Pew asked the same question a decade ago, but responses from Catholics in the U.S. have remained about the same, the report said.

Catholic teaching confirms that the ordination to the priesthood is reserved exclusively for men, according to the universal tradition of the church, which “has no authority to ordain women to the priesthood,” as St. John Paul II declared in his 1994 apostolic letter “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.” .” The pope added that “this decision must be accepted unequivocally by all the faithful of the Church.”

Pope Francis, who has prioritized the greater inclusion of women in church life, strongly reiterated church teaching on priestly ordination, explaining in a 2022 interview that this was due to the Petrine dimension of the church; This reminds us of Jesus giving authority to Peter. Expressing the ministry dimension of the apostles and the church.

In contrast, Pope Francis said that the Marian principle, reflecting the example of Mary, expresses the mysticism and spirituality of the church and its feminine nature as the spouse of Christ. “This is how the dignity of women is reflected,” the pope said in a 2022 interview.

Pew researchers admitted that survey questions on three topics—birth control, married priests, and the reception of Holy Communion by unmarried couples living together—were based on “simple, common phrases” and “involved a trade-off between broad lucidity and theological nuance.” They provide a detailed explanation in their reports, which include a brief summary of Catholic teaching on the topics.

“One of the things we have to balance is both getting as close to the existing theological nuance as possible and also making the survey questions as straightforward and comprehensible as possible for the respondent,” Evans said, noting that Pew consulted theology. experts in the process. “There are situations where we might be faced with a really complex question, and people hear it and say, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.'”

When asked whether the Catholic Church should allow Catholics to use birth control, most respondents in seven countries answered in the affirmative for all seven countries; Argentina topped the list (86 percent), followed by the United States (83 percent). Chile (80 percent), Colombia (76 percent), Peru (75 percent), Mexico (69 percent) and Brazil (63 percent).

Although the church prohibits artificial birth control and abortion, the question is not clearly linked to the church’s approval of natural family planning for married couples. Such fertility awareness-based methods, based on a set of biological markers, allow husband and wife to take advantage of a woman’s fertility cycle to time the births of their children for “well-founded reasons” (physical, psychological, among them). and external conditions, as explained by St. Paul VI in his 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae.”

The survey’s question on priests and marriage also assessed theological rigor and methodological best practices. Pew researchers asked participants whether the church “should allow priests to marry”; The United States (69 percent), Chile (65 percent) and Argentina (64 percent) showed positive majorities; Colombia (52 percent) and Brazil (50 percent) are about evenly split; and Mexico (38 percent) and Peru (32 percent) largely disapprove.

But Pew’s statements conflate two separate issues: ordaining married men to the priesthood and allowing ordained priests to marry.

In the Latin Church, the largest of the 24 self-governing churches that make up the global Catholic Church and which is also headed by the Pope as Bishop of Rome, the ordination of single men to the priesthood is the norm, with one exception made. On a case-by-case basis to ordain married men who had previously been clergy from Anglican or certain Protestant churches. Under this exception, the Latin Church has ordained several hundred married priests worldwide; their number is approximately 125 in the United States. As a result, the centuries-old discipline of the Latin Church is theoretically compatible with Eastern Catholic and Orthodox discipline.

The other 23 Eastern Catholic churches, like the Orthodox churches, have historic traditions of ordaining both married men and single men to the priesthood, but their bishops and monks always remain celibate.

However, all Catholic and Orthodox churches prohibit priests from attempting marriage after the ceremony; This is a potentially worrying situation that involves disproportionate power dynamics between priests and the laity and raises questions about the potential for full and free consent required to perform a holy marriage.

The survey question regarding holy Communion for unmarried couples asked whether the church “should allow Catholics to receive communion even if they are not married and living with a romantic partner.” Respondents from Argentina (77 percent), the United States (75 percent) and Chile (73 percent) said yes, while Brazil (59 percent), Peru (56 percent) and Colombia (52 percent) said yes. and in Mexico (45 percent) answered yes. support levels are lower.

Referring to the church’s teaching that sexual activity outside of marriage is a great sin and that those who are aware of grave sins should not receive holy communion until their sins are forgiven, the report said, “In fact, Catholicism has no rules against unmarried people living together.” through the sacrament of reconciliation.

Although not stated by Pew, cohabitation by unmarried couples may also be considered scandalous by church doctrine; This can be a serious crime when it leads someone else to sin.

Peruvian Catholics (32 percent) surveyed by Pew were the least likely to approve of the church recognizing marriages between same-sex couples, while majorities of Catholics in Argentina (70 percent) and Chile (64 percent) supported the idea. Just over half of Catholics in the United States (54 percent) agree, while fewer Catholics in Mexico (46 percent), Brazil (43 percent) and Colombia (40 percent) agree.

Catholic teaching, as formulated by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, holds that the marriage contract is reserved for a man and a woman. Through the sacrament of marriage, they become “an enduring union of persons who are able to know and love each other and God”, their love becoming “an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man” and giving them the “goodness of spouses” and the gift of children.

Pew Research Center’s report, “Many Catholics in the U.S. and Latin America Want the Church to Allow Birth Control and Allow Women to Become Priests” is available Here.