Catholic disconnect

It’s the largest public opinion survey I’ve seen yet of Catholics—12,038 adults (aged 18 and above) randomly selected from 12 countries where Catholics are the majority.  The Philippines was among the 12, with a sample of 1,000 interviewed in Tagalog, English and Spanish. In developed countries, the interviews were conducted by phone. In the Philippines and other developing countries, face-to-face interviews were used.

I am referring to the Global Survey of Roman Catholics, conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International for the television network Univision. I was able to get the report’s executive summary on the Internet, which begins with the heading “An Alarming Trend for the Vatican,” and notes that the research findings “suggest an extraordinary disconnect between the church’s basic teaching on the fundamental issues of family and pastoral responsibilities and the viewpoints currently held by many of the world’s more than 1 Billion Catholics.”

Generally, Catholics in the developed countries (France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United States) tended to be more liberal than those in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico). The Philippines was the only Asia-Pacific country in the sample, and the respondents tended to be more conservative than the countries I have just named, but slightly more liberal than those of Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda).

I’m going to give the statistics with my own views about what the “disconnect” might be. But first, let me give the background to the survey, which is described in the executive summary. Bendixen & Amandi International notes that in October 2013, the Vatican launched a worldwide initiative to gather information in preparation for an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops scheduled in October 2014. That synod will focus on “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” A “papal survey” was sent out to all dioceses, including those in the Philippines, with the intention of gathering information to use for the coming synod. It was made clear that the questionnaire is not an opinion survey.

Bendixen & Amandi International acknowledges the synod’s preparatory questionnaire as an inspiration to launch the Global Survey of Roman Catholics, mainly to see how it “mirrors Catholic doctrine” around several controversial issues.

Findings

Let’s look now at the main findings for the Philippines, which I’ll compare with the global average:

On the statement “An individual who has divorced and remarried outside of the Catholic Church, is living in sin which prevents them from receiving Communion,” 46 percent of Filipino Catholics agreed, versus a global average of 38 percent.

For the question “Do you think that abortions should be allowed in all cases, allowed in some cases, or should it not be allowed at all?” 73 percent of Filipino Catholics answered “not allowed at all,” compared to 33 percent globally.

On contraceptives, the executive summary did not have figures for the Philippines, but globally, 78 percent of the respondents said they supported contraceptives.

Asked if Catholic priests should be allowed to marry, 76 percent of Filipino Catholics said no, compared to 47 percent globally. On women becoming Catholic priests, 76 percent of Filipino Catholics said no, compared to 51 percent globally.

Asked if they support or oppose marriage between two persons of the same sex, 84 percent of Filipino Catholics were opposed, compared to 66 percent globally.

Asked to rate Pope Francis, 82 percent of Filipino Catholics chose “excellent” or “good,” compared to 87 percent globally. While the 82-percent rating may seem high, note that we had the third lowest “excellent/good” ratings.  The two lowest were France and Mexico.

The global survey included a question about church attendance but, unfortunately, there were no figures for the Philippines. Globally, 69 percent described themselves as frequent (every week or a few times a month) attendees, 30 percent as infrequent (only during Christmas and holidays/never). This question was important because “frequent” church attendees tended to have more conservative views on doctrinal issues.

Papal survey

The Global Survey’s executive summary attached as an appendix the papal survey sent out to prepare for the synod.  This survey is actually much more comprehensive, with open-ended questions, intended, as I mentioned earlier, to get information rather than opinion. For example: “Is cohabitation ad experimentum a pastoral reality in your particular church? Can you approximate a percentage?” and “What knowledge do Christians have today of the teachings of ‘Humanae Vitae’ on responsible parenthood?”

The papal survey has an introduction suggesting a Church that is trying to understand what is going on in the world. It has a long list of situations requiring “attention” and “pastoral care,” from “migration and the reformulation of the very concept of the family” to “surrogate motherhood (wombs for hire).”  The language used to name the new challenges suggests orthodoxy—for example, “forms of feminism hostile to the Church” and “new interpretations of what is considered as a human right.”

I’m still hopeful, though, about winds of change coming into the Catholic Church. The Global Survey shows very clearly that change is already occurring, with younger Catholics tending to disagree more with doctrine.

I’d be curious what it’s like for Filipino Catholics, especially with the release last week of some of the results of the latest Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS) by the University of the Philippines Population Institute. Among other findings, this latest YAFS finds more live-in couples than ever before. It also found a doubling of the percentage of girls (I use that word intentionally, rather than “women”) aged 15 to 19 who are mothers, comparing data from the 2002 YAFS and the current one, which was done in 2013.

That’s 700,000 very young mothers, many of whom are presumably Catholic.

But let me save those figures for Friday’s column. For now, I did want to say that if there is a disconnect we should be concerned about, it’s the one between public policies and the lives of Filipino Catholics, the poor especially. Sadly, the Global Survey showed that the lower the socioeconomic status of the Catholic surveyed, the more conservative their views were.

Yet, we know that there is another disconnect between expressed views and actual practice. While 73 percent of Filipino Catholics interviewed in the Global Survey said abortion should not be allowed at all, there are still an estimated 500,000 abortions each year in the Philippines, many using abortifacients bought in front of Quiapo Church.

It’s these “pastoral realities” that the local Catholic Church must connect to, and respond.

(E-mail: mtan@inquirer.com.ph)