Posted on 10/25/2008 4:16:27 PM PDT by NYer
The survey indicated that younger Catholics are less traditional than older Catholics. More young Catholics identified themselves as Democrats than as Republicans -- 54 percent to 35 percent -- whereas older Catholics were almost evenly split between the two political parties.
Only 28 percent of young Catholics said they are politically conservative, compared to 42 percent of older Catholics.
The survey showed that young Catholic voters are the most pro-government among voters of any major religious group, even more pro-government than other surveys show the rest of the young population is. Sixty-seven percent said that they prefer government play a larger role, offering more services to the public, compared to 41 percent of the older Catholics surveyed.
Of those surveyed Catholics had the highest support for government involvement of any religious constituency.
Young Catholics said they are more likely to support legalized abortion and same-sex marriage than older Catholics; 60 percent of young Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 51 percent of older Catholics who believe that.
On the issue of same-sex marriage, young Catholics resemble other young adults on the issue, with 44 percent saying that same-sex couples should be able to marry if they are in a committed relationship; 46 percent of the general young adult population shares that view. Twenty-six percent of older Catholics said they approve of same-sex marriage.
The majority of young Catholics, however, were less likely to believe that abortion or same-sex marriage were significant issues in this election.
However, a majority of most older and younger Catholics agreed that a candidate's stance on abortion is not the deciding factor in their vote. More than half agreed that they would vote for a candidate who disagreed with them on abortion.
Fifty-five percent of young Catholics said they prefer the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama [against 40 percent for McCain], compared to 59 percent of all young adults who say they prefer Obama [to 35 for the GOP ticket]. Among older Catholics, 45 percent said they are for Obama and 46 percent said they are for his rival, Republican Sen. John McCain.
This appears to be one of those situations where “socialist” is being used too broadly so that it loses meaning.
“well intentioned” and “too trusting in big government” is not the same as “socialist.”
On the other hand, however, this also reflects the indoctrination that comes from education in government schools and the poor catechesis of young Catholics. I have parents in the parish who leave the decision to attend religious education, up to their children. For many, that time comes after 2nd grade.
Remember folks, according to psychologists, neurologists and others that deal with brain development, teenagers’ brains are not fully developed. Another thing to keep in mind is that according to some of the latest evidence, studies and so forth, the youth of today (mid 20’s) are emotionally where the teens of the 70’s were.
One can’t expect an immature, emotionally undeveloped person whose brain is not fully developed to make rational and intelligent decisions.
As for the rest of the Obama supporters, that is a discussion for another time.
Go to the website of the Faith in Public Life and you’ll see that this is a leftist organization. One of the members is a damn unitarian. This poll is as useful as the Zogby poll.
That is why I quit donating to my Catholic HS alumni fund
Who knows what is being taught there these days
I love your tagline, so my question is why are so many ignorant of Scripture? Why aren’t our churches emphasizing it? Mine does.
Young Catholics that support RAT candidates ain’t Catholic. Like much of post-modernism, nothing has meaning anymore.
It’s up to the church to establish truth and defend it. On this, Christiandom has been an abject failure for nearly a century.
Get back to Scriptural truth and give the boot to heretics and apostates. Who cares if you lose parishoners, public approval or can’t sustain facilities? What does it cost a man if he gain the whole world . . .
This is what happens when the Bishops allow the culture to catechize the flock.
I do believe that our Bishops are going to walk through fire now and in the future because they rejected the hard choices and compromised with the world in the past decades.
In one way or another, God is going to restore His church and it looks like the Via Dolorosa is the way that the Bishops have chosen.
But remember that as they get older and “responsibility” sets in, then liberalism gets left behind.
Wait till they get out into the “real world”, go to work, and have real responsibilities then they “outgrow” the liberalism.
While the Devil laughs and opens new pits of Hell for them.
Pray the St. Michael Exorcism prayer in your church!
Catholics are not ignorant of Scripture. On any day, you can look at freeper Salvation's Daily Mass thread to see what the Scripture readings are for that day. If anything, we hear more Scripture in the course of a year than any of the Protestant and non-denominational christians do (we have more books ;-).
This is a case of youthful exuberance - young minds, not fully formed, flexing their newfound ability to be free thinkers. Most of us have been there. The true test comes later in life. If the faith foundation was properly laid, then clearer, more rational minds will prevail.
When iwas about 17 we had a branch of the YCWA come to our Catholic Church Youth group. I did not have much of a clue about socialism but the poor fool who was running the show started asking me questions about my work circumstances in front of the whole group. He wanted me to criticise my employer and run down the company. I took exception to this and answered every question with a negative - he tried to grill me for about 15 mins and finally gave up in frustration treating me like some hick - needless to say I and anyone who knew me never returned but sadly a fair few young Catholics continued to go and became indoctrinated in the socialist brand of catholicism. That was over 30 years ago. That sort of thinking is now prevelant amongst young Catholics. Having said that there are strong groups of very conservative young Catholics coming up through the ranks so never loose hope!
Mel
You think so? Hearing is not the same as taking it in. I know you are a dear and I am daily encouraged by the beautiful and devoted Catholics on here, but.....
you must live in a microcosm. I grew up in a largely Catholic community - I’d say 75% and I happen to live in a very Catholic area overall and the sad truth is most of them know little scripture, know little of the Church’s teachings.
Don’t you think that the problem could be helped by at least admitting this? I don’t know why you won’t. I have nothing against Catholics, but when you say they are not ignorant of scripture, I would say that the vast majority surely ARE.
As for the exuberance of young minds - if they can use that stupid exuberance and put a socialist into place, then I can’t be so la-di-da about it. And as for the true test coming later in life, I don’t think they’re going to have to wait too long to be tested this time around. They’re putting into office the man who’s going to ruin their lives. That’s what I think. May God have mercy on us and on our country.
So true. I am in college now. I had to work with a young man on a school assignment. He’s 25 and married. He and his wife started a small business a while back. We were talking one day and I mentioned that I knew (because of his youth) that he was voting for a different candidate than I was. He said, “You think I’m voting for Obama? No way.” I explained that I assumed he would because the vast majority of the young kids on campus were all for Obama. His answer was, “Yeah, that’s because they don’t have anything.”
Well, he gets it. As you said, when they go to work and see how much get taken out of their paycheck, they outgrow it fast.
However, how do we explain the folks who don’t?
I don’t believe this AT ALL. I am in the middle of “Catholic World” and believe me the Leadership is out like never before asking that parishoners due their duty and vote pro life. I have never seen such hunger among Catholics. People are on fire about this and McCain will win. We know Who is in charge and Who wins the battle.
The very small sample of Catholic Student folks I know in our university parish are wholeheartedly conservative.
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