[SuziQ]

if you limited these polls to Catholics who have been to mass at least once a month (other than weddings, christenings, funerals) in the past six months (or used some other measure to assess their attention to the faith), I suspect you might get a different result

I believe your contention was borne out by polls conducted after the 2000 elections. Catholics and evangelical Protestants who attended services regularly tended to vote Republican. Folks who didn't attend any church, or attended only infrequently tended to vote Democrat.

[Polycarp IV]

	Bush	Gore
Catholics who attend mass weekly or more often	57%	43%
Catholics who attend mass less than weekly	41%	59%

Source: Third National Survey of Religion and Politics, University of Akron